This project offers new understandings of the complex relationship between the government and the British film studios, relating to feature film content and production, during the period of the Second World War. It explores government policy and institutional organisation, and investigates the impact of underlying film production processes and propaganda demands on the representation of the hero figure in British feature films. It opens a dialogue with a broad range of archival resources to give a visibility and voice to an otherwise unarticulated aspect of British cinema history. Through a combination of primary and secondary sources, this study examines whether there is evidence of institutional causal links between British government policies and film, and how any such links indirectly adapted and enhanced the role of the hero figure in feature films. Several previous studies have suggested the idea of a national identity being reframed to meet the demands of propaganda as war progressed, and that a hero-figure was a significant element in that framework. I have expanded on these findings to provide a new contribution to film history and stimulation for further studies.
Permanent link to this resource: https://doi.org/10.24384/j0pg-cz79
Williamson, Robert
Supervisors: Steenburg, Lindsay; Cateridge, James
School of Arts
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