Hail the Conquering Hero

The Latin proverb “inter arma silent Musae”, which describes a lack of cultural achievements during wartime, could not be applied to Hollywood during the Second World War. Some of the most iconic films of the period were made while America was at war. Some even represented the most honest and, in the context of propaganda mandates and censorship constraints, the most daring treatment of the war itself, like *Hail th…