The World at War (film)

This article is about the American documentary film. For the British documentary TV series, see The World at War.

The World at War
Directed byLowell Mellet
Written bySam Spewack
Produced byOffice of War Information
Narrated byPaul Stewart
Edited byGene Milford
Music byGail Kubik
Distributed byWar Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry
Release date
  • September 18, 1942 (1942-09-18)
Running time
66 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The World at War is a 1942 documentary film produced by the Office of War Information's Bureau of Motion Pictures. One of the earliest long length films made by the United States government during the war, it attempted to explain the large picture of why the United States was at war, and the various causes and circumstances which brought the war into being.[1]

The documentary opens with visuals of the attack on Pearl Harbor and its immediate aftermath. It then traces the previous decade of American involvement in the war, including Kuhn's address at the German-American Bund, speeches by isolationist U.S. Senators Nye and Wheeler, Japan's invasion of China, Italy's war on Ethiopia, Hitler's Anschluss, the Spanish Civil War, the Munich Agreement, the rape of Czechoslovakia, and the invasion of Poland. In covering the outbreak of total war, the film uses footage from Nazi propaganda films Feldzug in Polen and Sieg im Westen.[1]

It was a precursor to the better known six-part Why We Fight propaganda film series directed by Frank Capra.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "TimesMachine: Friday September 4, 1942 - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 11, 2024.


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