Prelude to War
Prelude To War highlights the beginning stages that lead to the beginning of WWII. From what I understood, it was propaganda used to show the American side of the affair, and how they abstained from joining the war, even with Germany, Italy, and Japan all showing signs of a vast expansion of their military. The invasion first started with Japan expanding off the East coast of China, and eventually moved into Shanghai. Italy, on the other hand, was pushing through the Northerneastern part of Africa, starting with Ethiopia. The series also talked about how America was abstaining from war with the idea of peace and democracy. Their justification for not joining was how a few attacks on some small countrysides are not enough to start a full out war. But this was just the beginning of a series of invasions that would soon lead us to the second World War. They showed the first couple of attacks on surrounding, smaller countries, that lead to the expansion of the empires in power, and even that they were training children in military tactics and combat, as well as to worship the power held above them.
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The feel of the movie felt like it was taken out of the '40s, with the black and white theme and voice-overs that sounded appropriate for the time. I also liked how the documentary took a look at the beginning stages of forces other than Germany because it gave a new perspective on why the war started in the first place. There were a few times when the music dragged on, resulting in a lack of commentary. Other than that, the film gave very good information and told the story well of the relations between these nations against the United States and how they planned on carrying out their plans. There were a lot of shots of the different military's doing rallies in the streets, with common music of the country playing over it. I thought this was an interesting technique (adding the music) because it made the shots feel more authentic. One other thing I didn't like was the use of clips to put over otherwise silent shots. A common issue with it was that voices didn't match the movements of the person, but it was tolerable.
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This film was the first part of a series that covers WWII, and I would highly recommend it to someone who is interested in the topic. It gave good information as to why the war started, and how the United States too peace so seriously to there they limited their military to only 136,000 men. Their push for peace after WWI was so strong, they seemed to block out the rest of the world when incidents occurred as if doing that would keep them in their own safe little island. What they forgot to account for was the fact that troops from Japan could fly to the US in only a couple hours, and completely rain havoc on the civilians down below, and this was ultimately their plan. The coverage of the three "villains" of the war, Japan, Italy, and German, was good at informing people how and why the war started, and the beginning stages of their plans to take over the world.
