Features:
Description:
The third installment of Archives of War focuses on battles of World War II, using newsreel footage, much of it shot by Britain's Pathé News, to show how the war news was relayed to the home front. There's no overarching narrative, but the many segments have an immediacy that is underlined by the dramatic and at times nearly breathless narrations. Considerable footage of the D-day invasion of Normandy is prominently featured, as are the hard-fought battles across Europe, most notably the Battle of the Bulge. The fourth episode features the cold war waged between the Communist powers and the Western nations, most notably the United States. Some of the most evocative footage concerns the atomic bomb, with what are essentially propaganda films about America's development of the bomb being followed by civil defense films providing tips on surviving nuclear war, including the now-infamous jingle urging schoolchildren to "duck and cover." --Robert J. McNamara
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