Films During The 1900's

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Briana Leon 4/22/15 American Film Final Essay Professor Garber Combat film in the early 1900's was a hot, upcoming genre. In 1939, the beginning of World War II began. The United States remained neutral during the war until about 1941. Simultaneously during this time, film becoming more advanced. Film during this time was used in order to project problems about the war to an audience, as well as to demonstrate propaganda. Finding information on combat film during the early 1900's was a lengthy process. Surprisingly, it was a lengthy process because there was an immense amount of information to choose from. There were many books in the Purchase Library to choose from, as well as many scholarly articles online. Besides historical…show more content…
I found books online using databases. These books provided the most sufficient information. The books found explained how important film was during the time of war. Film was mainly used for propaganda during this time period in order to produce morale, and the government was at the base of these decisions. The OWI would manipulate the scripts and outcomes of many films for the benefits of the country as a whole. These books were historical contexts on films during the time of war. The books found were historical because they went over the history of World War II during this time, and they were also able to glimpse at the history of film. Both books made it obvious to their readers that the government played a major role in cinema during this time. Pressure from the war was high, and any way for the government to interlude propaganda to the public in order to boost morale was…show more content…
When looking for books, online sources and movies, I never thought that the topic would be so political. Learning about the OWI for the first time really shocked me. It makes me wonder how many movies were written before the OWI could come along and change the script in order to boost morale. I attempted to look for controversial movies during this time that were "anti-war" but this task proved to be most difficult of all. Researching the information for my topic changed my outlook on early film. I never realized just how many rules directors had to abide by, and I also never realized how much films were used for persuasive purposes. This research took a lot of time and effort, and I was glad to successfully find the information I was looking
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