Documentary News Letter (1944-1945)

DOCUMENTARY NEWS LETTER No. 2 1944 21 Film of the Month (continued) 35,000 British, 16,000 Americans, and 15,000 French laid down their lives. And yet the moral is easy. Here is a very fine film which tells how the men and women of three great countries planned together on a vast scale and acted together on a vast scale ; which shows how, in their common determination to win the fight against things they knew were evil, and for the right to build a better world, they planned and acted well — meeting the unexpected disaster and the delaying of high hopes, with unanimous bravery. The result was, they achieved what they had planned. They will do it again, just as others in Russia and China and the Pacific Islands are doing it again, but only if they continue to fight as well as plan. Doakes and Atkins will not bring about the smiles of children unless they realise that getting together to do or make things is only half a beginning. What a pity Tunisian Victory's finale was not clinched by the statement of two simple facts: "Here is something fully planned, and achieved by concerted and total co-operative energy. Your brave new post-war world can only come about the same way. We have to plan together but by God we have to fight too — fight, not Nazis, but people who say 'wouldn't it be a fine thing if . . .?' instead of 'here is something worthwhile. We're going to do it'." If you agree with what has just been said you may be one of those who is also puzzled — to put it mildly — about the three appearances of one Darlan in this film — first as ordering the surrender of Algiers, second as ordering cessation of hostilities after the Nazis took Southern France, and third — post facto and in a throw-away reference — as a corpse. And yet, in a longish sequence showing the Christmas festivities in Tunisia, there is no reference at all to the splendid Christmas present the world received on that day — the assassination of Darlan. Well, one must remember that politics are still politics and think hard about the Beveridge Plan, yes? Much space has been devoted to some propaganda implications of Tunisian Victory simply because the film does try to do something, and the mistakes made in it may point the way to what should or should not be done in the future. But let us reiterate that, with the reservations stated, Tunisian Victory is a good honest job of reporting on a good honest job of fighting. As such, it deserves an enthusiastic hand. New Documentary Films (continued from page 16) link, between it and the airmen fighters above, not so hard to find. In the village cemetery are crosses, bearing inscriptions strange to English eyes — the names of Polish airmen. In this cemetery the funeral of General Sikorsky takes place. A well photographed sequence, this captures the atmosphere of such a ceremony more effectively than many elaborate studio productions. We see Sikorsky's life as recorded by newsreels, how he rallied his countrymen, after the defeat of Poland, in France— after the fall of France, in Britain. The Polish airmen who fight beside the R.A.F. protecting English towns and villages, and Polish soldiers and sailors, fought well behind this soldier, who in earlier days had been little esteemed in his country. Head of the Government, Sikorsky is shown as one who made attempts to set Polish international policy on a sound level. To-day it comes almost as a surprise, though a welcome one, to see him with Molotov, concluding a pact with U.S.S.R. In technical quality the film is excellent. Its shape holds interest in what might at first seem past history. Propaganda Value: The biography of a nation's leading statesman — his death so fresh to mind, that a biography is near to being an obituary — is a hard subject for a film. The introduction, showing Polish airmen over the English scene, reminds us that Polish affairs are close to life in Britain. The film might have done even better here, had it pictured more of the "live" quality of people in the village — the emphasis is more on pictorial appeal. As far as British audiences are concerned, the propaganda value of the film can be no more than that of the subject. That is to say, the life of Sikorsky, as a political fact, defines and limits the scope of the positive statements or appeals which the film can make. Above all, this film emphasies that propaganda cannot work in a political vacuum. No film, however well made, can convincingly present a policy more enlightened than that of the Government which sponsors it — at all events, not to nationals of other countries. The constructive work, which the film shows Sikorsky to have done, may be an encouragement to his countrymen to go farther on the journey he started. SIGHT and SOUND A cultural Quarterly MONTHLY FILM BULLETIN appraising educational and entertainment values Published by: The British Film Institute, 4 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. CARTOON FILMS NEW ADDRESS IOa SOHO SQUARE, W.I TELEPHONE GERRARD 7681/2