Shockingly unflinching in its presentation and questioning of postwar America. This is a gruesome film as it utilizes images of lynchings, bloody corpses, and offensive language to paint a picture of a supposed America in peacetime. Leo Hurwitz's left-leaning point of view draws a pretty direct connection between the Nazi regime this country had just spent years fighting and the homegrown fascism that was back in national politics after the war. This kind of observation is surprising to see expressed so directly only a few years after troops returned home. Indeed, Hurwitz asks, what country are they really coming back to? As he details what led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, you wonder how different these tactics are from what anti-Semitic and racist factions in America are stirring then and depressingly now. That's the most noteworthy thing about Strange Victory over 80 years later: its enduring relevance as a questioning of American beliefs and prejudice. There are brief glimmers of hope in the middle of the film but they feel wholly drowned out by the truly depressing and shocking images Hurwitz bookends the film with. It's a strange victory, indeed.
Shockingly unflinching in its presentation and questioning of postwar America. This is a gruesome film as it utilizes images of lynchings, bloody corpses, and offensive language to paint a picture of a supposed America in peacetime. Leo Hurwitz's left-leaning point of view draws a pretty direct connection between the Nazi regime this country had just spent years fighting and the homegrown fascism that was back in national politics after the war. This kind of observation is surprising to see expressed so directly only a few years after troops returned home. Indeed, Hurwitz asks, what country are they really coming back to? As he details what led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, you wonder how different these tactics are from what anti-Semitic and racist factions in America are stirring then and depressingly now. That's the most noteworthy thing about Strange Victory over 80 years later: its enduring relevance as a questioning of American beliefs and prejudice. There are brief glimmers of hope in the middle of the film but they feel wholly drowned out by the truly depressing and shocking images Hurwitz bookends the film with. It's a strange victory, indeed.
