Who Are the People of America? (1953)

★★★ · God Bless America! (except for the Indians) · Spuzz · 2005-09-18

Rather curious short that emphasizes how wonderful wonderful America is, because everyone gets along with everyone else, and that people accept other peoples cultures. What I found interesting about this, is that how according to this film, how people moved into this country and seemingly took it over, and just total skipping over the fact that there were Indians there before they came here. But noooo.. The White Man discovered this country! What a crock! Also, I was giggling about the emphasis of how people were mixing with each other. Mixing as in. people of different races living in the…

★★★ · Columbus · SirJekyllAppliance · 2007-10-25

Surely he was born in Genoa by most accounts and is generally accepted as Portugese, Italian or Spanish. Odd how history changes in 50 years... and don't get me started on the Puritan/Pilgrim Fathers debate!

★★ · We Are the World · Dodsworth the Cat · 2022-12-16

There was a period after WW2 when both the left and the right pushed the self-congratulatory concept of the U.S. being a unity of races and creeds. Trade unions pushed it in "Brotherhood of Man." Corporate America promoted it in films produced by John Sutherland. Even Jack Benny gave speeches at the end of his radio show about how the Nazis tried to "weaken America" by causing racial and religious divisions. This Coronet film does the same thing, harping on the message that people came from everywhere to settle the U.S. and they've "mixed." (The film bypasses the human population already on…

★★ · Standard fare · trafalgar · 2004-03-18

If you're the old-fashioned type, you may enjoy this encapsulation of the orthodox "America as melting pot" story. If you're a cynic, you'll find this a saccharine piece of propaganda that ignores the real answer to it's question: Native Americans (aside from the predictable mention of corn). If you're a film buff, you may admire the editing, but find the narration a bore. But if you need loads of stock footage of people in various states of work and play in the early 1950's, you're in luck.