Vorspiel zum Krieg (1942)
65KVorspiel zum Krieg: Directed by Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak. With Victor Bulwer-Lytton, Kai-Shek Chiang, Walter Darré, Otto Dietrich. The official World War II US Government film statement defining the various enemies of the Allies and why they must be fought.
“The first an probably the best of the US Governmentu0026#39;s Why We Fight Series due to its overview of Democracyu0026#39;s three enemies Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan as opposed to concentrating on one theatre of War in subsequent series entries. Hitler, Hirohito and Mussolini need little makeover to demonize as their words and actions vividly captured and powerfully edited show a world on the brink of annihilation as the three war machines ratchet things up in the thirties. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJudged in hindsight Prelude packs vast amounts of information in its engrossing less than an hour running time about threats to the American way, soberly and effectively narrated by Walter Huston. Filled with charts and graphs it divides the planet in two ( the world of light and the world of darkness) as the iconic symbols of the axis powers advance across territories in black, inter cutting documentary footage of atrocity. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOver 60 years after it was made this documentary about world wide life and death struggle remains compelling viewing as the universe still wrestles with massive conflict today. I can only imagine the massive emotional weight this film must have had on an American film audience as the conflagration still raged in 1943. To sit in a darkened theater suddenly illuminated by blast and explosion viewing visions of civilian slaughter in city streets like ours must have shaken audiences to the core. Frank Capra made some classic films in his day but he never made more important ones than the Why We Fight series.”
