Why We Fight

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Why We Fight
Intertitle for the seven-film series
Prelude to War (1942) The Nazis Strike (1943) Divide and Conquer (1943) The Battle of Britain (1943) The Battle of Russia (1943) The Battle of China (1944) War Comes to America (1945)
Directed by	Frank Capra Anatole Litvak
Screenplay by	Julius J. Epstein Philip G. Epstein Anthony Veiller
Produced by	Frank Capra
Narrated by	Walter Huston Anthony Veiller
Cinematography	Robert J. Flaherty
Edited by	William Hornbeck
Music by	Alfred Newman Dimitri Tiomkin Howard Jackson
Production companies	U.S. Army Pictorial Service[a] United States Army Signal Corps
Distributed by	United States Office of War Information War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry
Running time	417 minutes (7 films)
Country	United States
Language	English

Why We Fight is a series of seven propaganda films produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. It was originally written for American soldiers to help them understand why the United States was involved in the war, but US President Franklin Roosevelt ordered distribution for public viewing.

Academy Award-winning filmmaker Frank Capra, daunted but impressed and challenged by Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will, worked in direct response. The series faced various challenges, such as convincing a noninterventionist nation to get involved in the war and to become an ally of the Soviet Union. Many entries feature Axis powers' propaganda footage from up to 20 years earlier, recontextualized to promote the Allies.

Although primarily edited by William Hornbeck, some parts were re-enacted "under War Department supervision" if no relevant footage was available. Animated segments were produced by Walt Disney Productions, and the animated maps followed a convention of depicting Axis-occupied territory in black.
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