ABSTRACT
In darkened auditoriums crowded with military trainees soon to be sent into combat, and in hometown theaters throughout the country, US citizens were watching Why We Fight: Prelude to War. Directed by famed Hollywood movie-maker Frank Capra, Why We Fight was a masterpiece of political propaganda as well as the filmmaker’s craft, and won the Academy Award for best documentary film of 1942. Originally produced as a training film for the US War Department and shown to as many as nine million servicemen during the war, it was released for general public viewing in 1943 (Manvell, 1974: 168; see also Steele, 1979). As audiences watched Why We Fight, they were being addressed by their government, situated in terms of an ideology of world order, ascribed with a common identity and sense of collective purpose as “Americans.”
