CinemaSerf

Renowned Australian wartime photographer Damien Parer provides a brief piece to camera at the start of this feature that would have been shown in Australian cinemas, reminding the population at home that they ought to stop whining about some minor inconveniences and appreciate just what those of the 2nd AIF were enduring deep amidst the New Guinea jungle. The film then goes on to illustrate precisely that as his camera tracks these troops foraging through a dense and hostile territory that provides ideal camouflage for snipers and trip wires as well as more naturally forbidding obstacles. This film benefits from being up close and personal with the soldiers in situ. We see them being drenched by torrential rain, crawling painstakingly through the undergrowth and carried on stretchers by local bearers whose bravery is no less significant than that of those in uniform (though the commentary might use some terms that we wouldn't appreciate nowadays). Unlike so many propaganda features, this one actually takes the brutality and effects of the South East Asian theatre of war straight to the viewer, and short as this is, it's lack of overt politicising and focus on what we can see works powerfully.

There's something more personal about this wartime feature as, narrated by Henry Fonda, it shows us a normal American town going from never believing they could be attacked to dealing with the aftermath of Pearl Harbour and beyond. The ordinary lads who train using second hand kit and wooden machine guns soon depart for the Philippines and there meet the full force of the encroaching, highly trained and well armed, foe. Many are killed, many are taken prisoner and the message for those at home is to persevere. Initially, bad news is the exception and it doesn't really govern the behaviour of the majority. Sadly, though, those devastating telegrams become more frequent and so the efforts to recycle just about everything and the encouragement to buy war bonds goes into overdrive. The choice of Fonda to voice this story works effectively as a man who could be anyone's neighbour, friend, or parent and his understated commentary is punchy without being jingoistic. As a piece of film, well we have seen much of the archive used here before and it's not really very imaginatively exploited, but it still brings home something of the terrors of warfare and as it says on the billboard: "fat makes explosive" so nothing goes to waste.

I know that money isn't what it was, but even in 1942 I'd have thought poor old "Donald" would be on more than $2,501 in an whole year! What does that matter? Well the slightly offbeat message for this wartime cartoon is "taxes against the axis". Yep, it's a rallying call for citizens of the USA to pay their income tax! With some rousing Yankee Doodle style cheerleading to start and some more traditional animations of the militarisation those dollars pay for at the end, this is a less frantic outing for the duck (who still sounds like Katharine Hepburn) and he does his bit to keep the payrolls of industry moving. The radio is quite a menacing looking gadget, like something from "Metropolis" (1927), but otherwise it's all fairly standard stuff.