Quote:
Originally Posted by Purplecow
Could not believe this genius movie. Two hours+, and I could've kept watching for another four.
What is it about World War II that grabs your guts so hard? World War I didn't have the "personalities?" I don't know; I'm asking. But "Darkest Hour" was downright religious for me.
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That's a very good question. I think you reached part of the answer.
The world leaders who started WWI were mostly royalty, and as such, were better known in Europe than in the US in general terms.
Of them all, the only ones who were probably best known here were the Russian Czar, mostly due to his beautiful family and the strange connection to Rasputin, the mad monk who had the Czarina's ear and her favor.
And the Russian royalty in general was very romantic to Americans as being exotic and glamorous.
All the others were dour, mustached old guys wearing fancy uniforms. Not so different from each other, or us. It was a time when flamboyant uniforms were still common.
Another thing that made the war less interesting as movie fodder was how briefly we were in it. The war lasted over 6 years, but we were in it for only the last 18 months. Not long, but enough to make the combat pilots and a few hero soldiers good movie material. Our best writers who emerged wrote books, not screenplays.
Still another was the motivation to go to war. We avoided the war for a very long time, and only entered with great dispute. It had to be done, as the war stalemated, and both sides were exhausted, but there needed to be an end to it for our own interests, and so we went and ended it. But not very willingly.
WWI taught us the hard lesson that we had to choose a side when the European side of WWII broke out in 1939. The Pacific war began in 1938, and we had more national interests there, but we also had more military there to protect those interests. So for a long time, we reluctantly supported our Allies in Europe with supplies, and watched the Japanese in the Pacific with false confidence.
The leading personalities of WWII were bigger and much greater. And much better known here than before. By then, radio was everywhere, movies had sound and newsreels weekly, so we saw more of the early war by far, knew more about it, and it was more on our minds by far.
So when the Japanese struck American soil in late 1940, we were much more mentally prepared for war, and knew more about what we would face.
But fighting on 2 world fronts simultaneously demanded a resolute America. We knew going in it would be a longer, more desperate fight, and once in we must prevail or lose all. As soon as we lost the Phillippines, we understood how desperate the fight would become.
That made the stuff for movies for sure. Movies to keep our spirits at home up. Movies to display our bravery. Movies that gave us hope our boys would return and marry their sweethearts. Movies that braced us for grief. Movies that gave us animal foes who were monsters, not humans. Movies that celebrated adventure, our blossoming technology, our friends abroad. Movies that showed the other guy was as willing to keep the fight going as we were.
And after we won, more movies to celebrate becoming the strongest of the strong. The strongest ever seen.
And, for a fact, we were. For decades afterward. The movies used it all for rich storymaking material.
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