Warner at War

Warner at War (2008)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Steven Spielberg narrates this 48-minute documentary that takes a look at the four Warner brothers and how they decided to fight the war long before it was considered the right thing to do. This is yet another very entertaining documentary but you can't help but wonder why this one runs so short. A lot of interesting things are learned but I can't help but think there's even more history out there. Spielberg takes on the narration role and does a very good job but that's all there is in terms of talking heads. No other experts or historians show up, which is a shame but this isn't anything too major. The film opens up talks with the Warner's early history and how they wanted to speak out against Nazis and Germany long before 1939 but the production code wouldn't allow it. Confessions of a Nazi Spy gets a lot of talk and its historic importance is really spoken very highly of. This here kick starts the subject as we go through countless movies that the studio were making just to make American's support the war. There's also discussion of the Hollywood stars signing up for these projects including the short films, which the President himself asked them to do. The talk of how many people enlisted in the Army after certain movies were released is an interesting topic even though I'm not sure how strong those numbers are.