From 1941 to 1945, our country was heavily involved in World War II. Hollywood began producing films to encourage the spirit of patriotism, support our military effort and at the same time entertain the viewing public. Americans, facing the difficulties and uncertainty of war, escaped to the movies. Some films to come out of this era were "Flying Tigers", "Wake Island" and the memorable "Casablanca." Casablanca won numerous Academy Awards and made celebrities of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman and is today a cult favorite. This film depicted a love triangle set among the backdrop of war and inspired such iconic sayings such as "Play it again, Sam", "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" and "Here's looking at you, kid."
Well written. I was 6 to 10 years old then, but I remember the films and the difficulites of the time.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting post. It is enlightening to look back at some of those old movies and see when they were released. I never thought about how the movies were release during war time and had a dual purpose of rallying up patriotism and supporting the military and entertaining the public. Although the movies released during World War II had a military and war theme, all movie periods tend to emulate what is happening in the world. And war movies in general have seemed to do well and been received well by the public. There have been numerous movies set against a war backdrop such as Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan that have done exceptionally well. What is that saying Life imitates Art or does Art imitate Life?
ReplyDeleteThis is a nice post Geraldine. While i never paid attention to the older war movies, i am very much a fan of the more recent one post 1990's. They capture not only the grit and bloodshed of the war, but certain movies play out a story of love, courage, tenacity, and patriotism. My personal favorite movies are Saving Private Ryan and Hurt Locker(although this one is not based on pre-Vietnam Wars).
ReplyDeleteWorld war II movies were most popular back in the time when World war II was happening because it’s normal, that was the thing back then. I myself find modern war movies to be most entertaining. Anything that has to do with the middle east war, or just modern combat, I am automatically interested in whereas not so much world war II. It is just a change in time and culture changes over time, so that is a normal.
ReplyDeleteI like how movies reflect what is going on in the world now. People read about it in the newspaper or word-of-mouth. Sometimes movies also can influence the perception of a person on the subject. To view the side from one end of the spectrum was some intentions of movies. I love the nostalgic feeling of "oldies" but I also have to realize there is much more than just that movie at the time.
ReplyDelete