The Sinking of the Lusitania
About The Sinking of the Lusitania
On May 7, 1915, the German submarine U-20 torpedoed the British liner RMS Lusitania off Ireland. Of the 1,198 dead, 128 were Americans. No camera filmed it. Winsor McCay's short redraws the ship, the hit, the list, and the people in the water, and presents the sinking as a reason for the United States to be at war.
Cast & crew
More about The Sinking of the Lusitania
McCay drew and produced the short on his own time, starting in 1916, against William Randolph Hearst, whose papers had him drawing anti-war cartoons. He and his assistants spent twenty-two months on it, his first cartoon on cels rather than rice paper. It earned less than Little Nemo, How a Mosquito Operates, or Gertie the Dinosaur, and Hearst pulled him back to editorial work.
Themes
Background
The Lusitania sank on May 7, 1915, nearly two years before Congress declared war. Hearst's papers played the sinking down. McCay's film, finished during the war, takes the other side in the newsroom where he worked.
In film history
It is the earliest surviving animated documentary, and a serious dramatic cartoon from a man whose previous releases were a mosquito, a dinosaur, and a dream strip.
Making
Cel animation let McCay slide a painted ship and sea over a held background instead of retracing the ocean on every drawing. Even so, the twenty-two months of work did not return the money of Gertie the Dinosaur.
Audiences
It did not match the commercial returns of McCay's earlier cartoons, and his animated output slowed afterward.
Technique
McCay's first film drawn on cels rather than on rice paper with the background traced onto every frame. At twelve minutes it was the longest animated film released up to that time.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
Surviving prints are held in archives, and the National Film Registry selected the film in 2017.
Notes
- McCay appears in the film as himself.
- At twelve minutes it was described as the longest animated film yet released.
- It is the earliest surviving animated documentary.
- The National Film Registry selected it in 2017.
- He could not film the wreck. The picture is a timed reconstruction of a ship he had to invent frame by frame.
Awards
- National Film Registry (2017)
Scenes
- The liner takes the torpedo and begins to list, a sinking McCay had to stage because no film of it existed.
- Passengers and boats are drawn in the water after the ship has gone.
Influenced by
- Winsor McCay's Little Nemo (1911), How a Mosquito Operates (1912), and Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)
Also available
- Internet Archive (Sinking_of_the_Lusitania)
