Let There Be Light (1980) User Reviews

Just astounding...a big thanks to National Film Preservation Foundation for this insight into War Trauma

[nomoons11 · 8/10 · 28 May 2012]

All these years we saw through film and newsreels at how heroic our soldiers were during WWII. We never got to see what some dealt with like we see today. Back then they were super human and all bullet proof. Turns out the issues we well know today, were relevant far before these days. This film will show with great clarity what "PTSD" or shell shock can do to a human mind.

In this, you get to see real issues of having to deal with being thrown into a human horror show all the while coming from a normal background and living a basic ordinary life. These guys were just living normal lives like most do but when war calls, things can happen to the mind for some. With this film, you'll see what the realities of war can do to a seemingly normal man.

Most days in the news we get to hear about the issue of PTSD in wars that were/are quite recent. Seeing this you'll know, how long this issue has gone on.

Not enough thanks can be given to National Film Preservation Foundation for saving and restoring this must see on how war can affect...the soul.

As important (and unseen) in its way as SALT OF THE EARTH.

[alice liddell · 7/10 · 12 July 2000]

This film was commissioned and promptly banned for 35 years by the US War Department. It exposes the violent mental effects of the Second World War on returning soldiers undergoing treatment in a psychiatric hospital. It is truly harrowing to watch these beaten men, especially in the context of offensive RAMBO-like propaganda movies churned out in the previous half-decade, strong men who fought for their country, who won medals and purple hearts for bravery, breaking down, in tears, paralysed, ashamed, gibbering, shellshocked, haunted by terrifying recent memories, family problems etc.

It is completely understandable to see why this was banned. America was gearing up for two of the defining moments of its history - McCarthyism, with its fascist vision of what it meant to be American; and the post-war consumer boom, embodied in conformity and the nuclear family. Here is a film that dares to show the horrors, neuroses, psychological pressures of the military, of family, of conformity, horrors directors like Nicholas Ray could only allegorise. As such, the film is a rare breath of literal truth in a period of evasion and necessary sublimation, and is, thus, as inspirational as SALT OF THE EARTH.

Huston has claimed that in his war documentaries he didn't intrude his directorial stamp, just let the stories tell themselves. This is a nonsense in any film, but especially so here. The credits claim that no scenes were staged, and the patients were made aware from the beginning of the presence of cameras (Huston says that their own personal demons meant that they barely even noticed them, and indeed, the patients who were filmed were more successfully treated than those who weren't! This IS America!).

This many be true, but the manipulation of effects, the spacious camera movements expressing alienation, the leading narration, the neurotic score, the dreamlike compositions, the heightened cinematography (by the great Stanley Cortez, who would use his experience here to harrowing effect in Fuller's SHOCK CORRIDOR) all cohere to create a very definite vision, one that is probably more truthful than 'straight' observation would have been, and one that undermines the script's attempts at all-American optimism and hope.

Maybe they are just stiff in front of a camera, but the psychiatrists seem to me unnecessarily abrupt, intrusive and authoritarian, their so-called cures and explanations deeply unconvincing, displaying an almost Messianic arrogance in one sequence, where one tries to make a man walk after one trick (is the title, God's life-giving injunction in Genesis, therefore ironic?).

Some of these traumas would later appear in some of the great American films of the next decade, such as BIGGER THAN LIFE and WRITTEN ON THE WIND, and as Huston well knew, documentary could never reach the insights of fiction, but it is bracing to see such traumas in the raw.

Huston Tells the Stories

[gavin6942 · 8/10 · 21 May 2016]

The final entry in a trilogy of films produced for the U.S. government by John Huston. This documentary film follows 75 U.S. soldiers who have sustained debilitating emotional trauma and depression. A series of scenes chronicle their entry into a psychiatric hospital, their treatment and eventual recovery.

The film was controversial in its portrayal of psychologically traumatized veterans of the war. "Twenty percent of our army casualties", the narrator says, "suffered psychoneurotic symptoms: a sense of impending disaster, hopelessness, fear, and isolation."[3] Apparently due to the potentially demoralizing effects the film might have on post-war recruitment, it was subsequently banned by the Army after its production.

