There are many different types of film evidence created during and after world war two these can include propaganda movies, still action images and Hollywood productions. There can be many problems relating to finding out about ww2 including understanding the point of the film being created, being able to link it to factual events of ww2, the reliability of films etc. Propaganda film Propaganda films are used mostly in a documentary style. They are used to convince the viewer of a certain political point or influence the opinions or behaviour people or can be used to inform people of something.
Propaganda films usually contain still images, recorded footage and a person doing a voiceover to explain what’s happening. Propaganda films can be useful to historians because you can see real action happening so this shows you or gives you an idea of what actually happened during ww2. It can also show the opinions of people because you can see the message the film is trying to show. So you can see what the government needed to tell or show people in order to convince them that everything was alright. Despite this propaganda films can also be unreliable.
The reporter chooses the shots of what to put in the film this can be unreliable because they will only choose shots that are positive to their country in order to keep the public happy about the process of the war. The reporter will not pick shots which are negative about the process in the war in order to keep the public happy so this can be unreliable. Still action images Historians can also analyse still action images to find out about events during ww2. Examples can include cartoonists view on events, images taken during the war etc.
Images can be useful in helping us find out about world war two because they can show us how the artist felt about the events of the war. This can show us the opinions of people and how they felt and whether people agreed with the events or not. The message of each picture could be misleading and is only the artist’s interpretation of what happened. The image could be trying to persuade the viewer to think in a certain way which could also be unreliable in trying to find out about world war two and it could make it difficult to see if the contents of the image are factual or just somebody’s opinion of fact during world war two.
Hollywood films Another type of evidence we can use is Hollywood films that are based on or based around real events that happened during ww2. Films based on events during ww2 can include ‘ saving private ryan’ ‘ pearl habour’ ‘ the boy in the striped pyjamas’ and many more. They can be useful because they can show you the emotions of the characters which could represent how people actually felt during the war. It can show how the director feels about events that have happened during world war two because he/she interprets how the film will look and they have a vision for the movie.
Hollywood movies can also be unreliable because the film makers will be trying to make as much money as possible by making the storyline more interesting than the real events so they would have slightly changed film and this could create confusion for people trying to find out about the war. They are also modified so that they fit into a movie if the movie is too long people will get bored of the film so you might need to cut out some important information. Conclusion
In conclusion I argue that film evidence can be somewhat useful for historians trying to find out about ww2. This is because the evidence can show what people feel or felt about the situation, this gives us an idea of how the events impact people’s opinions or behaviour but it cannot always give us a clear picture of what actual events happened during the war However it could also be argued that film doesn’t help very much because it gives people’s opinions which may be misleading in a way to make people think in a certain way
