Bomber: A Defense Report on Film (1941)

"Born of fire, to fight fire, with fire". This is quite an interesting short documentary about the manufacture of American bombers or "ships". What's also quite noticeable here is this massive military escalation in construction is being done without naming an enemy! The photography illustrating the welding, hammering, screwing and precision assembly is quite niftily put together and the sheer power of these flying fortresses is impressively demonstrated in the air, but the film is really over-scored and the fervency of the narrator becomes a bit overwhelming. At times, it's almost like someone is in a pulpit preaching the foreboding hell and damnation on any who test the might of the United States in the skies. That's probably what was intended, and there's no doubt the sheer scale of these operations is intimidatory and that's effectively shown here.