World War II in John Ford’s films

John Ford’s films show how the cultural context of the Pacific War and the image of the war in combat films of 1941–1945 change. By the time the USA entered the World War II, Hollywood and Washington had a long if not estranged relationship. They were both well versed in the use of propaganda and had readily employed it on the citizens of the United States. J. Ford’s films are a good example of this cooperation. This paper is about a «reflection» of the image of the Pacific war, and about the key moments of glorification of the World War II history in the USA cinema and media. The paper analyzes the connection between the images of the war in the film «December 7» with the images of the war in newspapers, cartoons, politicians’ speeches – this will help to study the problem of visualizing the war in a wide socio-cultural context rather than in isolation. The nature and mechanisms of mutual influence of these images of the war have been determined: for example, how the materials of periodicals influenced the film; how the speeches of American politicians were refracted and reflected in Ford’s film; how the visual images of cartoons influenced the director’s work.