British actor Jack Huston’s grandfather, the legendary filmmaker John Huston, once had a movie about psychological trauma among soldiers banned because of its anti-war message.
The double Oscar-winner reacted furiously when “Let There Be Light” was confiscated by US military police, saying he’d expect “someone to take me outside and shoot me” if he ever made a pro-war film, according to his 34-year-old grandson.
“That sentiment stands today. I never really had any interest in making a war movie because I found a lot of instances where they glorified war,” the younger Huston tells AFP.
The actor nevertheless finds himself this year as one of the stars alongside Jennifer Aniston and Alden Ehrenreich in “The Yellow Birds,” a movie about the terrors of fighting in Iraq.
“This movie doesn’t glorify war. It’s very honest,” Huston tells AFP ahead of its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday.
“It shows what it’s like as best as we possibly can for these kids who go over to a foreign land, fighting for something that a lot of the time they don’t really know about, what they bring back with them, and what it’s like for the families.”
French director Alexandre Moor’s movie is a rarity at Sundance, an independent festival whose entries are usually made on budgets which can barely cover explosions, let alone tanks and helicopters.
Preparation for the shoot in Morocco involved a military boot camp and cramming of numerous documentaries such as the Oscar-nominated 2010 Afghan war film “Restrepo.”
