M. Todd Bennett
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807835746
- eISBN:
- 9781469601465
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807837467_bennett
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate ...
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World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate the masses. Through multinational research, this book reveals how the Grand Alliance—Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States—tapped Hollywood's impressive power to shrink the distance and bridge the differences that separated them. The Allies, it shows, strategically manipulated cinema in an effort to promote the idea that the United Nations was a family of nations joined by blood and affection. The author revisits Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Flying Tigers, and other familiar movies that, he argues, helped win the war and the peace by improving Allied solidarity and transforming the American worldview. Closely analyzing film, diplomatic correspondence, propagandists' logs, and movie studio records found in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union, he rethinks traditional scholarship on World War II diplomacy by examining the ways that Hollywood and the Allies worked together to prepare for and enact the war effort.Less
World War II coincided with cinema's golden age. Movies now considered classics were created at a time when all sides in the war were coming to realize the great power of popular films to motivate the masses. Through multinational research, this book reveals how the Grand Alliance—Britain, China, the Soviet Union, and the United States—tapped Hollywood's impressive power to shrink the distance and bridge the differences that separated them. The Allies, it shows, strategically manipulated cinema in an effort to promote the idea that the United Nations was a family of nations joined by blood and affection. The author revisits Casablanca, Mrs. Miniver, Flying Tigers, and other familiar movies that, he argues, helped win the war and the peace by improving Allied solidarity and transforming the American worldview. Closely analyzing film, diplomatic correspondence, propagandists' logs, and movie studio records found in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the former Soviet Union, he rethinks traditional scholarship on World War II diplomacy by examining the ways that Hollywood and the Allies worked together to prepare for and enact the war effort.
Philip Woods
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190657772
- eISBN:
- 9780190686512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190657772.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This chapter looks at the coverage of the war by the Life photojournalist George Rodger. He focused initially, as did so many other journalists, on one of the most glamorous aspects of the campaign, ...
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This chapter looks at the coverage of the war by the Life photojournalist George Rodger. He focused initially, as did so many other journalists, on one of the most glamorous aspects of the campaign, the role of American pilots, the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or “Flying Tigers” as they came to be known. Rodger did manage to take some action photos at one of the few successful battles, the recapture of Shwegyin. The photographic record of this battle raises important issues of the difficulties of working in tropical and jungle conditions, but also the question of whether any of the photographs involved reconstruction (faking) of events for the camera. This chapter also looks at the role of Life correspondent, Clare Boothe Luce, who, together with Rodger, photographed the meeting of General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek at Maymyo.Less
This chapter looks at the coverage of the war by the Life photojournalist George Rodger. He focused initially, as did so many other journalists, on one of the most glamorous aspects of the campaign, the role of American pilots, the American Volunteer Group (AVG), or “Flying Tigers” as they came to be known. Rodger did manage to take some action photos at one of the few successful battles, the recapture of Shwegyin. The photographic record of this battle raises important issues of the difficulties of working in tropical and jungle conditions, but also the question of whether any of the photographs involved reconstruction (faking) of events for the camera. This chapter also looks at the role of Life correspondent, Clare Boothe Luce, who, together with Rodger, photographed the meeting of General Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek at Maymyo.
