This anthology left me with a strange sense of unease. I got the distinct impression that most of it was wishful thinking - subsequent history showed just how few of the heavy handed messages in this film were heeded by the population at large. The country was involved in the Korean War, which had devolved into a stalemate. The threat of nuclear annihilation had suddenly become a nightmare people would be forced to live with for decades. The depredations of two world wars had weakened faith in churches and organized religion. Life for black Americans would see them remain second class citizens for another 14 years. And distrust of government and its machinations would grow with every scandal and shady deal, and culminate some 22 years later during the Watergate fiasco. The film seems almost determined to restore the innocence that the country enjoyed early in the century, when involvement with the world's problems was the remotest thing on most anyone's mind. And at the end, we have none other than Nancy Reagan, who would one day be married to a man who made a political career of looking backward to a less complicated time, one who could never endorse the progressive ideas that the film pays lip service to.
Very interesting, and well worth seeing.
Very interesting, and well worth seeing.