Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Based on the book by Major Alexander de Seversky's about his theories of the practical uses of long range strategic bombing. Using a combination of animation humorously telling about the development of air warfare, the film shows de Seversky illustrating his ideas of how air power could win World War II for the Allies.
Victory Through Air Power is a genuinely singular wartime artifact — a Disney feature-length hybrid of animated history, documentary argument, and propaganda that has no real equivalent before or since. The animated sequences illustrating the evolution of aerial warfare are inventive and visually striking, and the combination of live-action lecture with bold abstract animation (particularly the climactic battle sequences) is distinctive enough to warrant high Novelty. The 'plot' is really a structured argument rather than narrative, and it functions reasonably well as persuasion, though its thesis is dated. De Seversky's on-screen presence is earnest but stiff, limiting the Acting score. The ending — an allegorical eagle defeating a Japanese octopus — is memorable and audacious. Overall a curious, historically important oddity that transcends its propaganda origins through craft and ambition.