"Let There Be Light" and "The Battle of San Pietro", both by John Huston, were the only two films banned by the Army during the war. In 1945, Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall viewed the film and reversed the ban: "This picture should be seen by every American soldier in training. It will not discourage but rather will prepare them for the initial shock of combat."

Critics said that the film presented the battle in the Liri Valley "as a costly continuing campaign rather than in retrospect as a strategic victory", and herelded it as "the only complete record of an infantry battle" (Midge Mackenzie). Although it was not as authentic as some critics claimed. Huston restaged some scenes to make the soldiers' screen movements correspond to the east-to-west attack on the maps: "We" always attack from right-to-left, "the enemy" from left-to-right. Compared to other combat documentaries San Pietro is also most noticeable for its refusal to claim that the battle presented in such detail was in any way distinctive or decisive, thus refusing to bestow special military significance on the soldiers' sacrifice.

See also the official homepage of the 36th division: http://www.kwanah.com/txmilmus/36division/archives/sanpiet/warsbest.htm