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War Years
Film (Full Length) – 1983
This feature-length documentary looks back at New Zealand in World War ll, by compiling footage from the National Film Unit’s Weekly Review. The newsreel series screened in New Zealand cinemas from 1941 to 1946. War Years begins with Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage’s “where Britain goes, we go” speech, then covers campaigns in Europe, Africa and the Pacific, as well as life on the home front. The propaganda film excerpts have added narration and graphics, to give context to the war effort. Wruter Helen Martin called it "a fascinating record of documentary filmmaking at a crucial time in the country’s history".
War is not glorified, but shown as the appalling manifestation of the machinations of 'foriegn' evil ... 'War Years is a fascinating record of documentary filmmaking at a crucial time in the country’s history.– Author Helen Martin, in 1997 book New Zealand Film 1912 - 1996, page 90
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