A documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. The film opens with a map showing the strategic importance of the island, and the thrust of the 1942 Japanese offensive into Midway and Dutch Harbor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
John Huston
Narrator (voice)
Walter Huston
Voices of officers (voice)
Milton Ashkin
Himself - USAAF Fighter Pilot (as Maj. Milton Ashkin)
Lyle A. Bean
Himself - USAAF Fighter Pilot (as Lt. Lyle A. Bean)
A documentary propaganda film produced by the U.S. Army Signal Corps about the Aleutian Islands Campaign during World War II. The film opens with a map showing the strategic importance of the island, and the thrust of the 1942 Japanese offensive into Midway and Dutch Harbor. Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Isn’t it interesting that when large-scale civilian projects are commissioned, even now, they can take years yet when the military get their teeth into something - it can be achieved in weeks, or even days? In this considerably more sophisticated than your usual wartime propaganda exercise designed for internal consumption in the USA, we see just how effectively the American forces have overcome the natural terrain and hostile climate of these remote islands at the bottom of the Bering Sea to reclaim land and build facilities capable of taking the war in the Pacific Ocean much close to their Japanese foe. Using an extensive and impressive collection of films, this follows the activities at work and at play of those tasked with building this base as well as those operating out of it. We go on extended missions over enemy territory for both reconnaissance and more deadly purposes; see how the men relax, how they worship and for a time it is almost as if we are there living with them. John Huston made the film and he narrates it with an impassioned pride that offers us less in the way of superlatives and a little more of the sense of the peril and menace as the bombing runs expose these gents to a formidable array of defensive systems that are in in no way overwhelmed by these “harassing” missions. It’s clearly trying to point out that this is a battle for the longer-term: there are no quick victories to be had here. There’s a stoicism evident amongst the airmen in this film that is about as far removed from Hollywood as you can get, and though some judicious editing might have better condensed it’s message from an overlong forty minutes, it’s a good example of bravery and wartime photography working tandem.
This WW2 documentary centers on the crew of the American B-17 Flying Fortress Memphis Belle as it prepares to execute a strategic bombing raid on Nazi submarine pens in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
The Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive, in partnership with Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, in 2006.
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.
Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger says that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".
When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.
WWII from Space delivers World War II in a way you've never experienced it before. This HISTORY special uses an all-seeing CGI eye that offers a satellite view of the conflict, allowing you to experience it in a way that puts key events and tipping points in a global perspective. By re-creating groundbreaking moments that could never have been captured on camera, and by illustrating the importance of simultaneity and the hidden effects of crucial incidents, HISTORY presents the war's monumental moments in a never-before-seen context. And with new information brought to the forefront, you'll better understand how a nation ranked 19th in the world's militaries in 1939 emerged six years later as the planet's only atomic superpower.
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
“The Soviet Story” is a story of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale. Assisted by the West, this power triumphed on May 9th, 1945. Its crimes were made taboo, and the complete story of Europe’s most murderous regime has never been told. Until now...