Editing Lewis Milestone (section)

=== ''The Purple Heart'' (1944) ===
''[[The Purple Heart]]'' (1944), which is set in the [[Pacific War]], is about captured American airmen who are prosecuted by [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] with violating the [[Geneva Conventions]] by participating in the July 18, 1942, [[Doolittle Raid]] over Japan by [[North American B-25 Mitchell|B-25 bombers]].<ref>Canham, 1974 p. 93: "another studio property{{nbsp}}... marred by jingoistic propaganda inserts" and "The film demonstrates "Milestone's attitude toward war as it indicates a change in heart from his pacifist position of All Quiet on the Western Front."<br />Millichap, 1981 p. 124</ref>

The film is based on a real-life incident. Milestone's technical skill in presenting the airmen's ordeal was potent propaganda but it risked rationalizing the US bombing and anti-Japanese jingoism. The [[Purple Heart]] award which the captured men are ultimately bestowed is earned through wounds inflicted by torture to extract military secrets and not through combat.<ref>Canham, 1974 p. 93: "another studio property{{nbsp}}... marred by jingoistic propaganda inserts" and "the ever prowling camera increases the tension while the men wait and discuss their situation, and personal reaction to torture."<br />Millichap, 1981 p. 128: "the simplistic identification of all good with America, all evil with Japan, ultimate rendered the film both false and dangerous"</ref> According to Millichap (1981), it is a cinematically superior war film; Milestone said of his commitment to supply propaganda for the American war effort: "We didn't hesitate to make this kind of film during the war".<ref>Millichap, 1981 p. 125: "The emotional overkill proves to be the film's major fault" and p. 128: "The Purple Heart remains the most successful of Milestone's World War II in a purely technical sense; it is both effective entertainment and propaganda, but it is finally bad art" and "we didn't hesitate"<br />Canham, 1974 p. 94: See here for cameraman [[Arthur Miller (cinematographer)|Arthur Miller]]'s "crisp, clearly defined, high-key images for court scenes [and] low-key imagery for flashbacks"</ref>