Let there be light

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Let There Be Light was acclaimed director John Huston's third World War II documentary. Filmed in an army hospital after the war had ended, after victory and peace had been achieved, Let There Be L...

Let There Be Light was acclaimed director John Huston's third World War II documentary. Filmed in an army hospital after the war had ended, after victory and peace had been achieved, Let There Be Light concentrates on an aspect - a cost - of war which governments would rather have remain unpublicized. Indeed, the U. S. government suppressed this film for more than 30 years, because the film shines light on a highly common - but rarely acknowledged - casualty of war: the psycho-neurotic soldier. As noted in the film, 'About 20% of all battle casualties in the American Army during World War II were of a neuropsychiatric nature.' Here is human salvage ... casualties ... soldiers ... men born and bred in peace and educated to hate war. They tremble and cannot sleep because of an unremitting sense of impending disaster. These casualties of the spirit are treated with drugs and hypnosis in an environment of peace and safety until they realize that the past no longer threatens their safety so that they can rejoin society - once again builders, rather than destroyers.

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