I love that the Oscars make me rate training films in the Documentary Feature category. Baptism of Fire is at least intriguingly atypical. It's clearly geared at hard-fighting macho men. Unlike war films of the era, there's harsh language and extreme violence. When a German soldier gets a gun butt smashed in his face and a bayonet through his chest, there's blood everywhere. It's almost shocking to see violence and death portrayed so realistically in a film from 1943, but it's all to prepare soldiers for the harsh reality on the battlefield. In that capacity, this is something of a success. But those are a tiny handful of images in a training film that otherwise would have soldiers nodding off in the screening room.
No comments:
Post a Comment