As with several other of the short films produced by Britain's Ministry of Information with scripts by Dylan Thomas, THE BATTLE FOR FREEDOM needs to be considered in context as an intervention designed to sustain audience moral during the darkest days of World War II.
Produced as a mock-documentary with sonorous narration by Kent Stevenson (clearly imitating the more famous Quentin Reynolds, who had narrated the famous documentary Britain CAN TAKE IT (1940), the film takes a look at the insidious threat to world stability posed by the Axis powers on a global scale, and the forces mounted to resist them. We hear a lot about the brave Soviet resistance during the Stalingrad campaign, the American efforts to sustain lines of communication between their mainland and the former colonies of Japan, and the ways in which the Indian forces - despite their own issues concerning future independence from Britain - put aside their differences with the "Mother Country" to fight alongside them.
The documentary makes much of the global contribution made by the dominions to the war effort: the endless toil of Canadian industries to supply the ever-growing demands of their British allies; the Australians' struggle to keep their country free from Japanese colonization, as well as supplying troops to the Far Eastern theater of conflict; and the South Africans' endeavors to set aside their racial problems and fight for a common cause.
None of the claims made might be strictly true, but they provide the image of a world striving to preserve its stability at all costs, whatever the sufferings might be. The documentary possesses a sincerity that proves strangely endearing.
Produced as a mock-documentary with sonorous narration by Kent Stevenson (clearly imitating the more famous Quentin Reynolds, who had narrated the famous documentary Britain CAN TAKE IT (1940), the film takes a look at the insidious threat to world stability posed by the Axis powers on a global scale, and the forces mounted to resist them. We hear a lot about the brave Soviet resistance during the Stalingrad campaign, the American efforts to sustain lines of communication between their mainland and the former colonies of Japan, and the ways in which the Indian forces - despite their own issues concerning future independence from Britain - put aside their differences with the "Mother Country" to fight alongside them.
The documentary makes much of the global contribution made by the dominions to the war effort: the endless toil of Canadian industries to supply the ever-growing demands of their British allies; the Australians' struggle to keep their country free from Japanese colonization, as well as supplying troops to the Far Eastern theater of conflict; and the South Africans' endeavors to set aside their racial problems and fight for a common cause.
None of the claims made might be strictly true, but they provide the image of a world striving to preserve its stability at all costs, whatever the sufferings might be. The documentary possesses a sincerity that proves strangely endearing.
