Why We Fight: Divide and Conquer

The third film in Why We Fight, the seven-part series Frank Capra made for the US War Department. Anatole Litvak co-directed without credit. The subject is Germany's taking of Western Europe in 1940: Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France. What separates it from the other instalments is that it dwells on maps and method rather than ideology. It walks through the Nazi advance step by step, and its real emphasis is the tactic in the title: split the target country from inside first, then enter. The method is Capra's invention: captured German propaganda footage is cut apart, reassembled and laid under American narration. The enemy's own films are turned against the enemy. The series was made to be shown to troops first, and only later released to civilian audiences. Who it is for: viewers who want to see how propaganda cinema is built and what editing can do ideologically. Who it is not for: anyone looking for a neutral war documentary. This is a mobilisation tool rather than an informational film; the tone is loud, the language absolute, and some claims are bounded by what was known at the time.