WWII Propaganda Films

Back in the early 40's, the government looked to Hollywood to create propaganda films
in an effort to boost support for the war effort. Several of Hollywood's leading directors were called upon to contribute their talents to these projects. Even Disney added to the effort with a cartoon called "The Fuhrher's Face". Some of these films were made by the top-grossing directors of the time, John Ford, John Huston, Frank Capra, and William Wyler.

The entity created to run the propaganda campaign was the Office of Government Reports.
They acted as the main conduit of "information" about the defense program, and eventually spawned the Office of Facts and Figures, who saw to it that the movie moguls played movies that were produced by the War Activities Committee.
The press of the time were not impressed, claiming that the O.F.F. were pumping disinformation to the public.

OFF came under heavy fire from journalists who believed the office was a vehicle for political rhetoric. “If OFF pipes out the undiluted, uncolored, facts it will be the first government information bureau to do that.” This quote uncovers anti-propagandists that did exist in the U.S. during the war, even though they are never mentioned in public history.
source

Anyway, a collection of thirteen films directed by the above mentioned directors
has been compiled and archived for FREE download to anyone.

Anyone with an interest in the history of government sponsored propaganda
should go here and take a look. You may have seen or heard of some of these before, but they are interesting as an indicator of the government's awareness of how much influence movies had on the public even back then, and of their willingness to exploit it in an effort to sway public opinion.

These films can be found here.
Check 'em out. They're a good reminder of days gone by.

edit: url

[edit on 11-2-2007 by subject x]

[edit on 11-2-2007 by subject x]

subject x, this is a great site I use it all the time. There is a lot of good information on this site.

The Battle of Midway,
The Memphis Belle,
and more here, same site
www.archive.org...

Yes, Sauron, that is a great site.
I get movies and music from there all the time.

I watched "White Zombie" and "Reefer Madness" there just yesterday.