If you want to see what post-traumatic stress disorder looks like, this is the film for you. It existed before WWII and obviously still exists today, but few films seem to present it so honestly... this film deserves a lot of credit. Huston may have ruffled feathers with his approach to military films, but in retrospect he was doing it right. Telling the unvarnished truth has much more value than glamorizing war.

Compelling and uplifting documentary, beautifully photographed.

[opsbooks · 10/10 · 24 April 2003]

Demobbed solders with mental problems are admitted to a hospital; the camera films them from their induction through to their eventual 'cure' and final departure back into mainstream America. This compelling and uplifting documentary, beautifully photographed, was banned for over 30 years. The US war department in its wisdom apparently insisted that the content be translated into a feature film, the name of which escapes me. Whether or not the events before the camera were staged or not, there can be no doubt as to the integrity of director John Huston in letting the characters 'write' their story. Although rarely seen, this documentary is well covered in a 1990s documentary, JOHN HUSTON: WAR STORIES.

glad to find this film at last - it's been haunting me

[kickpix · 28 December 2003]

I saw this film years ago and couldn't remember what it was called so I'm glad to find it on the net at last. Some of the comments posted on this site critically analyse this amazing film applying 21st century wisdom to it and it's production. It is what it is. Most of these boys (the patients) had hardly seen a box-brownie let alone a director and film camera. Their responses are gut wrenching, awkward and the soldiers are - what would now seem - abruptly dealt with. Yet the psychiatrists show these returning soldiers the way forward. Slowly the patients gain enough mental footholds to rejoin post-war society. Just watching it will make you a better person.

A fitting film for Memorial Day...

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 28 May 2012]

It was very fitting that I chose today of all days to watch this short film, as today is Memorial Day here in the US--the day we remember and celebrate our veterans. That's because the short film "Let There Be Light" is about combat-related mental illnesses--such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (a label only recently coined). Sadly, after John Huston made this marvelous film, it was pulled--as the government apparently thought it was too much. In other words, since they sponsored the project, they could withhold it from distribution--and they did because, I assume, it acknowledged that there is serious mental damage caused by war (duh!). Why they would think that way is beyond me--the film really is a great tribute to the men who sacrificed and endured so much during WWII.

The film is set at a VA hospital and their psychiatric ward. The story appears to involve real patients--many of whose progress the film follows through their course of treatment. Using a variety of techniques you'd use today (such as group therapy) and those you wouldn't (chemical hypnosis has fallen out of vogue), the film gives a lot of hope to survivors and their families--perhaps too much hope, as the film makes it appear as if the problems can easily be treated and the long-term effects aren't discussed. Still, I loved the film for being so daring and for being confident enough with the subject matter to offer little narration (by the director's famous father, Walter Huston)--and just let folks speak for themselves. A fascinating and touching little film.

By the way, there are a couple interesting things to look for in the film. The Rorschach cards you see are both REAL ones--although the manufacturer has stipulated they cannot be reproduced or shown on film or photos (though you can easily find them on the internet today). I also was surprised to see black and white servicemen together in the hospital--and I hoped they did treat everyone in non-segregated wards at the time. It was also nice to see that the one black g.i. featured in the film was incredibly bright and well-spoken--and nothing like a negative stereotype.

Moving real life story

[john-3109 · 10/10 · 19 January 2006]

John Huston's (1946) documentary film was shot at Mason General Hospital on Long Island at the end of the Second World War for the U.S. Government during the director's time as an officer in the U.S. Signal Corps.

One of a number of documentary films he made in this capacity including 'Report From The Aleutians' and 'The Battle of San Pietro', it did not see 'The Light' for a number of years. As copyright holders and owners of the film, the U.S. Government chose not to release it.

The techniques used in making the film are described in John Huston's autobiography 'An Open Book' published by Macmillan and also in an interview recorded by Richard Leacock and Midge McKenzie in 1982.

The film follows the progress of a particular intake of men returning from active service in various theatres of war. These men have returned deeply disturbed by their battle experiences and we follow their progress as they are helped to come to terms with their distress and to rebuild their fragile lives.

Huston captures the most unusual and remarkable sequences that document the work of the gifted psychiatrists at Mason General as they assist the men to reconcile themselves to the awful experiences they have endured.

