Patterns in Wartime Documentaries

Abstract

THE WAR IN KOREA did not produce in the United States a noncommercial film that equaled the best produced during World War II. Therefore we must examine films originating from the earlier struggle if we would analyze film content and discuss patterns in wartime documentaries. I apply the term documentary not only in the strict sense that such a film deals with moral, social or economic issues, and is used to extend experience... [and] emphatically and purposefully to suggest conclusions, stimulate ideas, change or affirm attitudes.' Rather, I include under the label documentary those factual films that inform the public about the doings of men in wartime. Since it would be impracticable to study here more than a few of the many worth-while documentaries stemming from World War II, I have selected from the best of these films John Ford's Battle of Midway (1942); William Wyler's Memphis Belle (1944); Louis de Rochement's The Fighting Lady (1944); John Huston's Report from the Aleutians (1943), The Battle of San Pietro (1945), and Let There Be Light (1945); and Frank Capra's series of orientation films, Why We Fight (1943). In these pictures, only Huston and Capra followed the true tradition. The work of these two directors had social consciousness, evoked compassion, and attempted to mold public opinion. Memphis Belle was more interested in the mechanics of a bombing raid over Germany; The Fighting Lady, in depicting carrier life in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway primarily showed the results of the