And the annual Financial Support of hello, im john lithgow. Welcome to american cinema. Sam fuller, a great director and a veteran, says the only way to make a war movie realistic is to have someone with a rifle stand behind the screen and shoot at the audience because war is so gruesome that nothing on the screen can ever really capture it. During world war ii, hollywood produced films which softened war realities with tales of heroism and valor. The platoon of bataan and guadalcanal diary portrayed an america true to its ideal, if not its reality; a model of ethnically diverse americans working together. There was always a tension between hollywoods portrayal and filmmakers experiences. Directors like john ford and sam fuller, who had really seen battle, brought a deeper urgency and understanding to the films they made. They left a legacy for the next generation. When it came to vietnam, the conventions of hollywood didnt match the soldiers reality. Filmmakers like francis ford coppo