John Whiteclay Chambers, II, David Culbert, eds.. World War II: Film and History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. xv + 162 pp. $30.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-19-509966-9.
Reviewed by Ron Briley
Published on H-High-S (December, 1996)
In this volume, editors John Whiteclay Cham‐ The essays are organized in chronological bers and David Culbert present selected essays de‐ fashion, beginning with Chambers's discussion of rived from the conference "War, Film, and Histo‐ director Lewis Milestone's 1930 adaptation of ry," held at Rutgers University in 1993. The fftieth Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western anniversary commemorations of World War II Front. Chambers argues that Milestone, who did proved quite controversial, ranging from the not witness combat during the First World War, Smithsonian's scrapping of the Enola Gay exhibit established, through his mastery of cinematic to who should receive invitations for ceremonies techniques, the perception of trench warfare that at Pearl Harbor and Normandy. The global con‐ became the public memory of that confict. While fict of the 1940s continues to cast a giant shadow, Chambers makes a strong case for the historical and, as Chambers and Culbert observe, public signifcance of this flm, he says little about how memory of World War II is increasingly a visual its antiwar message succumbed to the forces of construct, "remembered from the visual images nationalism, militarism, and totalitarianism. One now endlessly recycled in newspapers, in maga‐ of the answers may lie in a conundrum for the an‐ zines, on television, and in moving pictures" (p. tiwar flm: its message regarding the futility of 10). Accordingly, these flm essays, which consider war shares screen space with "the emotional ap‐ feature flms as well as documentaries from the peal of an exciting, action-flled adventure" (p. 26). United States, Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Thus, in teaching flm history classes, I have often Union, provide a useful commentary on the com‐ noticed that student reaction to Kurtz's refrain of plex relationships of memory, art, technology, and "the horror, the horror" in Apocalypse Now is "it's history as scholars turn to flm as a primary cool, it's cool." source through which to examine the formation In an essay on Japanese cinema, Freda of popular values and ideology in the twentieth Freiberg maintains that scholary focus on the di‐ century. rector as author is responsible for the ignoring of the interracial wartime romance genre. In her H-Net Reviews analysis of China Nights (1940), Freiberg asserts umentary approach to flmmaking. For both fea‐ that "feminine China needed the subjugation and ture flms and documentaries ofer "social con‐ protection of virile, masculine Japan" (p. 31). Fe‐ structs of reality" (p. 152). Alice Kessler-Harris ex‐ male star Ri Ko Ron, who was actually Japanese amines Connie Field's The Life and Times of Rosie and born Yoshiko Yamaguchi, portrays a Chinese the Riveter (1980). Kessler-Harris fnds the flm in‐ woman who was befriended and "civilized" by a sightful for depicting the gap between ofcial his‐ Japanese naval ofcer. Their marriage, concludes tory and memory. The stories of Field's fve pro‐ Freiberg, allowed Japanese viewing audiences to tagonists and their eforts to stay in the workplace adopt a false visual image of Japanese imperial‐ following the war are inspiring for modern wom‐ ism as benevolent, encouraging the denial of en; however, Kessler-Harris points out that the se‐ racism and sexism exhibited in the rape of lection of fve women with working-class back‐ Nanking. grounds, two of whom are African-American, did Two chapters and a photo essay concentrate not exactly constitute a cross-section of working on the little-seen German production Kolberg women during the Second World War. (1945). This flm, whose production began in 1943 The documentaries Men of Bronze (1980) and with the encouragement of propaganda minister Liberators (1992) are to be commended for their Joseph Goebbels, was an efort to celebrate the focus on the oft-neglected African-American mili‐ 1807 Prussian resistance in Kolberg to the invad‐ tary experience; however, both flms raise ques‐ ing armies of Napoleon. The analogy to the invad‐ tions about the standards of scholarship for the ing Allied armies is obvious, but Peter Paret as‐ documentary flm. The less controversial Men of serts that director Viet Harlan's over-violent and Bronze accurately details the activities of the destructive depiction of French bombardment in African-American 369th United States Infantry 1807 indicates that the German public was more Regiment during World War I. Yet, as Clement in tune with war "weariness and the recognition Alexander Price observes, the focus of director of defeat" (p. 64) than heroic resistance. William Miles on heroism successfully under‐ The last two selections on feature flms in‐ mines negative stereotypes of black soldiers