The Homefront

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The Homefront tells the story of the American people during WWII: how they lived, what they thought, and how they were forever changed. Photo albums, 1940s newsreels, cartoons, snippets of Hollywood films and evocative period music bring history to life. The music is particularly infectious, from Billy Holiday's plaintive "I'll be Seeing You" to the toe-tapping "Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition." These cinematic elements are blended with dramatic personal reminiscences of a wide cross-section of Americans, to whom these were the worst or the best years of their lives, but in every case the most memorable. Viewers will be fascinated and moved by the memories of a Gold Star Mother, defense plant workers, Japanese internment victims, soldiers called up, and others. The Homefront also brings to light the changes, mostly dramatic but often subtle, that the war brought to American society: the movement of many from small towns to cities, the rise of the military-industrial complex, increased prosperity and the rise of suburbs, the massive entry of women into the paid labor force, the stirrings of the modern Civil Rights movement. The film communicates a straightforward message: WWII represents a major turning point, of watershed magnitude, in the life and times of America and her people.