Projections of War: Hollywood, American Culture, and World War II

Doherty ( Teenagers and Teenpics ) analyzes the WW II alliance between Hollywood and Washington, an unprecedented partnership that generated new kinds of films. He explains why General George C. Marshall, the Army chief of staff, gave movies a high priority in maintaining troop morale, and how directors such as John Ford, Frank Capra and John Huston employed their artistry in orientation/training films and combat documentaries. Doherty traces Hollywood's transition from a producer of peacetime entertainment to a supplier of homefront melodramas, wartime comedies and martial musicals that were ``information-heavy and value-laden.'' Characterizing the motion-picture industry as ``the foremost purveyor and chief custodian of the images and mythos of 1941-45,'' he describes the changing perceptions reflected in Hollywood movies with regard to the war effort, the enemy, death in battle and other subject of wartime concern. Doherty's penetrating study conveys the extraordinary impact and cultural power of American movies during World War II and, to a lesser degree, during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Photos. (Dec.)