4 World War II Propaganda Films from across the World

Film has always been a powerful medium, able to express ideas in order to generate a lot of responses. In World War II, with television and film still in its infancy, many private firms and governments harnessed these mediums to help the war effort in the form of propaganda. In the blog, we’re looking at some prominent films from the era.

The United Kingdom

The Lion Has Wings was a black-and-white, documentary-style, propaganda war film from 1939. It was directed by Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Alexander Korda and Michael Powell and was produced by London Film Productions and Alexander Korda Film Productions.

The Lion Has Wings was filmed at the outbreak of World War II. With its quick release to cinemas, it helped convince the government that film was an important weapon in their propaganda arsenal, especially at getting information out.

 

The film was released in chapters, following the story of a senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer, played by Ralph Richardson, his wife and family. Existing news footage was used for its documentary-style opening, which compared life in Nazi Germany to that of Britain. It attempted to contrast the peaceful and relaxed life in Britain with that of the militaristic Nazi regime.

The second chapter showed an early bombing raid on German warships, combining real footage and scenes that were filmed in a studio. In the third chapter, a Luftwaffe attack was shown and the subsequent battle by the RAF. The epilogue includes Mr. and Mrs. Richardson. Richardson’s wife gives a speech regarding sacrificing sons and husbands to the war effort.

The Lion Has Wings was shot in just 12 days across four weeks, with a budget of £30,000. Within days of its release, it had been shipped to 60 countries. While the public found it somewhat overly patriotic, The Lion Has Wings was a commercial success.

The United States

The U.S. had the largest film industry of any of the Allied powers. Because of this, it is one of the most well-known examples of wartime silver screen propaganda. Due to its size, it was not controlled by a single government agency; it was the Office of War Information, as well as other entities.

The Purple Heart was filmed in 1944 and is a dramatization of the “show trial” (a trial where the authorities have almost certainly determined the guilt of the defendants) between U.S. airmen by the Japanese during World War II. The film loosely follows the trail of eight airmen who took part in the April 18, 1942, Doolittle Raid, the first air raid to strike the Japanese homeland. The Purple Heart dealt directly with the treatment of POWs by the Japanese. The film ran into conflict with the U.S. War Department, who believed it may provoke reprisal from the Japanese.

The Purple Heart opened to good reviews and encouraged the public to purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of War Bonds.

Soviet

Soviets produced films for both foreign and domestic markets during World War II. Moscow Strikes Back was sent to foreign markets and is a war documentary about the Battle of Moscow, made during the battle from October, 1941, to January, 1942. It was directed by Leonid Varlamov and Ilya Kopalin.

Moscow Strike Back begins in Moscow. Civilians prepare defense, men prepare for battle, women prepare ammunition, and giant Stalin gives a speech to Red Army soldiers. Many different artillery guns are show firing, tank crewmen scramble around, troops parachute into battle and German troops surrender. The film continues by showing German destruction of the once-intact houses of Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy, with museum exhibits destroyed.

Moscow Strikes Back was reviewed well by international critics, including the New York Times and the Times, with critics praising its realism and ability to show what actually happened on the front lines. In the USSR, the film was awarded the Stalin Prize; in America, it was one of the four winners at the 15th Academy Awards for Best Documentary.

Germany

A peculiar propaganda film that arrived out of Germany during World War II was the 1943 Titanic. The film was made in Berlin by Tobis Productions for UFA, a German motion picture organization. Titanic was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and was played across German occupied Europe starting from November 1943. However, it was not shown in Germany itself for fear of decreasing morale. Later, Goebbels banned the film.

Where the widely-known story of the Titanic was that it hit an iceberg due to human ignorance, Titanic makes the allegory that the sinking of the vessel was thanks to British avarice. This theme draws parallels with other German propaganda films at the time like The Maiden Joanna, The Heart of a Queen, The Fox of Glenarvon, Uncle Krüger, and My Life for Ireland. In Titanic, British and French are shown as desperate and panicking. However the scenes where passengers frantically searched for their loved ones eerily resembled the all too real situation at concentration camps. This reason was a contributing factor for Goebbels to ban the film.

Titanic positions the fictional German First Officer Peterson as its hero. Capitalism and the stock market are major features in the film, with Peterson pleading with the owners to slow the ship down. Their refusal eventually leads to the Titanic hitting the iceberg and sinking. The rich foreign passengers are show to be selfish and inept, while others in the lower classes are presented as brave. Titanic ends where Peterson testifies against the ship’s corrupt owner, but authorities do not listen to him and instead blame the ship’s deceased captain.