This film was way ahead of its time in recognising and understanding how conditions that were variously known as 'shell shock' and 'battle fatigue' can respond to treatment and give their unfortunate sufferers a renewed lease of life.

Despite the dated soundtrack, the narration by Huston's own father – Walter – makes the confusing and sometimes disturbing footage accessible and meaningful to the audience.

How tragic that such a well-made and important film should have been kept from us for so long.

The Soldiers General Patton Would Have Slapped

[robertguttman · 10/10 · 17 November 2015]

I saw this film for the first time and was not surprised to learn afterwords that it was suppressed for over 30 years after being completed. I understand that the Army commissioned John Huston to make it. I have no idea what the Army authorities expected the result to be but what the got was something truly extraordinary. Nevertheless, the idea of mentally-disturbed veterans being treated by psychiatrists must have been considered a pretty sensitive subject during the immediate post-WW-II period.

Although the term "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" did not exist in the 1940s, the syndrome certainly did. In World War I it was referred to as "Shell Shock" and in World War II it was called "Battle Fatigue" or "Combat Fatigue". Put another way, the subject of this film is the men whom General George Patton would have treated by slapping. Fortunately, however, the treatment received by the soldiers depicted in this film is psychotherapy combined with hypnosis and sodium pentothal. The results are truly remarkable.

I can empathize with this film because I know that my own father returned from WW-II suffering from what was later called "PTSD". Although his symptoms were not as extreme as the soldiers depicted in this film, I know that he was shipped home before the end of the war because the doctors had declared him no longer fit for combat. I know that, after witnessing hundreds of men killed in battle, he went into shock after seeing a woman hit by a car while en route home, and came to in the hospital three days later. I know that, soon after returning home, he left town because he felt guilty about having survived the war, and he couldn't bear to see the wives, sisters and parents of people that he knew wouldn't be coming back. I know that, despite having flown numerous combat missions during the war, he couldn't bring himself to fly in an airplane for years afterwords.

Like the soldiers depicted in the film, my father eventually managed to get on with his life in a productive manner. However, I don't think he ever really did entirely get over what he experienced during the war. I don't imagine the soldiers in the film did, either.

Shocking.

[linkan-3 · 10/10 · 16 May 1999]

This must be one of the most shocking movies I have ever seen. Well actually it's more like a documentary than a movie. It shows American soldiers in a hospital, after coming home from World War II. Some of them can't speak, some can but it's impossible to hear what they're saying, others can't walk. Some shiver uncontrollably, some cry. We also see the hypnotist curing patients, and like magic they're able to walk again, or talk or whatever their problem was. This film was banned for 35 years because the American government thought it was unsuitable for the American people (and I understand why, this is the most disturbing thing I've seen since the sliced eye in Un Chien Andalou), and it was shown for the first time at the Cannes festival in '81.

PTSD is as treatable as the common cold if not easier

[jimmybag · 3/10 · 11 September 2018]

I never ever bothered with the review, but with this one, seeing the overwhelming sea of 10/10, I just couldn't let this slide.

This has the looks of a propaganda piece. Which part of this supposed to be a documentary? I don't know if you have to have any exceptional education in psychology (unfinished Bachelor program over here), but this has been made to do a few things: 1) downplay the severity of psychological trauma by showing how apparently easy it is to get all that sorted out 2) and how easy it would be to go back into the world

It gives only the slightest admission to that trauma and readjusting to regular life is a problem, but only to show that apparently you can fix that in a 5 minute talk/hypnosis therapy and then have a group session talking about how you're fine and you can easily go back to normal and, let's say, if future employers might not be worried about a state of an individual, it's pretty much just unwarranted stigma on their part.

I mean, you could even nitpick here about the somewhat cinematic cuts, whether the people there seemed believable and how none of them have any physical scars. Oh yeah, and this film wasn't shot by an independent movie maker, that is to say, there was some favoritism at play probably on how you want to spin this.

Huston seemed to do pretty much everything to NOT make this demoralizing and it still wasn't enough, since it wasn't released until the 1980s.

