The Autobiography of a 'Jeep'

An amusing short that contains some spectacular off-road shots of the Jeep, narration by the Jeep itself. Interesting and likeable, obviously a response to the publics interest in this revolutionary new vehicle at the time. Also has some good shots of rare early jeep models (Bantam etc)

This American WW II time propaganda movie tells about the invention of the jeep and the everyday use of it by the American army during WW II. The end result is an interesting to watch short film, that also works quite well educational.

Not trying to sound like a big history buff but I know quite a lot about WW II and its weapons and vehicles of its time. Nevertheless, it wasn't until this film that I really fully started to realize- and appreciate the importance of the jeep and what a quite revolutionary invention it was, for its time. Let's face it, without WW II the jeep would had probably not had been invented for another 10 or 15 years. War always brings new inventions, that are revolutionary and in many ways ahead of its time. The jeep is really one of those revolutionary war-time inventions.

This short film shows the jeep in full action and shows for what purposes it all can be used by the army. I still learned some things I didn't knew yet. It all is told and explained from the point of view of the jeep itself. It might sound childish perhaps but it works really well.

Instead of having a 30 minutes+ long documentary with lots of talking, this is a fast paced only 9 minutes short documentary that tells you everything you really want to know and it does this in a rather light and amusing way, without ever loosing any of its informing and educational value. The short running time and its pace also makes sure that it keeps you interested for its entire duration.

The film also features a whole lot of military, royal and Hollywood celebrities driving the jeep, to once more- and to extra point out the importance, reliability and usefulness of the vehicle.

Great light educational, little short, WW II-time film.

8/10

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This surprisingly interesting short documentary works much better than you might expect it to, given its basic description as a military-produced promotional film about the development of the jeep. The production is solid, and the footage provides plenty of variety that holds your interest rather well.

The narrative device of using the vehicle's perspective was no doubt chosen to keep the subject light and upbeat. While sometimes a bit at odds with the tone of the actual footage, it usually works all right.

The footage itself is generally quite good, showing many of the reasons why the humble-looking jeep became such a fixture in the Army. The brief footage of public figures and celebrities riding in jeeps is also interesting. It does solid job of presenting what the jeep is all about, and along the way it also gives you an appreciation for some of the many hardships and risks that the soldiers using it had to endure.

After World War 2, General Eisenhower was quoted as saying that the Jeep was one of the definitive weapons which won the conflict for the Allies. The vehicle in question is the 4x4 Command Reconnaissance truck built both by Ford and Willys Overland Motors. Commonly called the jeep, a marriage of the initials of "general purpose", this vehicle would prove to be one of the classic military vehicles of the war. Even those not interested in history will immediately recognize it. This short made during the war briefly goes over how the jeep was accepted into service with the US military after its abilities (and looks) were doubted by even its designers. The jeep defied everyone's expectations and by the end of the war, over half a million would be made: 30 every single hour. What gives this film a humorous touch and separates it from many other ww2 focused films I've seen is how the narrator is actually a jeep. Well, not exactly, but the story of the vehicle's success is told from its perspective. After the jeep is first designed, many working on it had doubts about its future promises. It's not the nicest looking vehicle, but what it lacks in style it makes up for in sheer utility. We see how the Army tested the jeep to the max, and how driving over bumps said all they needed to know about the excellent hydraulics. When commandos dropping into contested territory needed a reliable means of either infiltrating or escaping a certain area, the jeep played a part here as well. Due to its light weight for a truck, it could be loaded into cargo planes and even gliders. The vehicle could also serve as a means to tug a glider into the air. Later in the war, infantrymen find new and resourceful uses for this tough little thing. While it has essentially no armor, the jeep could be employed as a tank destroyer by mounting recoilless rifles on its rear platform. It could tow artillery guns and throw down smokescreens to cloak the advance of friendly forces. Using an arrangement of floats, jeeps could become amphibious while retaining almost all of their mobility. After the jeep is proven a success and mass production of it starts, America starts shipping huge numbers of them wherever they're needed. The film ends by saying how the Willys Jeep and the american soldier are a team now. You'll rarely see one without the other, and although production of it stopped in 1945, the vehicle is still regarded as one of the greatest successes in engineering history. This was a pleasant little thing to sit down and watch. While it's pretty sparse on clarity in regards to how the jeep came about, it does have nice footage of them driving around and contributing to the war effort, both on the battlefield and back in america. While usually unarmed, the jeep shows that this trait is barely even a downside when there's thousands of them and each one has such a huge amount of customization options. World war 2 was a battle of production, and the US helped win that battle at home through the production of countless of these iconic trucks.

This is one of 50 films included in the DVD set "Treasures from American Film Archives (2000)". It's a documentary about the Jeep--and, oddly, it's told as if the Jeep itself is narrating the film! That is a pretty weird idea but it actually worked great. As you see the many crazy and difficult jobs this general purpose vehicle did, you can't help but admire the ingenuity of the car maker and designers. I was also surprised to see the likes of Laurel & Hardy and Claudette Colbert driving about in them for Bond Drives as well as Roosevelt and King George VI riding in them around the globe. I don't know exactly who the intended audience was for this one, but it was truly inspiring and exciting to watch even today--almost 70 years later.