WORLD WAR II - NONFICTION
"The Hollywood Propaganda of World War II"
By Robert Fyne
I enjoyed this book immensely. Did you grow up watching such great classics as "Sergeant York", "A Yank in the RAF", "Sahara", "Flying Tigers", "Wake Island", "Gung Ho", and "Air Force". These are but a few of the great movies made during WWII to bolster American morale. There were also some real stinkers. I never cared much for "Mrs. Miniver", "Dragon Seed", "Days of Glory", and several others that were just plain bad of silly.
This book explains the reason behind these films and some of the history of their making. The Office of War Information (OWI) was founded by the government to monitor the content of the war films fed to the American Public and set standards to follow and frameworks to work within. There is some very interesting stuff here. Why was Italy treated as a nonbelligerent? Why were Austria, Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania never mentioned? Why was there no distinction of Russian ethnic groups (they were all just simply Russians)? Why were Japanese depicted as barely more than monkeys and the Germans as stupid baffoons, but no racial slurs?
This is fascinating stuff for movie and history
buffs. This book gives great insight about Hollywood, the movies,
and WWII.
Reviewed by Kenneth S. Smith
8/23/2000
Available from:
Scarecrow Press
4720 Boston Way
Lanham, Maryland 20706
