Synopsis
Winsor McCay recreates the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in this propaganda piece designed to stir up anti-German sentiment during World War I.
1918 Directed by Winsor McCay
Winsor McCay recreates the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-boat in this propaganda piece designed to stir up anti-German sentiment during World War I.
El hundimiento del Lusitania
I love that it starts with a dramatization of McCay deciding to make the film. It's like the fourth wall hadn't even been built yet to be broken.
2nd Winsor McCay (after How a Mosquito Operates)
Lusitania is arguably a more radical film that Mosquito. Designed to inspire anti-German sentiment, it recreates a famous naval tragedy of 1915 in the sinking of the titular ship. In an era before on-the-spot reportage with film cameras (such as in Ford's The Battle of Midway), McCay and his team recreated the incident from news reports and various photos. 25,000 individual cells were produced to create as detailed a record of the event as possible, a ground-breaking amount of detail that wouldn't be surpassed until Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. The resulting film may be a compact thirteen minutes, but it has so much detail, particularly the sequence where we see…
In 1915 a German submarine torpedoed and sank the RMS Lusitania; 128 Americans were among the 1,198 dead. Winsor McCay was deeply upset by the event but was unable to tell the story through his usual outlet of the newspapers. His employer William Randolph Hearst was strongly opposed to the US joining World War I. McCay in fact had to produce anti-war and anti-British propaganda cartoons for Hearst's papers. In 1916, McCay rebelled against his employer and began work on the Sinking of the Lusitania on his own time with his own money.
This feels like such a paradigm shift for animation. The hitherto light and fluffy field of animation being used for something so serious, hard hitting and dramatic. The…
25,000 drawings were made and photographed for this short propaganda film. And I'll bet you anything the workers weren't paid a decent wage.
Animation Challenge Week 6: Director Spotlight - WInsor McKay
'...And still they tell us not to hate the Hun.
THE END'
A ferociously indignant slice of World War One propaganda by notable director Winsor McCay is this week's short film for the animation challenge. McCay was a newspaper cartoonist before taking to animation, and his animation style features delicate line work and evocative, dynamic explosions and collapsing boats that call to mind in some ways the scale of an artist like, say, Gustave Dore. (McCay was best known for Little Nemo, maybe)
The film itself is somewhat remarkable in the approach it takes to the subject matter--with footage of the artist himself being informed of the crime and being driven…
Probably McCay’s most passionate work, The Sinking of the Lusitania is a propaganda piece made for WWI. It is likely the first animated propaganda ever made, the first animated documentary ever made and (most importantly) the first true attempt at pulling off a dramatic animated film. The short is essentially plotless: all we see is the ship being hit and slowly sinking into the ocean. Once again there’s the illusion of depth and 3D space (watch the scene where the torpadoes are being fired) and the use of black and white is perfect, especially in its depiction of smoke: as much as McCay is praised for its use of rich colors, the black and white here (and all the shades…
The beautiful and at times even harrowing animation runs afoul of some truly terrible intertitles, soaking a tragic memorial in the stink of propaganda.
y'all know by now i will never be like "oh it wasn't for me but i appreciate the significance" this was boring and i stand by that
"Twenty-five thousand drawings had to be made and photographed one at a time." 1918 Winsor McCay. Seems like quite a technical accomplishment and an original way to present a thrilling tragedy; thereby rattling sabers and building a fever of resentment and public outcry against the German Empire whose submarine sank her in 1915. I'm impressed.
Who knew wartime propaganda flicks were a thing during World War I. The animation is really very good.
Part of my effort to watch at least one short film per day. Here is the list I am currently working through, with a random number generator determining the film each day. I will take recommendations for everything that's 40 minutes max.
Very gruesome depiction of the sinking of the Lusitania. It's mostly animated but in a realistic style. It really transcends its time period which how it shows what's happening. Definitely one of the most intense films of the 1910s.