The Dambusters , The Colditz Story , The Cruel Sea , We Dive At Dawn - the names of some of the most famous British war films roll of the tongue of any enthusiast, but in reality, surprisingly few of the best remembered wartime films were actually made and screened during World War II. The late, great Sir John Mills, perhaps the most prolific of the British screen actors in the UK during the period and who popped up in many of the most well-known and critically acclaimed films from In Which We Serve to This Happy Breed , We Dive at Dawn and Waterloo Road (to name but a few), is an exception rather the rule. Many of the films regarded today as 'classic British war films' - The Dambusters , The Battle for the River Kwai , Reach for the Sky and The Guns of Navarone for example - were all made in the post-war period. So what of the war films produced and watched during the war itself? Less well known to modern audiences, many of these films can be brought under the inevitable theme of patriotism but within this category, there are two broad camps - comedy and drama.
Dramatic films with the patriotic seam running through them range enormously - from Laurence Oliver's Henry V (1944), In Which We Serve (1942) an out and out war film celebrating heroism in the Navy, The Young Mr Pitt (1942) a biopic of the famous Prime Minister to The Bells Go Down (1943) celebrating the heroism of the Auxiliary Fire Service during the Blitz (and with a rare straight performance from funnyman Tommy Trinder) and Sabotage Agent where British saboteur Robert Donat goes undercover to destroy a German chemical weapons factory. What all of these films do have in common is a sense of the individual, the idea that one person can make a difference - echoing of course the propaganda at the time, Dig for Victory, Careless Talk Costs Lives, harnessing the power of the masses through targeting single people. There are also, interestingly, not as many major battle scenes as one might expect. The focus of these films is the people, not the special effects (see also the strange genre hybrid that is Secret Mission ). It might also have been construed as distasteful to portray major battles as no corner of the country was left untouched by the effects of war. The last thing these people would have wanted is to be reminded of the realities of conflict. The death of characters in these films is always an heroic one too, no human effort goes to waste in this fictional portrayal of the war.
Comedy was another genre to thrive during the war period - so much so that arguably the post-war success of Ealing and the likes of Passport To Pimlico, Whisky Galore, Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Belles of St. Trinians and Lucky Jim were a by-product of this. The style of comedy in films during and after the war differ enormously. With women being recruited for work and social classes being mixed up in the forces, various barriers had been broken down in society. It became more acceptable post-war to attack the status quo through comedy whether the Army, the NHS or the class system itself. The focus of comic films released during the war period is once again predominantly on the individual, the underdog made good.
With this focus, both in serious and comedy drama, on the individual, it comes as no surprise to find that there is a reasonable amount of WW2 home footage made by the British film enthusiasts of the time. Despite film being rationed, individuals still managed to secure enough to make a record of their daily activities. Material from this period at SEFVA (the South East Film and Video Archive - based at Brighton University ) includes wartime preparation and colour film of air raid precautions.
The legacy of this period in British history upon film-making is enormous. Massive social upheaval led to new styles of film and the emergence of a whole new wave of talent - both onscreen and behind the films. For the first time too, the majority of film makers were dedicated to showing and celebrating, the lives of ordinary individuals. It changed the way film was perceived, people saw a reflection of themselves up there on the silver screen. For once, films related to them, to their lives instead of being vehicles for hero worship.
Perhaps it is this legacy that has had the most impact.
Elizabeth Hyder
A full version of this feature appears in the Summer 2005 issue of Close-Up Film Magazine
© Close-Up Film 2005
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