Let There Be Light (1946 film)

Let There Be Light PMF 5019
Screenshot from the film
Directed by	John Huston
Produced by	John Huston
Written by	John Huston Charles Kaufman (uncredited)
Narrated by	Walter Huston (uncredited)
Distributed by	U.S. Army
Release date	1946 (film completed) 1948 (date on title card) 1981 (actual release)
Running time	58 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Let There Be Light (1946) — known to the U.S. Army as PMF 5019 — is a documentary film directed by American filmmaker John Huston (1906–1987). It was the last in a series of three films directed by Huston while serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II.

Seventy-five U.S. service members — recent combat veterans suffering from various "nervous conditions" including psychoneurosis, battle neurosis, conversion disorder, amnesia, severe stammering, and anxiety states — are followed in the course of their medical management. A series of scenes chronicles their entry into the military psychiatric hospital, treatment, and eventual recovery and discharge, all typically in a period of 6 to 8 weeks. Treatments depicted include narcosynthesis, hypnosis, group psychotherapy, music therapy and work therapy. The highlighted cases are presented as marked therapeutic successes, accompanied by upbeat musical cues, although the narrator cautions after one dramatic recovery that "the neurosis is not cured". The patients, who explain themselves to the doctors on camera at some length, are treated soberly and with dignity, while the therapies are presented in an optimistic and flattering manner. The film ends with a number of the featured patients participating in a ceremony in which they are discharged, not just from the hospital, but from military service, and returned to civilian life.