Anecdotes

This film is in the public domain. As a work by Federal Government employees on behalf of the Federal Government, the film is by law ineligible for copyright protection and was released into the public domain at its creation.

In the year 2000, the United States Library of Congress mandated that this film (and the other six documentaries in the 'Why We Fight' series) were "culturally significant" and selected them for preservation in the National Film Registry.

This documentary is the first film in Frank Capra's seven-film 'Why We Fight' documentary film series.

In the book-burning scene, the books shown on-screen (suggesting they would be banned in Nazi Germany) are the collected works ("gesammelte werke") of poet Heinrich Heine, "Martin Eden" by Jack London, "All Quiet on the Western Front" ("Im Westen nichts Neues") by Erich Maria Remarque, "A Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway, "The Magic Mountain" ("Der Zauberberg") by Thomas Mann, the operetta "Orpheus in the Underworld" by composer Jacques Offenbach, and Felix Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words" ("Lieder ohne Worte").

Frank Capra wanted this propaganda film to be shown to the general public after it was well received by enlisted men. By the time it was released generally, however, it was not at all well received and made little money at the box office. A likely problem is suggested by the film's title: It is about the events leading up to a war the United States had already entered; audiences wanted new information about the war, not a rehash of its causes.