Popular Culture Review Vol. 27, No. 2, Summer 2016 | Page 82

This Tractor for Hire : Consensual Cooperation for Pacifist and African-American Farmers , Women , and Gangsters in World War II American Informational Films
By Steven D . Reschly and Katherine Jellison
All combatant nations during the Second World War made increasing use of mass media to inform and motivate their civilian populations and military personnel to support the war and fight the war . Film proved a particularly effective medium , and the United States produced , by far , the greatest number of movies and documentaries among the Allied nations . The War Activities Committee of the Motion Picture Industry distributed 118 films , produced by a variety of Hollywood companies and government agencies . Great Britain released 86 films , Canada made 91 , and the Soviet Union produced 15 . Nazi Germany made a great many films between 1933 and 1945 as Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels perceived the potential of film to reach and motivate mass audiences . Triumph of the Will , directed by Leni Riefenstahl and released in 1936 , is often considered the greatest propaganda movie ever made . Estimates of Third Reich feature films produced between 1933 and
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