 Hey everyone, before this video begins I want to warn you that it contains images that some people may find offensive. It looks at the history of the propaganda film, and in it we cover how the Nazi party used it to gain political power. Understandably, a lot of people may find this offensive. I'm someone who believes in the importance of studying history, but I also want to give you a fair warning before this video begins. So please, proceed with caution. How many times have you heard someone say, it's a movie that changed history? A lot of the time what they mean is that that movie changed culture, it may have changed social norms, brought on a new fad, or made something relevant. But very infrequently has a movie actually changed history and shaped the world that all of us live in. Probably the most obvious example of film having an impact on the world at large is the propaganda film. Before we go any further I want to define the propaganda film as a state-funded film with the intention to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Now there are three eras of propaganda films, and two defining traits that make up these eras. First what was happening in the world, and second what were the capabilities of film and filmmakers at the time. The three eras are pre-World War I and World War I, the interwar period and World War II, and post-World War II and up till today. But in this video I just want to focus on how it was used in the first two periods. Film lends itself very well to propaganda for a number of reasons. Film like very few mediums can capture reality, but that is also a reality that can be manipulated. Filmmakers have almost total control of the finished product. It can be mass produced and shared, and as I'm sure we all know, can create emotions unrivaled elsewhere. Being an audio-visual medium, a lot of information can be presented in a relatively short period of time, from images, sound, dialogue, and on-screen text. From the birth of cinema, it was used to manipulate audiences. Going back to the late 1890s, Vitagraph Studios created a series of short documentaries with the intention of creating an anti-Spanish sentiment in America during the Spanish-American War. This film became more popular during World War I, almost every major nation involved with the conflict put some emphasis on creating propaganda films. Oftentimes, these were very brief excerpts from the war to show the strength of their nation. However, the medium was still in its infancy, and its true power wasn't realized until the interwar period. In 1925 in Russia, Sergei Eisenstein was tasked with directing battleship Potemkin, a historically accurate look into the 1905 mutiny aboard the titular battleship. You could spend hours discussing the impact that this movie had on film as a whole, but equally important is how well this film worked as propaganda. The film's concept is very simple. It shows a revolution and shows a success that can come from Russians working together. In just 80 minutes, the film takes you on an emotional roller coaster, leaving you with a prosperous Russia. The film works phenomenally as a piece of propaganda, following its release it was banned in a number of countries for fear of creating a revolution. These countries include Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and even Russia itself once its politics changed a few decades later. Jumping ahead to when World War II broke out, the medium of film had skyrocketed past its preliminary stages in the early 20th century, thanks in part to innovators like Eisenstein and his innovations in editing and storytelling. Coming up to the war, Germany capitalized on the power of moving pictures and released a number of documentaries that showed the potential strength of Germany. These documentaries were aimed at everyday working people, people who already were struggling following World War I and the Treaty of Versailles. Throughout the entire war period, Germany poured a significant amount of its resources into promoting the beliefs of the Nazi Party through film. The majority of these films focused on escapism and the unlimited potential that the Nazi Party could bring to Germany. These films distracted people from the horrors happening around the country with an affirmation that everything will be okay. The United States and other allied countries' response to these propaganda films was to outdo them. They didn't have nearly as big of a budget, but what they did have was a group of great filmmakers working together to use the cinematic language to help change the world. Dozens of great filmmakers worked around the clock to try and combat the propaganda machine that was the Nazi Party. Because of their limited budget, they were forced to be creative, improvising different techniques that could effectively play with emotions, techniques that would be later utilized in their own films. But anti-Nazi films didn't stop at the state level. Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator may have been the movie that had the biggest impact on the world. The film is a satirical look into Nazi Germany. Its main objective is to ridicule Adolf Hitler to show the world that he is weak, but still a threat to be taken seriously. The movie looks down on war itself and shows the trouble that can arise from a world at war. Chaplin was the biggest movie star during the silent era, and one of the last remaining silent stars after the medium changed. He was able to bring in an enormous audience, shine a light on the atrocities happening in the Third Reich, and changed the world. Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed and I hope you learned something too. This video was heavily inspired by the documentary Five came back. It's a look into the United States' World War II propaganda machine. I read the book by Marcairis shortly after watching it, and for the past month or so I've just been consuming books, articles, and everything I can get my hands on about this topic. I'm going to include some links in the description for you to read a little bit more about this fascinating area of filmmaking. Here's a bit of my own propaganda. If you're not subscribed yet, be sure to hit that subscribe button, and if you haven't seen it, there's a link to my last video, re-explored Blade Runner in a World Without Humanity. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next week.