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''The Sinking of the Lusitania'' (1918) is a silent animated short film by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. A work of propaganda, it is a re-creation of the never-photographed 1915 sinking of the British liner RMS ''Lusitania''. At twelve minutes, it has been called the longest work of animation at the time of its release. The film is the earliest surviving animated documentary and serious, dramatic work of animation. In 1915, a German submarine torpedoed and sank the RMS ''Lusitania''; 128 Americans were among the 1,198 dead. The event outraged McCay, but the newspapers of his employer William Randolph Hearst downplayed the tragedy, as Hearst was opposed to the US joining World War I. McCay was required to illustrate anti-war and anti-British editorial cartoons for Hearst's papers. In 1916, McCay rebelled against his employer's stance and began to make the self-financed, patriotic ''Sinking of the Lusitania'' on his own time. The film followed McCay's earlier successes in animation: ''Little Nemo'' (1911), ''How a Mosquito Operates'' (1912), and ''Gertie the Dinosaur'' (1914). These earlier films were drawn on rice paper, onto which backgrounds had to be laboriously traced; ''The Sinking of the Lusitania'' was the first film McCay made using the new, more efficient cel technology. McCay and his assistants spent twenty-two months making the film. His subsequent animation output suffered setbacks, as the film was not as commercially successful as his earlier efforts, and Hearst put increased pressure on McCay to devote his time to editorial drawings. ==Synopsis== The film opens with a live-action prologue in which McCay busies himself studying a picture of the ''Lusitania'' as a model for his film-in-progress. Intertitles boast of McCay as "the originator and inventor of Animated Cartoons", and of the 25,000 drawings needed to complete the film. McCay is shown working with a group of anonymous assistants on "the first record of the sinking of the ''Lusitania''". The liner passes the Statue of Liberty and leaves New York Harbor. After some time, a German submarine cuts through the waters and fires a torpedo at the ''Lusitania'', which billows smoke that builds until it envelops the screen. Passengers scramble to lower lifeboats, some of which capsize in the confusion. The liner tilts from one side to the other and passengers are tossed into the ocean. A second blast rocks the ''Lusitania'', which sinks slowly into the deep as more passengers fall off its edges, and the ship submerges amid scenes of drowning bodies. The liner vanishes from sight, and the film closes with a mother struggling to keep her baby above the waves. An intertitle declares: "The man who fired the shot was decorated for it by the Kaiser! ''And yet they tell us not to hate the Hun.''" 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Sinking of the Lusitania」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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