World War II through Film

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how World War II was seen through war films of two very different sorts: those made during the war, primarily as propaganda and those made after the war. It looks at how those made in the 1940s might be assumed to carry on the tradition of portraying fighting men in a very positive light. Those made after the war, however, were more concerned with analyzing the events of the war and the characters of those who contributed to the events. It discusses how the makers of those films were interested in presenting both sides of the story as evenhandedly as possible. The two propaganda films reviewed are "Guadalcanal Diary" and "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo". The two films under consideration made after the war are "Tora! Tora! Tora!" and "Pearl Harbor".

From the Paper:

"The films made during the war had a different job to do. They had to present a tough but winning concept for the folks back home, who would be, of course, mainly women and men too young or too old to fight. Propaganda demanded that the young men be emboldened by what they saw, even if it was death and misery, because they would soon be called on to partake of plenty of opportunities for those in a universal draft. The old men had to be brought to tears of admiration for the young men fighting; they had to be reminded of their own presumed World War I experiences which may well have been, by all accounts, even worse, especially if they endured the mustard gassings of that war."

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• Film Review # 139264 : "Contrasting Wars through Movies"
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• Film Review # 104879 : "Leadership in a Movie: The Case of Patton"

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