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Why We Fight
The US government puts the finger on the United Nations' enemies
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.
CinemaSerf
Oct 26, 2025 · via TMDB
Crafted by Frank Capra at the instigation of General Marshall, this is a bit more sophisticated that the usual propaganda exercise Hollywood produced following the raid on Pearl Harbour. This time it uses an effective array of archive to not so much extol the virtues of the great American war machine as to chronologically vilify the axis powers. There’s not so much actual footage of the Emperor but they still manage to illustrate the processes of Japanese expansion through Korea, Manchuria and eventually Shanghai. Mussolini and Hitler provide much more fertile territory for the filmmakers as they use film and animated maps to demonstrate the salami tactics of the Italians in Ethiopia and the Nazis in Austria and Czechoslovakia. By 1942 the war in Europe was essentially the British against pretty much everyone else, there was little stopping the Japanese in the Far East and a grand design is presented here to show how a plan to conquer the world could easily emerge from these geographically unrelated theatres of war. It’s narration is more informative than jingoistic and after it’s all but one hour duration I actually felt more informed than indoctrinated, especially as some of the speechifying from Hitler showed us clearly just how megalomaniac the man really was. Much of the content isn’t especially new, but it’s still worth a watch, I’d say.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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FlixFling
Walter Huston
Self - Narrator (voice)
Max Schmeling
Self - German paratrooper (archive footage)
Adolf Hitler
Self
Robert Flaherty
Director of Photography
Robert Flaherty
Cinematography
Anatole Litvak
Director
Frank Capra
Director
Anatole Litvak
Associate Producer
Alfred Newman
Music
Hugo Friedhofer
Music
Alfred Newman
Music Director
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