War Comes to America
About War Comes to America
The seventh and last Why We Fight film opens on a selective American history: first settlements, the Revolution, and a roll of immigrant nationalities, with the Civil War left out. It praises invention and abundance, then starts the road to war at Japan's 1931 invasion of Manchuria. Gallup figures show opinion leaving isolation: arms embargo and cash-and-carry, rising sympathy for China, blame for Germany after 1939, and, by January 1941, support for aiding Britain even at the risk of war. Animated maps argue that an Axis win across Europe, Africa, and Asia would leave the Americas outnumbered. The film ends at Pearl Harbor, with Saburō Kurusu's delegation still negotiating in Washington as the attack begins.
Cast & crew
More about War Comes to America
Frank Capra produced and directed with Anatole Litvak. The U.S. Army Pictorial Services distributed it on 14 June 1945. The Army subtitle is Project 6006, Information Film #7. AFI credits the writing to Col. Frank Capra, Maj. Anthony Veiller, and Sgt. Irving Wallace. The Wikipedia infobox also lists Julius J. Epstein and Philip G. Epstein. William Hornbeck edited. Walt Disney Productions supplied animation. Seven reels.
Themes
Background
Released on 14 June 1945, after victory in Europe and before the Japanese surrender. It was built to tell soldiers why the United States had entered the war, not to report the ending.
Making
Capra's unit made the picture for the War Department as the last orientation film in the Why We Fight series. Disney's animation supplies the maps of an Axis-held Afro-Eurasia.
Technique
Walt Disney Productions animated the maps and diagrams that compare Axis and American manpower, industry, and territory.
Music
Dimitri Tiomkin directed the music, with the Army Air Forces Orchestra. The track pulls in earlier Why We Fight cues by Alfred Newman, Arthur Lange, and William Lava, and quotations from "The Last Time I Saw Paris," Irving Berlin's "This Is the Army, Mr. Jones," Schubert's "Ave Maria," "La Marseillaise," and Beethoven's Seventh.
Preservation
The film survives in full and is on the Internet Archive.
Notes
- Walter Huston and Lloyd Nolan narrate.
- A 1936 Gallup question in the film — if another world war starts in Europe, should America take part? — is answered NO by 95 percent. By January 1941 the film's chart shows 68 percent for aiding Britain even at the risk of war.
- The narration uses the period words "Negro," "Jap," and "Chinaman" while counting nationalities. It lists 22 immigrant groups, 19 of them European.
- Dimitri Tiomkin was music director. The score also uses pieces by Alfred Newman, Arthur Lange, and William Lava, plus tunes such as "La Marseillaise" and Beethoven's Seventh.
- AFI gives the length as 65 to 68 minutes, from 5,913 or 5,997 feet.
Scenes
- A Gallup chart moves from 95 percent against entering a European war to support for aiding Britain.
- Animated maps show the Americas left with a fraction of the Axis population and industry.
- Kurusu's party is still talking in Washington while Pearl Harbor is bombed.
Also available
- Internet Archive (war_comes_to_america)
- Wikimedia Commons (Why We Fight 7, War Comes to America.ogv)
