The Master Race (1944)

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1. 

   senorroboto

   I watched this mostly because of the director Herbert J Biberman's interesting history as one of the Hollywood Ten during the HUAC era. Ironically during the early 1940s the Jewish director was suspected by the FBI of being a Nazi since he held the anti-interventionist view that the US should not do the Lend-Lease program providing war goods to England.
   
   In all likelihood it was because his family were Russian-Jewish immigrants and he did not support the war until Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrip pact with Russia.
   
   However it probably led to him making this movie in order to firmly clear his name as a Nazi sympathizer. He also manages to include a very friendly Russian character.
   
   Overall while the movie is blatant US propaganda, it does a few interesting things. It's not a part of the war you see very often, the rebuilding far from the frontline of a Belgian town reclaimed from the Germans. It addresses a number of the real issues of the situation: war trauma, rape by invading soldiers, treatment of POWs, collaborators, etc.
   
   It's impressive how quickly the movie was made too. The liberation of Belgium began Sept 2, 1944, the film was released Sept 22nd. I wonder what the production schedule must have looked like.
   
   The conclusion of the film does have some good points about fascism and the conditions that tend to lead to it, it feels more substantial than your average propaganda film. 4 years 4 months ago

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