John Huston's Let There Be Light is quite compelling in showing some surviving veterans' period of adjustment back to civilian life

[tavm · 9/10 · 29 May 2012]

In honor of Memorial Day which was yesterday, I watched the first two of John Huston's World War II documentaries, Report from the Aleutians and San Pietro. Now I've just viewed a restored version of Let There Be Light, which explored the psychological effects of war veterans that survived those battles being treated in a hospital, on the National Film Preservation Foundation site on recommendation of Leonard Maltin on his. One couldn't walk, one couldn't talk, and then there was an African-American one whose only solace came when he got something delivered to him from his girlfriend back home. Whether his skin color had something to do with his social reticence, I don't know but since the military was still segregated then, it couldn't have helped. Though it should also be noted that the place he stayed at was integrated. John's father Walter Huston provided wise narration as written by his son and Dimitri Tiomkin provided a score that didn't dominate too much of the proceedings. This film, made for the Army, might have been too realistic for them which resulted in it being kept from the public until 1980, but today it may have been a little easy solution-wise since there's no one depicted as not having been cured by the end though the Hustons make sure you know that it does take time for that. Anyway, Let There Be Light is essential viewing for anyone curious about what some veterans who survive go through in trying to go back to a normal life. They certainly deserve our utmost thanks for even braving it out in the first place!

Mind over matter

[nickenchuggets · 10/10 · 1 July 2021]

Just like his fellow directors Frank Capra, William Wyler, George Stevens and John Ford, John Huston made films during and shortly after world war 2 to showcase to the american public why we were fighting in the first place. Unlike the others though, Huston made a film after the war that was so shocking it wasn't released officially until the early 80s. This film was considered shocking at the time because it dealt with something that many soldiers had acquired during the war and were still reluctant to discuss in detail. It has been in every single war ever fought. In the civil war, it was called soldier's heart. Shell shock was its name in the first world war. In the second, it was called battle fatigue. Shortly after vietnam, it got its current name: post traumatic stress disorder. Huston was courageous to make a documentary that focuses on this subject, because it shows what extended periods of getting shot at and having grenades thrown at you day after day will do to a person's mind. The film itself has no actual story. It is essentially just a collection of footage consisting of things like interviews and medical procedures attempting to cure the PTSD. Some of them are really strange. There's one instance where a soldier has undergone so much mental anguish during the war he has forgotten how to use his legs. He has to be lifted onto a bed and a doctor injects him with some kind of chemical solution. It puts him into a hypnotic state and allows him to walk again. The doctor makes the remarkable assumption that his inability to walk was mental, not physical. Another segment involves a former marine who participated in the battle of Okinawa against the japanese during the war's final stages. He can't remember anything. Even his own name has been forgotten. The doctor uses a technique to make him remember what happened on the island that day, and if he can remember those events, he can also recall what happened before them. Eventually, the technique works and he gets his memory back. These scenes really show how extremely powerful your mind is, and how being afraid mentally has a real possibility of negatively affecting your physical form. Later on, the former soldiers have a ceremony and they are allowed to return to civilian life. This film was revolutionary because it showcased how PTSD affected those returning from world war 2, and the fact that it is not scripted. Huston did not even tell the doctors or patients he put hidden cameras in their rooms to film their real interactions. Despite being banned for almost 4 decades, Let There Be Light is an important look at how psychologically harmful war is.

Huston's Third WW2 Doc

[Michael_Elliott · 29 May 2009]

Let There Be Light (1946)

*** (out of 4)

John Huston's third and final documentary for the U.S. Army was another controversial one, which was originally banned for over thirty years as it didn't get shown to the public until 1980. It's easy to see why the film was banned because had people watched this at the end of WW2 it's doubtful very many would want to enlist. The film centers on a group of men who are psychologically scared from their time in the war. One man can't talk, one can't walk and various other psychological problems occur. A psychiatrist is used to try and cure the men as they go through a program at the Mason General Hospital in Long Island. Walter Huston does a nice job narrating the story but for the most part the patients and the doctor are the ones talking. The documentary is a very interesting one because it gives us a view of American soldiers coming back from WW2. On that ground alone this film is worth checking out but Huston does his typical nice work and really digs in deep into the material. I'm not sure how well the practice used here would hold up today but the theories being discussed are interesting to hear about. This early look at "battle shock" is certainly a nice history lesson that fans of the director will want to check out.

maybe Huston's most important film for a specific cause

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 21 February 2016]

Following two other documentaries (both approved and financed by the US government) that were shot during the second World War (Winning Your Wings and Across the Pacific), director John Huston chose to make a film titled Let There Be Light (an intentionally hopeful title, with or without a religious subtext) about something simple but fundamental to any war experience: what comes next?

