 The goal of health propagandists was not simply to inform but to persuade, to control individual thoughts and actions.” 

Edison’s film came under criticism for “the distortions, exaggerations, and inaccuracies inherent in the melodrama format.The films clearly exaggerated the power of medicine to deal with tuberculosis; and they greatly over dramatized the effects and symptoms of the disease.” 

During World War I, the use of medical propaganda appealed to the US government and private agencies, which worked together “to produce and distribute anti-venereal disease motion pictures, including the feature-length melodramas Fit to Fight and The End of the Road and other lesser-known films.These movies, originally made for military trainees and war workers, were revised for showing to civilians, as evidence mounted that many soldiers had been infected prior to induction.” 

The 1930s saw the rise of medical cinematography employed to reach goals of public health.