Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Why We Fight 1: Prelude to War

US 1942. PC: 834th Signal Service Photographic Detachment, Special Services Division, U.S. Army. No personal credit titles in the film. [In charge of production: Frank Capra, with a mighty staff of film professionals]. A fine Imperial War Museum print. Special British version with a Winston Churchill foreword. Standard version 53', special British version 55'. Viewed at Orion, Helsinki, 30 Aug 2005. Heavy artillery of war propaganda, forcefully built. It's about the free world and the slave world (Russia and China belonging to the free world here). The faith in equal rights in the free world. Hitler: in the eyes of the youth I want to see the gleam of the beast of prey. Most effective now are the close-ups of common people with sad eyes. This film shows the rise of the Axis powers and follows the strategy of Mussolini and Hirohito. It's a wake-up call for America. Life and death struggle for freedom. We lose it, we lose everything. It's us or them. The Liberty Bell and a huge V letter end the film(s). It's quite a compilation from many sources, and the animation is truly effective in showing the strategy of the Axis.

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