The Huston film is, of course, *Let There Be Light,* filmed in 1945 by Huston and an OWI crew, but not released by the War Department and its successor, the Defense Department, until, I believe, 1978. The film's original intention was to show that mental and emotional effects caused by combat did not make those sufferers "crazy," and that those so inflicted would still be good citizens and employable workers in peacetime. Huston's final product, the powers that be decided, dismantled the carefully nurtured ideology of the American fighting man as an invincible warrior. The film's release was quashed. It is, truly, a remarkable film. The film deals with the recuperation of shell-shocked American GIs from the recently closed European Theatre. Huston used hidden cameras, with the soldiers' apparent blessing (the cameras that were visible were explained to the men as part of the overal rehabilitation process so some deception may have been involved). Huston documented near-miraculous recoveries, using both hypnosis and drugs, of previously mute and paralyzed soldiers. These documented episodes of recovery are, to say the least, powerful. Of course, it *is* still a Huston film. In both interviews with psychiatrists and in "bull" sessions among themselves, led by a doctor, the soldiers, in their own words, lay bare contradictions in class and, particularly, race, that, ultimately, makes one wonder if it was the fighting, or unconscious conflicts over what they were really fighting for, that caused their psychoses and psychosomatic ills. The film is available in both 16-mm (Kit Parker, I believe) and from several sources on VHS. ______________________________________________________________________________ William Lafferty Department of Theatre Arts [log in to unmask] Wright State University office (937) 775-4581 or 3072 Dayton, OH 45435-0001 USA facsimile (937) 775-3787 "I have been in the scholastic profession long enough to know that nobody enters it unless he has some very good reason which he is anxious to conceal." --- Augustus Fagin, Esq., Ph.D, in Evelyn Waugh's *Decline and Fall* ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]