He put his focus on soldiers who were mentally and emotionally scarred by the experience (no physical scars, far as we can tell), and who had what was called "Shell-Shock" and is now more commonly referred as PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These men were in bad shape, as Huston shows us: they had the shakes, stuttering, some barely able to walk, mental blocks, memory lapses, you name it they had it. Most shameful though was that the US government, who originally financed the film, didn't like what they saw and suppressed the film from being officially screened for thirty years.

Now, however, you watch the film on DVD, or, currently for free on Amazon prime members ($2.00 to rent for non-members). The film's importance isn't just in the blanket statement of the subject matter – soldiers traumatized who need (and deserve) to get better to return to their families and start being the 'Greatest Generation' and all that jazz – but that Huston treats all of these soldiers with total dignity and humanity. This comes from just showing how they are, mostly in interviews with doctors and in their initial stages of 'therapy'. We see a soldier who breaks out crying constantly. Another is stuttering, and eventually gets hypnosis therapy to break this. Another gets a kind of medical serum injected to help him slowly but surely walk. All of them, to one degree or another, have been affected by battle and things most of us can't even imagine.

Huston sets up usually two cameras, with good (if, of course, artificial) lighting, and I believed every word that was said. If anything is exactly "staged" for the cameras it's a baseball game late in the film, where we see the subjects back on their feet and at least past the first stages of their shell-shock and having a degree of fun. But in general, Huston wants this to be an experience for the viewer into these (ex)-soldiers faces, the expressions in their eyes, and how they can possibly adjust after they return home. Some feel shame, others restlessness, and in big group discussions multiple voices are heard about what is possible for them later on.

The film is propaganda, but it's of an entirely different variety of the usual "Woo-Hoo War-Let's-Get-Them-Japs' sort of thing (though that too had its own artistic merits, like John Ford's war films, but I digress). What probably made the government anxious, and what also drew similar controversy to William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives the same year this was released, was the reality that not all was bright and rosy, that with any battle of the magnitude like WW2 carried (and so much really) that people might be screwed up in the head. There's a dignity that Huston has for these people, and it shows, and the honesty that comes through is heart-rending.

Another interesting note, and, frankly, what made me watch the film in the first place (aside from being a big Huston fan – his father, Walter Huston, I should note, adds some solid narration to the film), is that it was reportedly one of the big inspirations for Paul Thomas Anderson's new film The Master. After seeing that film, and this one, I can say that there are scenes, shots, and lines from Let There Be Light directly lifted for The Master. Does this detract? Not at all, on the contrary it's wonderful that Anderson gives such a film like this the chance to get rediscovered, but also that it reveals such a film as Let There Be Light had enough dramatic 'umph' as to lend The Master, about a once Navy soldier messed up from the war and shakily returning to American life, was the genuine article.

It's not cut and dry viewing, but this documentary, which runs just shy of an hour, is essential viewing, for WW2 documentary fans, for Huston fans, for just Americans in general (especially at a time when soldiers are coming back, and will still come back, from current over-seas battles).

An Absolute 'Must See' Treasure

[poetcomic1 · 10/10 · 3 April 2017]

What a disgrace that this was kept from distribution. It was sensitive, upbeat and promotes great compassion and understanding for these men. It is almost as though the government and military were ashamed of their own heroes. Why is it such a heartbreaking and wonderful film? Because we are made to care deeply for each of these men. So many more WWII vets went on to cover up their traumas and function as best they could with no psychiatric help at all. I had one uncle who had combat nightmares that would wake him up screaming - fifty years later.

Disturbingly Provocative

[dougdoepke · 12 June 2010]

Disturbing documentary that nonetheless raises a number of questions. My guess is that the film was produced for general circulation, to allay civilian fears of emotional trauma among returning vets. If so, that's certainly a laudable intent. For, as the documentary shows, many could be rehabilitated and returned to civilian life, despite the emotional wounds of war. In fact, the film conveys an optimistic tone throughout, as though eventual recovery is certain. That, plus the prologue assertion that no scene was staged, adds up to a generally reassuring note for anyone watching. After all, prospective employers need reassurance as well as family, while the last scene is as joyously uplifting as any Hollywood commercial contrivance.

