British Cinema and the Second World War

The author provides a decade-by-decade analysis of every film ever made in Britain about World War II. It provides a comprehensive account of how Britain has portrayed the war through films.

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The Second World War was clearly a defining moment in British history but it was also of immense importance to the British film industry. What started out as a means of conveying propaganda became a way of revisiting, reshaping and rethinking the experiences of the war years. The war brought the British film industry to the forefront of national consciousness in a way it had never managed before and has never regained since, and it helped to launch the careers of several major directors: Powell and Pressburger, David Lean, Carol Reed, and so on. This book provides a uniquely comprehensive account of how we, as a nation, have portrayed the war through films.