Oxford

Ah, Oxford! As this movie so proudly informs us, for almost a thousand years, it has been a quiet home for intellectual pursuits, and has made some great contributions to civilization. Then it gets down to brass tacks, discussing football, punting on the Thames, and sherry parties.

That is not to say that the pictures on display are not quite lovely. With London under bombardment by the Luftwaffe, with a lot of young men under arms and dying in battle, it was undoubtedly a comfort to know that Oxford continued in its old, quiet ways. Even if that tradition was occasionally broken by riot. Still, it had been almost 600 years at the time this film appeared, since the Saint Scholastica Day Riots, when more than 30 townies and 60 scholars had been killed in a dispute over the quality of wine served at an inn. Surely that was worth fighting and dying for.