bestactor Review of My Son John

My Son John (1952)

An important film that documents American culture of the early 1950's

[9/10 · 1 April 2005]

I saw this film only once when it was broadcast on network television (ABC, I think) during the late 1960's or early 1970's. I had already read about this movie and made a point of watching it to see how "terrible/horrible" it really was. What I saw was a very slick and entertaining piece of propaganda. This was obviously Hollywood's reply to the HUAC and McCarthyism. It would be interesting to know what the artists involved really thought of this film as they were making it and how they regarded it, later. It is ridiculous for film critic bloggers to trash the individuals associated with this movie; there are thousands of miles of celluloid that stink far worse than this. What is horrible is the culture that produced the "need" for this propaganda, and that was never able to know or tell the truth because of political institutions. This film is evidence of a shameful and troubling period of history that, even today, seems to be rewritten to justify the present and future brain washers of America. This movie deserves to be preserved and should be made available for all to see.