Perchè combattamo: dividi e conquista (Why We Fight: Divide And Conquer), 1943

Why We Fight ("Perché combattiamo") è una serie di sette film di propaganda realizzati fra il 1942 e il 1945, durante la Seconda guerra mondiale, commissionati dal governo degli Stati Uniti, prodotti dal Dipartimento della Guerra (più precisamente dalla Special Service Division in collaborazione con gli U.S. Army Signal Corps) e supervisionati dal regista hollywoodiano Frank Capra.

Indirizzati esclusivamente ai membri delle forze armate statunitensi, per informarli sui motivi del coinvolgimento del loro Paese nella guerra, solo in un secondo tempo sono stati utilizzati dall'Office of War Information - Bureau of Motion Pictures anche quale mezzo di propaganda interno, rivolto al pubblico americano, per convincerlo della necessità di sostenere l'intervento bellico.

Dividi e conquista (Divide and Conquer) è il terzo docufilm della serie sulla campagna nel Benelux e sulla sconfitta della Francia.

Come viene esplicitato nei titoli di testa, i film in buona parte sono costituiti da materiale di repertorio: «Most of the scenes in this picture were obtained from American newsreels, official United Nations films, and enemy motion pictures now possessed by the War Department». Capra, assistito da una troupe di esperti professionisti di Hollywood, registi e montatori, a suo stesso dire non ha "diretto" nulla, si è trattato invece di un impegnativo lavoro di montaggio di filmati preesistenti (found footage), compresi quelli realizzati dai paesi nemici, abilmente invertiti di "segno", da autocelebrativi ad autoaccusatori.

Le mappe animate sono invece state realizzate appositamente dagli studios della Disney.

Why We Fight: Divide And Conquer (1943)

Why We Fight is a series of seven documentary films commissioned by the United States government duringWorld War II whose purpose was to show American soldiers the reason for U.S. involvement in the war. Later on they were also shown to the general U.S. public to persuade them to support American involvement in the war.

Divide and Conquer (1943) is the third film of this serie about the campaign in Benelux and the Fall of France. Capra's description: "Hitler occupies Denmark and Norway, outflanks Maginot Line, drives British Army into North Sea, forces surrender of France."

Most of the films were directed by Frank Capra, who was daunted yet also impressed and challenged by Leni Riefenstahl's propaganda film Triumph of the Will and who worked in direct response to it. The series faced a tough challenge: convincing an only recently non-interventionist nation of the need to become involved in the war and ally with the Soviets, among other things. In many of the films, Capra and other directors spliced inAxis powers propaganda footage going back twenty years, and recontextualized it so it promoted the cause of the Allies.

Why We Fight was edited primarily by William Hornbeck, although some parts were re-enacted "under War Department supervision" if there was no relevant footage available. The animated portions of the films were produced by the Disney studios -- with the animated maps following a convention of depicting Axis-occupied territory in black.

Made from 1942 to 1945, the seven films range from 40 to 76 minutes in length, and all are available on DVD or online at no cost, since they have always beenpublic domain films produced by the U.S. government.

In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the films "culturally significant" and selected them for preservation in the National Film Registry. Created by the U.S. Army Pictorial Services, the films are in the public domain; all of them are available for download at the Internet Archive.