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Road to Tokyo (c.1941)

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‘Make your money fight’

This clip chosen to be G

Clip description

A black-and-white animated propaganda advertisement which uses patriotic slogans, a stirring music score, a commanding voice-over narration, recognisable Australian symbols and clever animation to persuade the Australian public to contribute to the war effort by investing in the Commonwealth Government’s First Victory Loan.

Curator’s notes

by Poppy De Souza

The Owen Brothers also morphed money into guns and bullets in their other Department of Information animations. The transformation suggests that people’s money literally produces the weapons with which Australian forces will win the war. The narration and on-screen slogans support this claim. According to the Owens, they were allowed to come up with the storyline and script for their films; the department only gave them the general subject and theme. This enabled them to contribute more creativity as animators and filmmakers than in their other commercial assignments.

This clip also exhibits many characteristics of propaganda films of the era, such as the use of slogans, stereotypes, emotive language and evocative music designed to persuade audiences, rather than to simply inform or educate them. The ad particularly plays on audiences’ fear of the Japanese, given their recent entry into the war.

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australianscreen is produced by the National Film and Sound Archive. By using the website you agree to comply with the terms and conditions described elsewhere on this site. The NFSA may amend the 'Conditions of Use’ from time to time without notice.

All materials on the site, including but not limited to text, video clips, audio clips, designs, logos, illustrations and still images, are protected by the Copyright Laws of Australia and international conventions.

When you access australianscreen you agree that:

  • You may retrieve materials for information only.
  • You may download materials for your personal use or for non-commercial educational purposes, but you must not publish them elsewhere or redistribute clips in any way.
  • You may embed the clip for non-commercial educational purposes including for use on a school intranet site or a school resource catalogue.
  • The National Film and Sound Archive’s permission must be sought to amend any information in the materials, unless otherwise stated in notices throughout the Site.

All other rights reserved.

ANY UNAUTHORISED USE OF MATERIAL ON THIS SITE MAY RESULT IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL LIABILITY.

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