For the USA, World War 2 was an all-out war - to mobilize the masses, the US government launched a huge propaganda campaign and cinema, the medium of the masses, was quite simply their most important weapon. Government authorities monitored the production of feature films and the military itself produced documentaries aimed at rallying the American people to support the troops. This film tells the story of four Hollywood directors of European origin, who returned to the "Old World" during the Second World War to make propaganda documentaries for the US Army at the front: William Wyler from Alsace, Frank Capra from Italy, Anatole Litvak from Ukraine and - in post-war Germany - Billy Wilder from Austria.
Volker Schlöndorff
as Self
George Stevens Jr.
as Self
Catherine Wyler
as Self
Anatole Litvak
as Self (archive footage)
William Wyler
as Self (archive footage)
Frank Capra
as Self (archive footage)
Billy Wilder
as Self (archive footage)
George Stevens
as Self (archive footage)
Charlie Chaplin
as Adenoid Hynkel (archive footage)