Why We Fight: Prelude to War

1942

53m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

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Documentary

War

Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.

Directors

Frank Capra

Anatole Litvak

Writers

Stars

Walter Huston

Max Schmeling

Adolf Hitler

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Top cast

Walter Huston

Self - Narrator (voice)

Max Schmeling

Self - German paratrooper (archive footage)

Adolf Hitler

Self

Directors

Frank Capra

Anatole Litvak

Writers

All cast & crew

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Review

Featured review

6/10

Crafted by Frank Capra at the instigation of General Marshall, this is a bit more sophisticated that the usual propaganda exercise Hollywood produced following the raid on Pearl Harbour. This time it uses an effective array of archive to not so much extol the virtues of the great American war machine as to chronologically vilify the axis powers. There’s not so much actual footage of the Emperor but they still manage to illustrate the processes of Japanese expansion through Korea, Manchuria and eventually Shanghai. Mussolini and Hitler provide much more fertile territory for the filmmakers as they use film and animated maps to demonstrate the salami tactics of the Italians in Ethiopia and the Nazis in Austria and Czechoslovakia. By 1942 the war in Europe was essentially the British against pretty much everyone else, there was little stopping the Japanese in the Far East and a grand design is presented here to show how a plan to conquer the world could easily emerge from these geographically unrelated theatres of war. It’s narration is more informative than jingoistic and after it’s all but one hour duration I actually felt more informed than indoctrinated, especially as some of the speechifying from Hitler showed us clearly just how megalomaniac the man really was. Much of the content isn’t especially new, but it’s still worth a watch, I’d say.

Geronimo196726 Oct, 2025