Group Research: Different portrayals of WWII over time

As time passes and World War II is pushed farther and farther back into history, the portrayal of the war in films has transformed in character. Films made during the war itself were often limited in the scale of perspective, resulting in biased propaganda pieces. An excerpt from Film Reference defining war films made during the wars the films portrayed states that such films are made partly "to lift morale, to help civilians understand what their fighting men are going through, to provide information, and to involve the audience in positive support for the war that might perhaps influence an outcome still in doubt." Films made during the war obviously captured sentiments of the war as they immediately occured; too little time had passed and too few events had occurred to look back on and fully analyze. Therefore, well-constructed perspective and thematic focus would come in later generations of WWII movies. The 1939 British Film, The Lion Has Wings, directed by Adrian Brunel, Brian Desmond Hurst, Michael Powell, and Alexander Korda, was a piece of propaganda illustrating the strength of the heroic English Empire against the evil-driven Nazi faction. The film contrasts peacetime with wartime, emphasizing the darkness and destruction the Nazi regime had thrown Europe into. A nationalist spirit pervades throughout the work, providing reassurance and confidence for the British people that Great Britain would be victorious in the war that was unfolding around them.