As laudable as that intent is, I'm still left wondering how representative the film is of what we would now term "post-traumatic stress syndrome". For example, we know the scenes weren't staged, but we don't know how much editing went into the final cut. Nothing is said about editing in the prologue, and savvy viewers know how important editing is to creating desired effect. Then too, I'm wondering whether there was pre-sorting of vets according to severity such that we only viewed the mildest, most remedial, cases. For example, the one session of hypnosis and regression appears a quick and easy cure. It's good that some cases are open to such efficient methods, but, again, how representative is this one case. Moreover, as another reviewer points out, nothing is said about possibility of relapse, even among the mild cases.

My point is that we shouldn't draw general conclusions about this terrible affliction from one documentary that may have been geared toward another purpose. The fact that the army withheld release for 30 years shows how wary they became to exposing the public to even this most optimistic rendering of the problem. Those early scenes of afflicted men are simply too wrenchingly real to be forgotten, and should serve as a reminder the next time our politicians start beating the now incessant drum of war. Perhaps that's why the film was withheld for so long.

Hard to believe that anyone thought this would be uplifting

[preppy-3 · 8/10 · 1 June 2010]

This was made by John Huston for the Pentagon. They wanted him to film real men who came back from WWII with neuro-psychotic problems and how they were cured at army hospitals. They thought this would show the public that men suffering from war trauma could be easily cured and reenter society. It had quite the opposite effect (anyone who saw this would be terrified to enlist) and was banned for 30 years! Seeing these poor men shaking, crying, unable to walk is downright harrowing. Also the psychiatrists interviewing the patients come off as somewhat cold and uncaring. I realize the camera might have caused this but who knows? The patients are also cured with ridiculous ease. Supposedly none of this was staged but I really wonder. Also, at the end where it tries to be all happy, all I could think of was how many of these guys had relapses? Did they make it in society? Where they REALLY cured for good? The movie just ends in a fake manner that I didn't buy for one minute. It's pretty tame compared to what we have today but it's still more than a little disturbing. Powerful anti-war documentary. Worth catching. Be warned--the sound quality is pretty poor at times.

War is living Hell

[sforl-14909 · 9/10 · 8 February 2024]

Sensitively written and narrated, this behind the hidden camera dive into the mental anguish of WW2 veterans is an essential part of every American's experience.

For every hero there is a victim and while physical scars might heal, hidden damage is tougher to tackle.

Each one of these casualties has friends, family and others who suffer too.

The frustration of dealing with these types of injuries isn't much better today. Mental illness is still described by most people with the words "crazy", "nuts", "wacko"... My heart breaks for these men. What courage they had to address these deamons.

For those who say this movie was "suppressed" for decades might be right. I don't know if professionals were allowed to view.

But one must also respect the privacy of these men and their families.

After all, they were the patients.

LET THERE BE LIGHT too long in the dark

[CountryRefuge2 · 9/10 · 22 April 2019]

WWII, the time when young men from across American--from small farms, ethnic neighborhood blocks, survivors of the depression and the dust bowl, and survivors of mundane lives few of us today could even comprehend--all lined up to register for the draft in droves, even before Pearl Harbor happened. It was an era of stoicism, where most were assigned their lot at birth and few ever ventured beyond, until the lure of seeing a world to which they had little real exposure. At the end of WWII, those that had survived came home to a world of hero-worship, where everything worked together to help these heroes prosper, for the most part. There was no thought of the nation not being proudly grateful and of the soldiers being the heroes. Accept your adoration, damn your nightmares! And yet, many had their nightmares that wouldn't only exist in dreams: the phantom limbs; the flashes of noise and body parts around them; the unrelenting, numbing fear. It was a different time, a different norm. In 1946, a visionary group of filmmakers, some who had been war correspondents and some who had been soldiers, and some who intimately knew people devastated by the war joined in a vision toward educational films that accurately portrayed the social issues that the returning soldiers faced. Their goal wasn't to shock, but to educate. Okay, maybe shock somewhat in the name of awareness. This is one of those films. Some find it trite and don't understand how profound it was for 1946. The War Department and others did not want this shown; I would guess that they did not want the hero worship to diminish and the economic boom to slow. This was a hard movie to watch, primarily for the reasons that low reviews state: it's boring if you don't stay with it; it's too compressed with one miracle session curing everything, etc. But this film well documents the progression of each different stage of the portrayed trauma responses. For how young psychiatry was at that time, I find this film, from its inception into its concept, through the production and into the way it was banned for 35 years (1981, Cannes) amazing. It reflects the mores of that era in both everyday and professional life. Psychiatry was trying to break free of lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and other horrors. Amazing, think about it in this perspective--this was actually still under War Department ban until after The Green Berets (1964), The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979) were released. Let There Be Light was truly too long in the dark.

