Jon Marshalla's Sahara Reflections
I'm going to address the second question posed in the email. I think this movie definitely defines and establishes that fighting and dying for one's country is very honorable and moral. Every one of them chooses to stay behind and fight impossible odds (500 vs. 9) and they all do it to defend their country and stand up for their personal beliefs. Many of them had families, girlfriends, and many other things to live for, yet they were all willing to face certain death in an effort to "delay" the enemy (as stated by Bogart's character). He establishes that they will be able to beat the Germans because as men who have tasted freedom, they have much more to fight for than the Germans who blindly follow Hitler. This is primarily represented through the interaction with the German prisoner. While he lies and kills to fight for his country, which are in fact the same thing the Allies did to trick the Germans, he is portrayed as an evil character while the American's are portrayed as very honorable and as heroes. This shows the propaganda present from the American government in this film. When watching this movie you automatically support the Americans and their cause. Without much question the viewers are being groomed to support the war and the soldiers. The movie is entertaining, funny (although I don't think it was originally intended to be funny), and also delivers a positive war message without being overly blatant to the viewers of its time. It does, however, portray the German soldiers as extremely evil with terrible intentions and no sense of honor while portraying every other character with some degree of dignity. Even the Italian character, who was also an enemy, was portrayed as honorable and simply following Mussolini because he had no other option, while the Germans were shown as following Hitler because they were all just as evil and inhumane as he was. There is obvious propaganda present, but to patriotic Americans in the 1940s, it was probably much less apparent.