Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
Get the MovieNight app
Add it to your home screen — faster & full screen
Why We Fight
The fifth film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, revealing the nature and process of the fight between the Soviet Union and Germany in the Second World War.
CinemaSerf
Jul 7, 2025 · via TMDB
For some reason, I always felt that this front of WWII was always the most horrendous, and this two-parter goes some way to poignantly illustrating that. Using a combination of animated maps and plenty of wartime newsreel, it takes us into the heart of the Soviet Union as the encroaching Nazis crushed all before them. It’s striking that though much of Western Europe was industrialised, the population facing this onslaught was a largely agrarian one still using scythes, horse-drawn ploughs and with little access to electricity. Initially, this looks like it’s going to be a cake-walk for the invaders, but when they arrive at Stalingrad they find that the population have regrouped and doubled their efforts, in spite of the sub-zero conditions and lack of supplies and ordnance, and together with supplies from the British and the Americans are now starting to make their own presence felt. The second part of this documentary focuses a little more on the fight back and leaves us with some degree of optimism that there might be light at the end of this very, very, long winter. The actuality here is really potent and augmented by a narration that avoids jingoism and sentiment and let’s the imagery speak for itself. Sure, it does have a propagandist function to an extent, but when you see the starved bodies of young children, or the raped ones of young women alive and dead, then you don’t really need anyone in a sound booth to describe what you can see or what to think about it. It’s clearly intended for an American audience and effectively extols that principle that the enemy of my enemy is my friend - regardless of doctrine.
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
Amazon Video
FlixFling
fuboTV
MGM+ Amazon Channel
Philo
MGM Plus Roku Premium Channel
MGM Plus
GuideDoc
FlixFling
IndieFlix
DocuramaFilms Amazon Channel
IndieFlix Shorts Amazon Channel
Amazon Video
FlixFling
Anthony Veiller
Narrator
Nikolai Cherkasov
Alexander Nevsky
Alfred Jodl
Self
Robert Flaherty
Director of Photography
Anatole Litvak
Director
Frank Capra
Director
Frank Capra
Producer
Dimitri Tiomkin
Original Music Composer
At the Beginning of Summer
Secrets of the Nazi Criminals
Ludwig van Beethoven
Hitler's Forgotten Victims
Don't Cry, Nanking
Message from Malta
Schindler's List
The Battle of Normandy: 85 Days in Hell
The Pianist
Night and Fog
The Great Dictator
Saving Private Ryan
Das Boot
Rome, Open City
Japan's War in Colour
Jean Moulin, une affaire française
Drei Tage im April
The Forest of Freedom
Before the Raid
100,000,000 Women
Munich, or Peace in Our Time
The Lost Album of the SS
Stalingrad - Stimmen aus Ruinen
To Be or Not to Be
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Best Years of Our Lives
Underground
The Dirty Dozen
The Train
Sunflower
Au Revoir les Enfants
Fascism in Colour
1944: Should We Bomb Auschwitz?
Enemy at the Gates
Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Operation Petticoat
Closely Watched Trains
God Does Not Believe in Us Anymore
Is Paris Burning?
Free City
The English Patient
Challenging Churchill
Attack! The Battle for New Britain
Das Tal der sieben Monde
Churchill's Darkest Decision
Prisoners of Propaganda
V hodine dvanástej
Valkyrie
Pearl Harbor
Long Dark Night
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Escape to Victory
Decision Before Dawn
The Girl
Memphis Belle
Seeking Sun Paths
U-571
The Eternal Sea
Why We Fight: Prelude to War
Man and Beast
Hitler's Hollywood
Sobibor
To End All Wars
The Peaks of Zelengore
Sunshine
Appointment in Tokyo
Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust
Windtalkers
Up Periscope
Germans
Force 10 from Navarone
Miracle at St. Anna
Triple Cross
South Pacific
13 Rue Madeleine
Report from the Aleutians
Our Miss Fred
Fort Saganne
Riders in the Sky
Great Escape
The Last Shot
War in Russia: The Siege of Leningrad
The Battle of the Damned
The Lamp Still Burns
Keep 'Em Slugging
The Shamrock Spitfire
Saltwater: The Battle for Ramree Island
Operation Cross Eagles
Never So Few
The Most Beautiful
John Ford Goes to War
The Russian German War
Leningrad
Zone Troopers
Blood Vessel
The Blood of Others
Lágrimas rojas
The Chalice of Blood
Operation Inchon
Charlotte: A Royal at War
B-17 Flying Legend
Children from Overseas
Atlantic Patrol
Pegasus Bridge
The Forger
Zdobyć miasto
A Distant Shore: African Americans on D-Day
Modus Operandi
The Last Signal
Tokyo Black Hole: Year Zero in Post-WWII Japan
Člny proti prúdu
Pätnásť životov
Suzanne
Triumph Over Prejudice: The Montford Point Marines
Gino: A Child of War
Espías en la arena: Objetivo España
The Final Days of Adolf Hitler
The Horrors Of Hiroshima
The Free French: Unsung Victors
La Terza Volta
Iron Maiden: Burning Ambition
2000 Meters to Andriivka
My Mom Jayne
John Candy: I Like Me
Being James Bond
The Last Waltz
Hawking
The Walking Dead: The Return
The Atomic Cafe
Maria by Callas
Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea
Avatar: The Deep Dive - A Special Edition of 20/20
Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Hawkeye
Daft Punk Unchained
Zeitgeist: Addendum
180° South
Deliver Us from Evil
The Bloody Hundredth
The Class of ‘92
In Search of the Last Action Heroes
Sidney
Zeitgeist: The Movie
Human Flow
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
Spider-Man: All Roads Lead to No Way Home
The War Room
Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return
9/11: Inside the President's War Room
The Age of Stupid
The September Issue
Nail Bomber: Manhunt
Heart of a Dog
Salinger
Jackie Chan: My Story
Seduced and Abandoned
Nov 13, 1943
© 2025-2026 MovieNight. All rights reserved.
Versus
Sign in to play →
FISFiC Vol. 1
2011
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
2015
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
Versus
Sign in to play →
FISFiC Vol. 1
2011
Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs
2015
Sign in to vote
Battle your watched movies head-to-head
Community Top Movies
Evil Dead II
1987 · 14 wins
The Dark Knight
2008 · 14 wins
Halloween
1978 · 13 wins
Final Destination
2000 · 12 wins
Halloween II
1981 · 11 wins
Trivia
Leaderboard →Playing as a guest — sign in to save your score and rank on the leaderboard.
Movie Trivia
Guess the movie from a clue — tagline, plot, cast and more. Pick from four posters.
What movie experience do you prefer?
What is your favorite movie genre?
We use essential cookies to run MovieNight, plus analytics (Google Analytics) and advertising (Google AdSense) cookies. By continuing to browse, you agree to this — or click No and we won't. See our Terms & Privacy Policy to learn more.