The Battle of Russia (1943)

Original title

Why We Fight: The Battle of Russia

Directed by

Anatole Litvak, Frank Capra

Genre

documentary film, propaganda film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h 23m

Rated

12

Rating

6.9 of 10 from 35 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary shows Russia's fight against invading forces during World War Two. It uses archival footage and narration to explain the country's military history and its role in the war.

patriotichistoricalearnestmilitantorchestralsombereducationalepisodic

What happens

The Battle of Russia (1943) is the fifth film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight documentary series. The longest film of the series, it has two parts. It was made in collaboration with Russian-born Anatole Litvak as primary director under Capra's supervision. Litvak gave the film its "shape and orientation," and the film had seven writers with voice narration by Walter Huston. The score was done by the Russian-born Hollywood composer Dimitri Tiomkin and drew heavily on Tchaikovsky along with traditional Russian folk songs and ballads. The film historian Christopher Meir noted that the film's popularity "extended beyond the military audience for it was initially intended, and was the second in the series to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• Baptism of Fire (1943)
• Show Business at War (1943)
• Hollywood in Uniform (1943)
• Ukraine in Flames (1943)
• The North Star (1943)
• Report from the Aleutians (1943)