Les Etats-Unis entrent en guerre

This is the seventh and last entry in the celebrated documentary series WHY WE FIGHT, dealing with the main events of WWII while it was still raging; ironically, it was the only one I had not watched until now since, when the cycle was broadcast on Italian TV (around 23:00) back in the early 1990s, this episode was never proposed! In retrospect, I wonder whether the station thought it was a two-part film and aborted the screening after they failed to track down its alleged continuation – because, as a matter of fact, the copy I now watched myself actually bore the tell-tale "Part One" on the opening title-card and "End Of Part One" on the concluding one!; the thing is that no source that I know of ever mentions a follow-up to it and, indeed, there exist on "You Tube" prints which omit this bit of misinformation entirely!

Anyway, back then, I recall enjoying this incredibly informative yet highly entertaining franchise and, having caught up with its final segment, I can safely consider this – collectively – as perhaps the greatest documentary ever made. Many efforts of its ilk and era date because they tend to treat the authentic footage with extra reverence and a certain amount of detachment – so that you feel no different than if you had read about it in a history book! Here, however, all the resources of the medium (including animation) are put at the disposal of the film-makers to provide a comprehensive look at the birth of America all the way up to the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor – taking care to explain what it was really up to during its curious period of neutrality – yet one is never bothered by its being a lecture, because the images and the commentary (spoken by Walter Huston and Lloyd Nolan) balance the necessary gravity with an infectious wryness, not to mention an evident passion.

The latter would seem misplaced, i.e. an attempt to sell the idea of America as the greatest nation on Earth, if it were not acknowledged early on that, after all, the country was basically composed of virtually every ethnic group imaginable! Ultimately, one has to admit that Frank Capra – forever the champion in his films of the little guy facing apparently insurmountable odds – was the ideal director to tackle this documentary series and make an enduring classic of it.