The True Glory (1945)

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At the behest of both the British and American offices of war information in 1945, directors Carol Reed and Garson Kanin tapped the archives of a dozen-odd countries, distilling the footage of more than a thousand cameramen into a monumental documentary on the liberation of occupied Europe. Covering… More At the behest of both the British and American offices of war information in 1945, directors Carol Reed and Garson Kanin tapped the archives of a dozen-odd countries, distilling the footage of more than a thousand cameramen into a monumental documentary on the liberation of occupied Europe. Covering the period from the D-Day invasion to the fall of Berlin, THE TRUE GLORY touches on such key events as the Falaise Gap, Caen, Arnheim, the liberation of Paris, and the Battle of the Bulge. The BBC narration is interspersed throughout with dramatized sound bites from participants: A group of Frenchmen describe the horrors of occupation, one American brags about the speed of Patton's advance into Germany, and another marvels that the Remagen bridge is the only one left standing over the Rhine. Reed's swift cutting counterpoints a panoramic scene like the liberation of Paris with the more intimate episode of a concentration-camp survivor kissing the hand of a soldier. In all, this extraordinary documentary, widely regarded as the best on WWII, is a fitting tribute to those who fought and died in that historic campaign.