Pro-USA Morale-Boosting Propaganda

I've always loved this film.

It's one of several "How-To-Be-A Good-American", positive propaganda films, created with obviously sterling intentions as a guide for people just trying to get along, as well as those struggling to fathom human behavior under unfamiliar, very challenging conditions.

I was born after the war, but I'm guessing that this film must have helped a lot of people; it was so uplifting, so calming, so reassuring. And while there was an obvious point or lesson in every scene and every character, to me it was never overbearingly didactic, just inspiring and entertaining. And more than anything, this film illustrates how the challenges of wartime on the home front brought out the best in so many people; and sometimes the beast in a few.

This movie gave the public not only solid moral support and courage, but more importantly, many good examples of how people should behave; as decent, kind, considerate human beings, despite the fact that they all had plenty of excuses they could have leaned on instead. There were so many examples of courage, self-sacrifice, willingness to change and adapt without complaint, and warm acceptance of others; wartime or otherwise, I found this film warm, life-affirming and inspiring.

You see over and over how and why it was (and is!) so important for people to be as kind, gentle, and supportive of others as possible; you never knew what they're going through or what tragedy they might be dealing with. You also see why it's important to hold off judging others, why it's better to just clean up your own nest, do your own best, and cut EVERYBODY else some slack. That's a vital part of "pulling together for the war effort"; helping each other out, not just "doing something" like collecting scrap metal or rolling bandages, although "doing something" was shown is vitally important too.

If you liked this film, I'm sure you'll like "The Human Comedy" (1943), which is anything but "comedy" in the usual sense, but beautifully made with the same good intentions and a similarly over-qualified cast.

And another somewhat similar but very obscure film came out after the war, a very pro-America film called "It's a Big Country" (1951), with 8 completely separate segments (directed by Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, John Sturges, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis, and William A. Wellman!), and starring the likes of William Powell, Ethel Barrymore, Gary Cooper, Van Johnson, Frederic March, etc., etc. It was obviously focused on fostering not only tolerance but true appreciation of the rich cultural diversity of the USA. (There was a secondary but really nice focus on that in "The Human Comedy" as well.)

The ironic thing is, these films that were all undoubtedly very socially progressive when created, are now almost laughably politically INcorrect a half-century later. But that just goes to show that people can improve and evolve over time.