Why We Fight World War II - The Complete Series (1943)

Why we fight World War II

I thought the movie was an excellent way to get a base for World War II. March 13, 2008

World War II Proproganda

Oh My! If you want to see the USA in the best light probable than watch these documentaries. They are careful to omit the facts and in some cases are blatenly lying. Perfect to see the allies use of propoganda during World War II. December 19, 2007

Why We Fight...Even Today

I remember watching this series when I was a teenager, and I didn't realize the value of this series until I was enlisted in the Army. Just as the Germans made films to boost and maintain national morale, the United States got one of the most brilliant directors of the time, Frank Capra, to unite the people of the Free World against the forces of aggression.

I think this is a wonderful series to own and collect for the years to come. January 4, 2007

A riveting series -- alas, unrestored

Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" is one of the finest documentaries of the war period, not to mention one of the most historically significant. Watching these films today, sixty-five years after this series was produced, you find yourself wanting to pick up a machine gun and start hunting Germans and Japanese. The effect on wartime crowds must have been electric.

I suppose we have to deal with the usual criticism -- they aren't documentaries, they're propaganda. And well, so they were. The same can be said of any of the wartime documentaries put out by the Office of War Information, the Army, the Navy and the Marines. It doesn't obscure the fact that some of these films were works of art. Documentaries in that period had a sense of style we don't see much today; they often aimed to persuade and manipulate the emotions -- see Pare Lorenz' "The Plow that Broke the Plains," a depression-era documentary in the same vein, and you'll see what I mean. During the war the government financed dozens of films like these, and many of them are fascinating as pieces of entertainment, not just as compilations of combat footage. Capra's series aside, we might also include "The Battle of San Pietro," "Let There Be Light," "Report from the Aleutians," "The Memphis Belle," and a handful of others.

The main problem I have with this collection -- put out by Goodtimes Video -- is that there seems to have been absolutely nothing done in the way of restoration. The first film of the series, "Prelude to War," suffers considerably -- the film is "jumpy" for the first 20 minutes or so. I wouldn't put the producers to task too much for this: Every copy I've seen of this film, on videotape, has exactly the same problem. But you'd think that a series of this significance warrants some sort of restoration.

Later films in this package vary somewhat in transfer quality. "Divide and Conquer" and "The Nazis Strike" are perfectly adequate, though they use scratchy and well-worn prints. But "The Battle of Britain" is over-brightened, and some of the lighter portions of the picture are completely whited out.

I don't want to be too picky here. Goodtimes did something right: It didn't try to package all these films on one or two disks, and so we don't see any of the compression artifacts we often find in budget-priced public domain material. And I have to say the quality is still well above the awful videotapes that used to be the only source for this material. (Goodtimes used to be one of the worst, using EP mode for its tapes, and this DVD set is a significant improvement on the old standard.) Still, I wish someday that someone would take the next step and give these films the restoration treatment they deserve. Criterion Collection, are you listening?

Erik Smith September 8, 2006

Best propaganda ever!!

I don't believe "propaganda" is a dirty word. It's depends on what the "propaganda" is out to accomplish and the techniques that are used in furthuring it's agenda. If the propaganda uses purposefully fabricated and deceiving information (lying) then it is bad. If it filters out vital information that would other wise cause the viewer to reach a different conclusion than the one advocated by the propaganda, then it is bad.

However, if the propaganda can use essentially factual information to motivate people to do the right thing, then it is good propaganda. The purpose of this series of films was to explain to the American public why we were fighting the Japanese and the Germans. It's purpose was to get everyone to back that effort using a very blunt and factual approach to showing the viewer the sheer evil that was threatening to engulf the world at that time. If this series really did build the moral of America and help defeat Facism and Japanese Imperialism, then perhaps it was the best propaganda ever.

It's also a very detailed history lesson, and I think the animation techniques were, although "dated", rather cool and fun to watch.



June 28, 2006

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