:08:00
What it must have felt like, however,
:08:03
is something guys like myself
will never know. Never.
:08:14
I've had an obsession
with World War Two.
:08:18
It originated with my father,
who fought in WWll in Burma
:08:23
and came back to tell all the
stories about what happened.
:08:28
He was in the Air Force,
:08:30
and he was the radio operator
on board a B-25.
:08:36
I saw some 16mm movies
my dad took while he was there.
:08:40
So I grew up with pictures of
him cleaning his machine gun,
:08:45
him on a bicycle, everybody
bicycled in that region.
:08:49
And stories about his buddies
and the friends he made.
:08:54
My dad planted the seed in that
when he told war stories,
:08:59
he wasn't trying to dissuade me
from being interested in war.
:09:03
He didn't tell me
horror stories about the war.
:09:07
He made me want to know more.
:09:10
He listened, and I think he
absorbed and internalised it,
:09:14
because it comes out
in the movies later
:09:18
about how he feels.
:09:20
Television was
right there in our world
:09:23
and there were films like
"The Fighting Seabees"
:09:26
and "The Story Of GI Joe"
:09:29
and "Back To Bataan"
:09:30
and "Sands Of lwo Jima".
:09:32
So between my father's stories
:09:34
and John Wayne's
presence in these films,
:09:38
as a youngster I got the impression
:09:41
that war was to be looked at
with a kind of awe.
:09:46
When he was a kid he'd take
my movie camera and use it.
:09:51
He'd say,
"Dad, let me take the pictures.
:09:54
"Yours aren't so hot."
And we'd let him.
:09:59
When I was about 14,
I made some war films.