The advent of cinema in 1895 opened new vistas for the promotion of ideas, visions, and ideologies at the level of individuals, groups, communities and nations. In 1898, the Spanish-American War took place. Just after the commencement of the war, J Stuart Blackton and Albert E Smith of Vitagraph Company of America produced a film called Tearing Down of Spanish Flag. The film had a close up shot of Stuart’s hands lowering a Spanish flag and replacing it with an American one. This nationalist thrust created amazement among viewers! This film is reckoned as the world’s first war movie. In a way, it heralded the onset of Propaganda films. This period also saw a series of silent films that had propagandist contents.
The First World War (WWI) that took place between 1914 and 1918 saw countries using the medium of cinema to put across not only war successes but also nationalist fervor. Non-fiction films like Battle of Somme, With Our Heroes at the Somme and Battle of Somme came out from the perspective of Britain, German and France. WWI was the first man made devastating tragedy recorded on film. Many Governments at the helm of affairs in many countries made use of the ample reach of moving images. War, technology and propaganda came together with chilling effect. Propaganda cinema became a tool for mass mobilisations. This led to the later day calamity-as-entertainment culture, which was termed as ‘casino culture’ by George Steiner, a Franco- American philosopher, essayist and literary critic among others. Paul Virilio, who was a French aesthetic philosopher and cultural theorist, pointed out at the collaboration that happened during the WWI period between military and cinematic techniques / technologies resulting in the first mass production of aerial photography and cinematic propaganda.
It is said that Britain was slow to tap the medium of cinema. When WWI started, initially, cameras were thwarted to shoot the war events. However, by 1915, the British Topical Committee for War Films came into being that paved the way for sending two cameramen to the Western Front. Charles Urban, who was the Chairman of this committee, was a force to reckon with in the realm of educational, documentary and scientific films. In a way, he can be credited for laying the path for the emanation of propaganda films in Britain. This committee was instrumental in producing and distributing films to allied and neutral countries like America among others.
Britain Prepared was the first film produced in 1915. It had the footage of British military intended to drive home its strength and showcase its wartime efforts. Kevin Brownlow, a pioneer British filmmaker, film historian, author and film editor, widely recognized for documenting the history of the Silent Era, wrote in his book The War, The West and the Wilderness- “(Britain Prepared is) unusual, if not unique, in the history of propaganda films. It is absolutely honest. It sets out to show a nation preparing for war… and it does so with an artless pride that is quite disarming. Nowhere is there an attempt to falsify a situation, or to suggest that the British are somehow superior to any other form of life. “
Before WWI, American cinema was in the backseat in respect of constructing permanent theatres and feature film production when compared to the film industry in countries like France and Italy. However during WWI, film production suffered in Europe as those chemicals used for the production of celluloid were diverted for the manufacture of gun powder! America made a late entry into the war in 1917. Prior to this, during the period of its neutrality, in 1915, a news film was produced- The German Side of the War, that had German point of view! In the initial stage of WWI, many war films made in Britain found their way into America. It was only after the declaration of the war that America established its propaganda body, the Committee on Public Information.
It is interesting to note the association of Charlie Chaplin, the comedian colossus, who ruled the cinema screen for a long time, with the WWI. His tryst with cinema commenced around 1914 in America. Within a short period of time, the little tramp’s popularity rose high among masses. His image adorned comic strips, songs, toys and bill boards. He was a pacifist. As he hailed from Britain, the press there criticised him for his failure to volunteer for fighting in the WWI. However, his slapstick comedy films were shown to injured soldiers! His films were projected onto the ceilings of hospitals through specially fitted projectors. Bedridden soldiers were thus able to watch his films without getting up! The comedy sequences made soldiers to forget their physical and mental pain. It is said that British soldiers hiding in trenches displayed cardboard cut-outs of Charlie Chaplin’s Tramp.
In 1916, Chaplin starred in Zepped, a propaganda short film (seven minutes) about German Zeppelin airship raids over London. For the First National Pictures, he wrote, directed and produced Shoulder Arms, a silent comedy film of 36 minutes duration. It was a comedy film about the war. Overcoming his initial hesitation about making a comedy film on disastrous war, he depicted the vulnerable life in trenches in the midst of hunger, bad food, worms, mud, blood, loneliness, longing for a safe return to home, coming face-to-face with death due to a bullet or a grenade et al. In the end, it proved to be one of his greatest successful ventures. Writing in his autobiography, fifty years later, he recalled: “Why not make a comedy about the war? I told several friends of my intention, but they shook their heads. Said [Cecil B.] De Mille: ‘It’s dangerous at this time to make fun of the war.’ Dangerous or not, the idea excited me.” However, his biographer Kenneth S Lynn had a difference take on this film- he termed it more clichéd! In 1918, when the war was in its last phase, Chaplin acted and directed The Bond, a propaganda film, which he donated to the Liberty Bond ( bonds were debt securities issued by the Government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level) drive. It had four episodes- the bond of friendship, the bond of love, the marriage bond, and most important of all, the Liberty Bond.
Prior to the establishment of Soviet Union, the history of cinema did not get due attention from the powers that be. When Russia made a foray into WW1, import of foreign films came to a standstill. The Tsarist dispensation established the Skobelev Committee to bolster domestic film production and to produce propaganda films in support of its regime.
Thus it can be averred that in the nascent period of cinema itself, the medium became handy for the nation-states to drum up support for their campaigns including participation in WWI by producing propaganda films.
References:
1) “The Great War: Cinema, Propaganda, and the Emancipation of Film” by Christina Stojanova.
2) ‘Charles Urban and Britain’s First War Propaganda Film by Emma Thom in Science, Media, Museum dated November 11, 2013.
3) Post-World War I European Cinema – In History of Film in Silent Years, 1910-27- Britannica
4) Other sources.