MovieChat Forums > The White Cliffs of Dover Discussion > Struck me as propaganda

Struck me as propaganda

posted 14 years ago by rgcustomer
15 replies | jump to latest

I found the first half of the film to be relatively good, but once it starts getting into the wars, it swerved off into propaganda-ville. Characters were saying things that just would never be said, especially young John as a boy, and the two German youngsters. It seemed that the film was less interested in telling a good or realistic story, and more interested in promoting a particular viewpoint. While I agree with the viewpoint, I simply cannot stand being talked down to by a piece of celluloid. I really wanted to like this film, but I gave it a 6.

[–] laxlon 14 years ago

It was propaganda, so what.

It's unfair to judge any film outside the times for which it was made. This was made during the height of WWII and the government encouraged the film companies to make films which would promote patriotism and the war effort. There were enormous sacrifices made during those days in every aspect of life including life itself. If this film seemed preachy to you, try to put yourself in the place of an audience of 1944 full of people working in defense plants, mothers with sons invading Normandy, brides with husbands facing an invasion of Japan.

This film was made for them, not for you, and it is a tribute to the people who made the film that it is still enormously entertainingly and involving 66 years after it was released. I question how many films released this year will still have an impact on audiences in 2076?

[–] jashobeam5 14 years ago

Laxlon- that was a very true and apt reply. Only one who has not had war touch their family, not watched in tears as their countrymen marched off to war knowing they might never return, never sat as a child at the knees of those who fought and returned can see this as vile.

[–] joes119-1 14 years ago

It was heavy-handed and amateurish as if they assumed an audience of grade schoolers. For most of us adding some water to an almost-empty ketchup bottle or hammering a tin can flat to patch a hole in the roof (assuming one had the two nails needed)would have sufficed.

Perhaps I'm wrong but I thought the 'propaganda' was intended to cast the Brit upper-class in a better light than it deserved. After all, it was a 1944 film, the end was in sight, and the post-war period would see British class-consciousness almost as deflated as the Nazis.

[–] wolflair-1 14 years ago

laxston hit it right on the nail. During WWII there were many patriotic movies made for the people who had loved ones fighting the war. The actors were all patriotic - some such as Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor and Robert Montgomery went to war.

I can't see any of the current crop even considering that - execept for Bruce Willis who actually asked George Bush to allow him to enlist even though he was older. Yes, it was propaganda, but isn't a lot of the movies we see today - pushing green this and green that or vilifying people to get their agendas - like Michael Moore. Even tv programs now seem to have a little propaganda in them. It has always been this way.....

[–] dawnm5 14 years ago

Thanks for your post, laxlon. It needed to be said. I loved this movie. It was very patriotic as it should have been.

[–] alistla 13 years ago

Bravo, laxlon! That was one of the most intelligent comments I've read on these boards.

Too many who comment on older films here are incapable of seeing the world through the eyes of previous generations. They don't recognize that the "modern" views they esteem so much are also propaganda drummed into them by our contemporary culture and education establishment.

Most culture is propaganda. But when it projects opinions you agree with, you usually don't think of it as propaganda.

[–] EllisFowler 10 years ago

Too many who comment on older films here are incapable of seeing the world through the eyes of previous generations.

THANK YOU. If there's one thing that annoys the living crap out of me on IMDb, it's the inability of members to judge classic films by any standards but contemporary. And to somehow fail to believe that German "Aryan" children weren't indoctrinated is the height of naïveté ("Hitler Youth" doesn't ring a bell?). Perhaps the OP would also find it hard to believe that the Nazis ran breeding camps (Lebensborn) or that Slavic children who could "pass" from conquered nations were abducted and "Aryanized." Horrifying but all too true.

[–] dgniewek 13 years ago

I agree. Propaganda at its best, and still entertaining and moving today.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] lottapaws 13 years ago

Your analogies don't hold water. This movies shows the heartache of war, the necessity of why we had to fight this war, and the stoic families who kept the home fires burning. Propaganda? Yes, but what isn't? Turn on any tv program today and you'll see far heavier agendas being pushed! At least this movie was reflecting the good and the bad of war, something you won't see in today's world. All you find is how perfectly correct is the agenda being pushed!

How sad that those who were not touched personally by WWII in some way have no idea of the sacrifices made, of the necessity for what had to be done, and of how those at home also committed to the war through sacrifice. Can you imagine if there were rationing today? While those in Hollywood in the '40's were enlisting while those who couldn't enlist were active in raising war bonds and donating time at the canteens, Hollywood today would throw tantrums if told they would be submitting to rationing.

[–] TanteWaileka 12 years ago

Also, the war in Europe back then seriously impacted England... England was shelled by the German side so the war caused deaths there, not just 'far away' ... the same can be said for the 911 attacks (NYC, Pentagon, Pennslyvania, etc.) that happened only 11 years ago, or the daily bombing of Israel, etc. etc. etc.

So what is a little 'war time propaganda'?? What does that really mean, anyway?? There is a good life to be had in the first-world societies, or the awful existence to be endured in the third-worlds. Which would you prefer? If you want to live in a free society (as free as any humankind society can be), then you must be willing to pay the price to keep that society free.

Bless those whose loved ones fought and gave their lives in a war. Bless the innocent ones who suffer through a war raining death and destruction upon their homes and families. God bless them all. May human society eventually know peace in this world.

Life is a journey not a destination. Fear nothing.

[–] wolflair-1 8 years ago

I agree with lottapaws. Every movie and TV show seems to have at least a small piece of propaganda. Maybe that is why I like the old movies better.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

You can never forget when you're watching an older movie that you live in a time that's very different than the time when the movie was made. Audiences probably said these same things and felt these sentiments so for them they were probably very realistic.

This movie was made during the war. Audiences had friends and family away at war; some may have been there themselves. The movie takes on a completely different feel for us all these years later. We've had wars but most of us are very removed from it. There may be stories in the news but it doesn't come close to what it must have been like during the World Wars.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]

[–] laxlon 8 years ago

It is propaganda. But very well done.

"It costs extra to carve 'Schmuck' on a tombstone, but you would definitely be worth it."

[–] barbarabrienze 8 years ago

It was a welcome eye opener to be reminded that it's important when judging a movie to understand the context and contemporaneous -ness of when the film was made