Eyes of the Navy

It's a rather pompously narrated short touting air training by the armed forces, with some shots of the major proving grounds at Pensacola. There, the audience is informed, fliers had been trained for thirty years.

There's also a paean to the informality of behavior at the school, where, we are told, the trainees are names and not numbers. There are machine guns -- aimed at targets, not the students -- and a look at the terrifying, slingshot-like affair that launches the Navy's biplanes from the aircraft carriers. At least they don't show you how they land, using a hook on a line to catch the planes; if they don't get it right, those planes go over the edge and sink in the water with all hands!

It's clear that, more than a year before the US went to war, people knew it was coming.

My summary was meant to be cynical. But, by 1940 it appeared pretty obvious to a lot of Americans that our entry into the war was pretty much unavoidable. Sooner or later, we WOULD be in the war. So, the once neutral Hollywood film production machine suddenly began churning out films to bolster the public's perceptions of military life, duty and bravery. Some of the films were comedies and some were dramas or shorts and all were very pro-military and were made with the cooperation of the services.

"Eyes of the Navy" is a documentary short that promotes naval aviation. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Short Subject, Two-reel--perhaps as an endorsement by the Academy for the armed forces (especially since another similar film was also nominated in this category). It shows many different aspects of aviation--such as pilot training, gunnery school, launches of seaplanes from battleships, ground training, carrier landings, airplane production and repair facilities and graduation. The film is chock full of footage--decent and rarely grainy footage. As for the narration, it's earnestly done by Frank Whitbeck. The overall film is quite well done though I am not sure if it really was Oscar-worthy--this is hard to say. But, it did get its point across in an effect and compact manner. And, for military buffs, it certainly is a must-see.

By the way, it's interesting to note that just about all the airplanes being used in this film were pretty much obsolete once the US entered the war a year later. Apart from the Catalina seaplanes, most of the rest of the planes were in the process of being phased out or would soon be phased out (such as the Devastator torpedo bombers). It just shows how rapidly technology changed as a result of war.

This was a very timely short produced by MGM to inspire the home front about preparing for what looked like America's certain entrance into WWII a year before Pearl Harbor.

Ensuring the future of America by training its young men for war is the theme of the short. Peace, Security and Progress are mentioned by the narration. The film opens at the Pensacola Air Station where the U.S. Navy and Marines trained airmen for future assignments in the air.

Scenes of formation flying, men trained in mockup planes, and shooting weapons on the firing range are shown, among battle plans drilled in classrooms and actual landings on carriers as well as dive bombing at speeds of 500 miles per hour. In twenty minutes, the short covers a lot of ground in the kind of training involved.

Obviously the film was used to promote enlistment in the armed services as America entered the WWII phase and it does a good job of doing exactly that.

Eyes of the Navy (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Oscar-nominated short from MGM takes a look at how men are trained once they enter the Navy. The film kicks off with a message from MGM stating that they made this movie because of how important it is to be prepared in case our country ever comes under attack. It goes without saying but Pearl Harbor would be attacked a year later, which gives this film even more meaning. The film is pretty simple as it shows a young man joining the Navy and then we see him go through basic training and so on. The movie does a very good job with its 20-minutes and actually manages to put quite a lot of information in. We also get to hear about our "possible enemies" yet none of them are ever mentioned by name nor are they hinted at. It's also worth noting that there's a familiar line here that would later be used in Kubrick's The Shining, which is the "dull boy" line, which is also referring to a character named Jack here.

With the war already firmly established in Europe (to which this film doesn't really refer), this is one of the earliest examples I've seen of the American nation starting to realise that it, too, might be facing a threat and so it had better start preparing. The purpose of this rather dry feature is to attract flyers. A young farmer is watching the planes overhead with his dad (Charles Middleton at his less merciless!) when he decides that he has the wits to pass the exams and take to the skies. The training regime is set out before us - a combination of theory, exams, air hours and pretty claustrophobic looking simulators. Once they secure their wings, they must learn more on the job with air-to-air combat practice and most important, that of landing on a tossing and turning aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean. The narration is a bit flatly descriptive and there is something of the factory production line to the presentation. I always thought these worked better if we had a character to focus on - an actor or a real kid, and we have neither here. Still, it was bound to strike a chord with many a young American man with little to hope for on the ground, and is perfectly watchable as a recruitment film. Did Walt Disney direct it? The version I saw looked like it had had it's "directed by" slide at the start removed!