The North Star (1943)

Directed by

Lewis Milestone

Genre

drama film, war film, musical film, romance film, propaganda film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 48m

Rated

NR

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 30 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Ukrainian villagers resist German invaders during World War Two using guerrilla tactics. The film was made as pro-Soviet propaganda during the war.

patrioticinspirationaldramatictenseearnestmelodramaticdatedstirring

What happens

The North Star (also known as Armored Attack in the US) is a 1943 American war film starring Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Walter Brennan and Erich von Stroheim. It was produced by Samuel Goldwyn Productions and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Lewis Milestone, written by Lillian Hellman and featured production design by William Cameron Menzies. The music was written by Aaron Copland, the lyrics by Ira Gershwin, and the cinematography by James Wong Howe. The film also marked the debut of Farley Granger. The film is about the resistance of Ukrainian villagers, through guerrilla tactics, against the German invaders of the Ukrainian SSR. The film is considered to be pro-Soviet propaganda at the height of the war. In the 1950s, it was criticized for this reason and it was re-cut to remove the idealized portrayal of Soviet collective farms at the beginning and to include references to the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. The film was then retitled Armored Attack and released to American theatres, where it begins with the arrival of the Germans in the town and continues through the scenes of the uprising, with a narration tacked on praising the Hungarian Uprising of 1956. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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