Excellent story line

[jimboatlanta · 10/10 · 31 October 2017]

This movie is uplifting and that's just what America needs. My wife and I both needed multiple Kleenex for this movie. The acting and story line were outstanding. The eldest son showed so much maturity in becoming the man of the family plus the wife's unwavering strength and faith were positive reinforcement for my own faith. I loved this movie and recommend it for families to enjoy together.

Moving Real Life stoty

[sjmrheathrow · 9/10 · 19 January 2019]

John Huston's (1946) documentary film was shot at Mason General Hospital on Long Island at the end of the Second World War for the U.S. Government during the director's time as an officer in the U.S. Signal Corps.

One of a number of documentary films he made in this capacity including 'Report From The Aleutians' and 'The Battle of San Pietro', it did not see 'The Light' for a number of years. As copyright holders and owners of the film, the U.S. Government chose not to release it.

The techniques used in making the film are described in John Huston's autobiography 'An Open Book' published by Macmillan and also in an interview recorded by Richard Leacock and Midge McKenzie in 1982.

The film follows the progress of a particular intake of men returning from active service in various theatres of war. These men have returned deeply disturbed by their battle experiences and we follow their progress as they are helped to come to terms with their distress and to rebuild their fragile lives.

Huston captures the most unusual and remarkable sequences that document the work of the gifted psychiatrists at Mason General as they assist the men to reconcile themselves to the awful experiences they have endured.

This film was way ahead of its time in recognising and understanding how conditions that were variously known as 'shell shock' and 'battle fatigue' can respond to treatment and give their unfortunate sufferers a renewed lease of life.

Despite the dated soundtrack, the narration by Huston's own father - Walter - makes the confusing and sometimes disturbing footage accessible and meaningful to the audience.

How tragic that such a well-made and important film should have been kept from us for so long.

Superior, Unique Documentary by John Houston

[alicecbr · 17 April 2000]

One of the best films ever made, it is an eloquent anti-war plea. These are the guys fresh from WWII, shell-shocked and shaking or unable to walk or stuttering..not able to sleep and just boys!!!! With our modern-day cynicism, it's easy to say, "Yeah, they're malingering. looking for a Section 8" but that was when we honored our GIs, when they were saving the world indeed!

To go back home under the shame of a mental discharge was not something these young men wanted. The help of the authoritarian doctors and the nurses is eloquently portrayed. Usually rebellious against such domination, you can see how these doctors became fathers to the horror-stricken boys, raised with "Thou shalt not kill" and placed in the position of killing or being killed. What shocked them most into blindness or silence or stuttering (the 'ssssssss's' are the sound of the German V-18 rockets coming into the foxholes), was the loss of their buddines.

I've often wondered how my brother-in-law could so merrily flit through life on one leg. I'm not aware as is he that on the other end of the log from him when that mortar shell hit in Korea, was his best buddy who was obliterated. He knows in his gut that "There but for the grace of God......" and it informs every waking minute.

See this one with "The Red Tent", a Peter Finch movie that seemingly deals with the Arctic exploration and lost lives. Interesting complementation.

The Man of the Century is indeed the American GI. Yes, we waited too long to help England, and we ignored the plight of the Jews but by damn, our plain ordinary Joes saved this world from the darkness of species destruction.

At least, for awhile.......

