Propaganda film 23290 224066398 2008-07-07T04:06:18Z Lightbot 7178666 Units/dates/other {{Unreferenced|date=April 2007}} {{cleanup-rewrite|date=April 2007}} [[Image:transmitlies.jpeg|250px|right|thumb|The ''[[Why We Fight]]'' Series depicts the Nazi propaganda machine.]] {{dablink|For the production company, see [[Propaganda Films]]. For the 1999 Turkish comedy film, see [[Propaganda (film)]].}} A '''propaganda film''' is a [[film]], either a [[documentary film|documentary]]-style production or a fictional screenplay, that is produced to convince the viewer of a certain political point or influence the opinions or behavior of people, often by providing deliberately misleading, [[propaganda|propagandistic]] content.<ref>Bennett, Todd. "The celluloid war: state and studio in Anglo-American propaganda film-making, 1939-1941." The International History Review 24.1 (March 2002): 64(34).</ref> ==History== One of the early fictional films to be used for propaganda was ''[[The Birth of a Nation]]'', although it was not produced for the purposes of indoctrination. In 1918, [[Charlie Chaplin]] made, at his own expense, ''[[The Bond]]'', a [[comedic]] propaganda film for [[World War I]]. In the years following the [[October Revolution]] of 1917, the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] government sponsored the [[Russia]]n film industry with the purpose of making propaganda films. The development of Russian cinema in the 1920s by such [[filmmaker]]s as [[Dziga Vertov]] and [[Sergei Eisenstein]] saw considerable progress in the use of the motion picture as a propaganda tool, yet it also served to develop the art of moviemaking. Eisenstein's films, in particular ''[[The Battleship Potemkin]]'', are seen as masterworks of the cinema, even as they glorify Eisenstein's [[Communist]] ideals. The 1930s and 1940s, which saw the rise of [[totalitarian]] states and the [[Second World War]], are arguably the "Golden Age of Propaganda". During this time [[Leni Riefenstahl]], a filmmaker working in [[Nazi Germany]], created what is arguably the greatest propaganda movie of all time: ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'', a film commissioned by [[Hitler]] to chronicle the 1934 [[Nazi Party]] rally in [[Nuremberg]]. Despite its controversial subject, the film is still recognized today for its [[Films that have been considered the greatest ever|influential]] revolutionary approaches to using [[music]] and [[cinematography]]. In the United States during [[World War II]], filmmaker [[Frank Capra]] created a seven-part series of films to support the war effort entitled ''[[Why We Fight]].'' This series is considered a highlight of the propaganda film genre. Other propaganda movies, such as ''[[Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo]]'' and ''[[Casablanca (film)|Casablanca]]'', have become so well-loved by film viewers that they can stand on their own as dramatic films, apart from their original role as propaganda vehicles.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/casablanca/bmp_report_casablanca.cfm | title=Casablanca | publisher=[[Digital History]] |date= 2006 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-05-17}}</ref> Many of the dramatic [[war film]]s in the early 1940s in the [[United States]] were designed to create a [[patriotic]] mindset and [[consensus|convince]] viewers that sacrifices needed to be made to defeat "the enemy." One of the conventions of the [[genre]] was to depict a [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] and [[socioeconomic]] [[cross-section]] of the United States, either a [[platoon]] on the front lines or soldiers training on a [[Military base|base]], which come together to fight for the good of the country. In [[Italy]], at the same time, [[film director]]s like [[Roberto Rossellini]] produced propaganda films for similar purposes. During the 1960s, the United States produced propaganda films that cheerily instructed civilians how to build homemade [[fallout shelter]]s, to protect themselves in the event of [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear war]]. For more discussion of propaganda and some examples of it in [[short film]]s from the [[United States]], see the 10-volume [[CD-ROM]] collection ''Our Secret Century''. For a satirical subversion of the United States military's 1960s propaganda regarding the safety of [[radioactive]] materials, see ''[[The Atomic Cafe]]''. ==References== {{reflist|3}} ==External links== * [http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger Prelinger Archives]: from the [[Internet Archive]], collection of [[World War II]] and [[Cold War]]-era American [[sponsored film]]s of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s (many of which can be classified as propaganda) ** ''[[Duck and Cover (film)|Duck and Cover]]'' [http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?id=372 (link)] ** ''[[Don't Be a Sucker!]]'' [http://www.archive.org/details/DontBeaS1947 (link)] ** ''[[My Japan]]'' [http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?id=724 (link)] ** ''[[Perversion for Profit]]'' [http://www.archive.org/details/Perversi1965 (link)] ** ''[http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?id=905 Red Chinese Battle Plan]'' ** ''[http://americanimage.unm.edu/propagandafilmmaker.html Propaganda Filmmaker: Make Your Own Propaganda Film] ** ''[http://www.propagandacritic.com/gallery/index.html Propagandacritic Video Gallery] [[Category:Film genres]] [[Category:Propaganda films| ]] [[de:Propagandafilm]] [[it:Film propagandistico]] [[ja:プロパガンダ映画]] [[sr:Пропагандни филм]] [[fi:Propagandaelokuva]]