in clude an analysis of Soviet cinema and Darryl combat, but are we to assume all African-Ameri‐ Zanuck's production of The Longest Day (1962). cans were this suportive of the war efort? Libera‐ Focusing on Ivan's Childhood (1962) and Come tors: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II , and See (1985), Denise Youngblood perceives dis‐ also directed by Miles in collaboration with Nina enchantment with the Stalinist interpretation of Rosenblum, attempts to renew alliances between the Great Patriotic War. These flms challenged Jews and African-Americans by examining the the ofcial line of a glorious heroic war, ofering role of black troops in the liberation of the Nazi visual evidence of the Soviet regime's growing in‐ death camps. The flm's narrative indicates that stability. Stephen Ambrose's piece on the flm black soldiers were involved in the liberation of adaptation of Cornelius Ryan's The Longest Day Buchenwald and Dachau, but critics of the flm discusses many of the logistical difculties Zanuck present evidence that the African-American expe‐ encountered in recreating the greatest amphibi‐ rience was limited to the lesser-known camp at ous invasion in world history. Mauthausen, Austria. The resulting controversy has led to lawsuits and the withdrawal of the flm. The essays conclude with an examination of Daniel J. Leab concludes that a failure to sub‐ documentaries, but, as Chambers and Culbert ob‐ scribe to the standards of scholarly accuracy runs serve in their fnal comments, one must not as‐ sume "a greater inherent truthfulness" in the doc‐
2 H-Net Reviews the risk of undermining the historical record and tory in the hands of skillful directors such as Oliv‐ legacy of the Holocaust. er Stone. On the other hand, while one may dis‐ This survey of papers from the conference on agree with what Stone calls his "counter-myth" to World War II and flm barely begins to scratch the the Warren Commission in JFK, the controversial surface of possibile topics. For example, there is director is successful in getting millions of Ameri‐ no discussion of ofcial government propaganda cans to think about historical issues. I fnd the flms such as Germany's and Leni Riefenstahl's flm useful in introducing topics such as the Bay Triumph of the Will or Frank Capra's Why We of Pigs, civil rights, Vietnam, and the economic Fight series for the United States. But what these role of the defense industry. An examination of insightful representative essays do demonstrate is Stone's cinema leads students into an apprecia‐ the global nature of flm as a language for the tion of history as an argument. For as historians public memory of a pivotal period such as World increasingly engage in the scholarly analysis of War II. flm, as in this excellent book, let us make this scholarship accessible to the public and students. Editors Chambers and Culbert conclude, For what we need in our society is greater educa‐ "Filmic interpretations of the past have to be tion regarding flm and media literacy so that the placed both in the circumstances in which they public may question Oliver Stone or the visual re‐ were produced and in the ongoing debate over constructions of World War II discussed in World the nature and meaning of the events they por‐ War II: Film and History. tray. In the case of historical flms, there are, therefore, two contexts: that in which the motion Copyright (c) 1996 by H-Net, all rights re‐ picture was made and that which it portrays. And, served. This work may be copied for non-proft of course, audiences and their own cultural con‐ educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ text, which can vary signifcantly as to time and thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ place" (p. 150). The authors of the essays in this tact [email protected]. volume are scholars who have carefully investi‐ gated the documentary evidence left by flmmak‐ ers. However, the murkier topic of audience reac‐ tion and interpretation is largely neglected (an ex‐ ception is Freiberg's analysis of China Nights). One interpretation of mass internalization of war flms might be gleaned from Ambrose's comment that in The Longest Day one sees little of the per‐ sonal mayhem of war; the deaths are quick with little blood or gore. As Ron Kovic suggests in his memoir Born on the Fourth of July, an entire gen‐ eration brought up on the flms of World War II went of seeking glory in the jungles of Vietnam, only to fnd psychological and physical dismem‐ berment. Chambers and Culbert, and the authors whose pieces they have selected, make a strong argument for the scholarly investigation of cine‐ ma. Yet the editors also fear the distortion of his‐
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Citation: Ron Briley. Review of Chambers, John Whiteclay, II; Culbert, David, eds. World War II: Film and History. H-High-S, H-Net Reviews. December, 1996.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=709
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