This film needs a candid modern-day follow up

[mta7000-732-708008 · 8/10 · 26 May 2020]

I learned about this film on Memorial Day 2020 and I felt compelled to share a few thoughts about the plight of some of our aging vets in our modern healthcare system. While I wouldn't go so far as the reviewer who dismissed this film out-of-hand as a "propaganda piece", I would say a follow-up on our aging vets, were it made today, should shed the rose-colored glasses and offer a candid glimpse of what they are up against. I work for a phone captioning service for the hard-of-hearing (primarily the elderly) and, although being disabled and never having served in the military myself, I have gotten quite a vicarious education captioning vets' phone calls into our Veterans Administration medical centers. For every "happy ending" like those experienced by the psych patients in this film, there are many more vets whose ailments remain under- or untreated in an increasingly complex healthcare system as many of the vets' calls I transcribe attest. One such call recently that I had a few weeks ago still haunts me in which an embittered vet who had seen dead bodies piled up on the Berlin wall after it was first built while he was stationed there, now years later had to seek out a patient's advocate (to whom this phone call was made) because he was being passed around from doctor to doctor, getting prescriptions he couldn't use or was allergic to, getting leg braces sent to him in the mail that didn't fit, and desperately needing therapies which weren't always well-administered or which he was unable to get altogether - all while meanwhile having not having any one medical professional taking ownership of his case, following up, or tracking his progress on his journey to wellness This 1946 film needs a modern counterpart that speaks the unvarnished truth and tells the stories of our forgotten war vets who nowadays find themselves navigating with trembling hands and voices a healthcare system with its often impersonal bureaucracy and bewildering array of Telehealth phone options while trying to get a hold of a live human being (e.g. "speaking into your phone or using your touchstone keypad, please enter the top number of your blood pressure reading.. bottom number.. date and time of your reading with two digits for the month.. I'm sorry I didn't get that. Let's try this another way.. etc, etc." Really?!!) If it weren't for the internet, such a candid contemporary documentary likely wouldn't see the light of day for decades either if indeed it could even be made at all.

One Of The Best Documentaries

[bellabanana93 · 10/10 · 22 October 2017]

Let There Be Light (1946) follows war veterans as they receive psychological treatment for the mental trauma that they developed during their service. This is a very interesting and unique war documentary that is well before it's time.

As veterans in this film are experiencing mental trauma, this documentary is very heavy and emotional. The entire film is sad as it examines the psychological effects of war and how these men are dealing with it. There are also some happy moments when the veterans are doing well and find that the medicine helps them.

There are many nervous ticks that you can notice that the veterans have developed. One man mumbles, one man breaks into tears, another man keeps looking up to the left while speaking very quietly and softly. The veterans are able to vividly remember their service. They can recall what they saw, heard, and the emotions that they felt at the time. The hazy parts of their memory are generally more recent.

I would recommend this documentary to anyone who is interested in war and its effects on the human psyche because this film does an excellent job at conveying the feelings and worries of the veterans. One man says that he feels as though he is a different person after the war. He is jumpier and he doesn't have fun like he used to in the past when he went out places. The veterans explain remedies that they have tried to get over this trauma and whether or not it works. Most veterans claim they never got nervous before the war, and now they are a bundle of nerves.

The lighting, cinematography, and narration of the film are all excellent. It is hard to find any criticisms about this documentary as I was intrigued from beginning to end. It's also only about an hour long. Watch as the narrator takes you through the process of dealing with veterans who have developed PTSD. We see them from entry- how they are analyzed and how they are to be treated. Overall, this is a solid documentary with a great message.

Haunting coverage of war's lesser-known casualties

[grantss · 8/10 · 15 June 2018]

A documentary, filmed shortly after the end of WW2, shot entirely in a US Army psychiatric hospital. Candidly shot, the film shows the mental casualties of war - soldiers with PTSD and other neurological issues: their symptoms, how they cope and, if they're lucky, how they are cured.

Haunting coverage of war's lesser-known casualties, written and directed by the great John Huston. Incredibly original and decades ahead of its time, as, at the time, PTSD was not very well-known outside medical circles. It would take until after the Vietnam War, about 30 years later, that PTSD gained public knowledge and acceptance.

Sensitively told, despite the candidness of the footage. Quite confronting too - these are all real patients, undergoing real psychological episodes. Starkly brings home the long-term effects of war.