Film Analysis: Hollywood Goes To War

The contrasting colors of the vehicles reveal fascinating connections to World War II. Each of the vehicles are blue, indicating that they relate to the people on the bottom of the poster. This might describe that the people on the bottom have control over these methods of transportation. The position of each character at the bottom relative to the car, makes it seem that they just arrived at that location and are heading toward another place. The body language isn’t hostile, indicating that the military people are escorting the people behind them to a specific location. When examining the colors through the lens of transportation, the orange color may signify a warm environment of North Africa, while the blue color represents a “dead” and …show more content…
The elements within the poster make this point clear, with the heavy emphasis with the poster’s theme of Allied forces versus the Axis forces. The movie was released in 1943, which was a critical time period of World War II, with America in the war. Movies during this time period were often corresponded with current events that reflect social and cultural events and ideas. In Clayton Koppes and Gregory Black’s book, Hollywood Goes to War, each author explores the history of the filming industry during World War II. They explain how Hollywood had a strong influence on the opinions of the general public. According to Koppes and Black, “During the war the government, convinced that movies had extraordinary power to mobilize public opinion for war, carried out an intensive, unprecedented effort to mold the content of Hollywood feature films” (vii). In other words, the government used Hollywood in order to use movies as a form of propaganda in order to influence public opinions on the war. Koppes and Black’s observations are relevant in the context of my primary source because reinforces the idea that Casablanca was a propaganda tool during the war. For example, the imagery of Isla and Rick having a hopeful and innocent expressions while being surrounded by the dark mood of the blue side, symbolizes America's unwavering spirit through the …show more content…
The warm and gentle orange colors of our main characters give a sense of hope and justice, while the bleak and dull blue colors remind Americans of the harsh nature of war. The movie Casablanca is engraved in the memories of American people as a “Hollywood classic”, and it continues to stay relevant through the many decades since its release. The romanticized portrayal of certain elements within the poster sparks a sense of Americanism, which boasts a spirit of nationalism that there’s no obstacle too big to overcome with unity. This sense of nationalism of the past, holds a standard how who we are as a nation and what we ought to be when there are problems in the