''The Town'' is a short propaganda film produced by the

Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and othe ...

in 1943. The documentary, depicting the American Midwestern city of

Madison, Indiana Madison is a city in and the county seat of Jefferson County, Indiana, United States, along the Ohio River. As of the 2010 United States Census its population was 11,967. Over 55,000 people live within of downtown Madison. Madison is the larges ...

was filmed by

Josef von Sternberg Josef von Sternberg (; born Jonas Sternberg; May 29, 1894 – December 22, 1969) was an Austrian-American filmmaker whose career successfully spanned the transition from the silent to the sound era, during which he worked with most of the major ...

in 1943 and released in 1945.

Synopsis

''The Town'' is a 1943 American documentary film whose subject is the Midwestern town of

. Endorsed by the

United States Office of War Information The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and othe ...

(OWI), which oversaw propaganda during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, the 11-minute film presents Madison “as the model American town where citizens embodied American ideals and values.” Filmed by the acclaimed Hollywood director

, the camera showcases the people of Madison – many of whom were European immigrants – in their “public libraries, corner drugstores, schoolhouses and public swimming pools.” ''The Town'' was created as part of ''The American Scene'' series and “shown overseas to remind troops what they were fighting to preserve and to demonstrate American cultural values to foreigners. It was translated into 32 languages.” The

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

preserved ''The Town'' in 2012. The film is part of the Academy War Film Collection, one of the largest collections of World War II era short films held outside government archives.

Theme

Sternberg's portrait of Madison, Indiana in the sun-drenched summer of 1943 serves to artistically unite the

Old World The "Old World" is a term for Afro-Eurasia that originated in Europe , after Europeans became aware of the existence of the Americas. It is used to contrast the continents of Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were previously thought of by thei ...

influences brought by European immigrants with the “progressive social and political ideas of the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

.” Sternberg opens the documentary show-casing “an Italian

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tow ...

, a palladian portico, a Renaissance fountain” as if these were features from a European travelogue. The audience is disabused of that impression when a narrator identifies the structures as the functional and egalitarian architecture of a small Mid-western community: “the fountain belongs to the local swimming pool, a courthouse, the portico to a courthouse and the campanile is the Madison Fire Brigade bell-tower.” The citizenry of Madison, some identifiable ethnically as Austrian, Greek, Swedish and French are all active in work and social life. Employing tracking and dissolve shots, Sternberg's camera explores the social institutions in town and country, urban and rural, as well as quiet and secure suburban streets and homes.Baxter, 1971. P. 158-159 Commenting on Sternberg's approach to his wartime assignment, film critic John Baxter writes:

Footnotes

Sources

* Baxter, John. 1971. ''The Cinema of Josef von Sternberg''. The International Film Guide Series. A.S Barners & Company, New York. *National Park Service. No date provided. ''Twentieth Century: Madison, Indiana''. US Department of Interior. Retrieved 30 May 2018. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/madison/Twentieth_Century_Essay.html *Supten, Tom. 2006. ''This is The Town and These Are the People''. Bright Lights Film Journal. September 15, 2006. Retrieved 30 May 2018. http://brightlightsfilm.com/this-is-the-town-and-these-are-the-people/#.Ww7lLlKouUk

External links

* ''The Town'' (entire film) Madison, Indiana, World War II: "The Town" 1945 US Office of War Information Josef von Sternberg. Retrieved 31 May 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFLarB3d-Mg
Complete film at Internet Archive
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Town 1945 films American World War II propaganda shorts American black-and-white films Films directed by Josef von Sternberg American war films 1945 documentary films American short documentary films 1940s short documentary films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films

Synopsis

Theme

See also

Footnotes

Sources

External links