War Comes to America (1945). US War Department, Special Services Division. Held by the Internet Archive; public domain.
War Comes to America
The closing orientation film: who Americans were, what they had believed about staying out, and how opinion turned between 1939 and Pearl Harbor.
- Year
- 1945
- Made by
- US War Department, Special Services Division
- Directed by
- Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak
- Free to use because
- A work of the United States government — no copyright, anywhere
The note
The series ends by turning the camera around. This is a film about American opinion — isolationism taken seriously, then tracked as it shifts poll by poll toward the December morning that settled it. It leans heavily on radio actuality, which makes it the most naturally audio of the seven; long passages are simply the broadcasts of the period, arranged in order. Federal work, no copyright.
War Comes to America, 1945. US War Department, Special Services Division. Directed by Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak. This is the film’s soundtrack: narration, score and location sound, streamed from the Internet Archive’s master. No picture — the audio is the work. A work of the United States government, and therefore free of copyright anywhere it is used.
The soundtrack