War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding

right down to the present. War made the U.S. independent, kept it together, increased its

size, and established it as a global superpower. Understanding America's wars is essential for understanding American history.

Welcome to Key Battles of American History,

a podcast in which we discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's wars.

Here is your host, James Early.

Thank you. your host, James Early. Hello and welcome to another episode of key films of World War II in Europe.

This is your host, James Early.

As always.

And as always, I'm joined by Sean McIver.

This week, we are talking about the 1955 movie To Hell and Back, which tells the life and the wartime career of

Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War II, at least American soldier.

So let's talk about some of the basics, and then I'm going to let Sean do what

he usually does and talk a little bit about production, the background to the movie, and all that.

To Helen Back is one hour and 46 minutes on Rotten Tomatoes. Get this, folks. We need to ring a bell

or something, Sean, when this happens or have an alarm go off.

A hundred percent of the critics gave it a positive rating.

I don't think we've had any film that had 100%.

We've done a lot of films.

Maybe there was one, but I sure don't remember it.

And on the fans, it was 82%, a little bit less.

They're probably because of that old movie bias that some people have, even though this is

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