Motion Pictures During World Wars I and II
The American motion picture industry began making war movies soon after its first filmmakers stepped behind their cameras and yelled, "Action!" Over the many decades since, American audiences have come to experience war—its spectacle, excitement, sacrifice, and tragedy—via the larger-than-life visions projected on the nation's countless silver screens. Because the Hollywood film industry blossomed during the early decades of the twentieth century, it was inevitably shaped by America's involvement in the World Wars. And, conversely, the films produced and distributed by Hollywood's studios contributed directly to the nation's war efforts. When the call to war was sounded, filmmakers and audiences alike lined up for duty. Their films reflected as well as shaped American culture.
The Early Years
The history of cooperation between Hollywood studios and the War Department/Department of Defense is almost as old as the history of American cinema itself. In 1914, barely twenty years after Thomas Edison's first moving pictures were exhibited in New York City, filmmaker D. W. Griffith employed engineers from West Point as technical advisors on his Civil War epic, Birth of a Nation (1915). The film startled audiences with its large-scale, realistic battle sequences, and set a standard for spectacle against which all contemporary war and historical films were judged.
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