The Battle Ground

The first year of America's involvement in World War II constituted a period of almost unrelieved bad news. Allied outposts in the South Pacific fell, the Nazis pushed toward Stalingrad, and the Suez Canal was threatened. What victories did occur, such as the defensive victory at Midway, carry more importance in retrospect than they did during 1942. A year of bad news left the American public fearing that, perhaps, "we could have lost that war, and were within inches of losing it..." (6) The grim atmosphere of 1942 caused the OWI to take "Will this picture help the war?" quite seriously. Every act seemed to carry great importance for the war. OWI decided that drastic measures were needed to bring Hollywood in line with the agency's propaganda program.

The tightened control of the motion picture industry resulted in an outpouring of films about war. Hollywood produced numerous battle films dealing directly with the conflict, in an effort to offset the ominous events following Pearl Harbor. These films offered the same theme: as in World War I, the Yanks were coming. The early battles were lost, but final victory would belong to America. Film after film pictured Americans routing their enemies and liberating enslaved nations. The general victory motif included themes on military strength, heroism, and Allied cooperation. While many of these war films were turkeys, some represent World War II Hollywood at its best. Films like Sahara, Bataan, Flying Tigers, Guadalcanal Diary,andWake Islandrepresent not only the best of Hollywood's persuasive skills, but also classic cinema.

Humphrey Bogart confers with British officer in Sahara. (7)

These films filled a void left by the depressing news from the fronts. Later, when the tides turned toward victory, the battle-film genre served to glorify American military spirit. But what about the issues facing the home front? The fact that, by the final phase of World War II, less than one-third of all films were directly connected to the war indicates that Hollywood did not spend the entire war period shooting down Japanese planes and exploding Nazi tanks. Hollywood turned to different genres: the comedy, musical, and nostalgia films. However, these films served just as much propaganda purpose as did the battle films.

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