This documentary is a part of a film series with the purpose of encouraging and convincing American soldiers to participate and maximize their efforts in the battle against the Axis Powers in the course of World War II. The name of the series is ‘Why We Fight’ and it represents the directorial debut of Frank Capra. These documentaries were issued by the Office of War Information or OWI in collaboration with George C. Marshall.
Before the public release an edit was added to the film in a form of a comment by Henry L. Stimson, who was the Secretary of War, where he states that “the purpose of these films is to give factual information as to the causes, the events leading up to our entry into the war and the principles for which we are fighting”.
The Battle of Russia is the fifth film of Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series, and the longest film of the arrangement, comprising of two parts. The film was made as a team effort with Anatole Litvak as essential executive under Capra’s watch. Litvak gave the film its “shape and introduction,” and the film had seven authors with voice portrayal by Walter Huston. The score was carried out by Russian-conceived Hollywood writer, Dimitri Tiomkin, and drew vigorously on Tchaikovsky alongside conventional Russian society tunes and numbers.
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