Group D – British Film and WW2

 

The source which we have chosen to study is from the BFI’s (British Film Institute) monthly film bulletin. This was a periodical which ran from 1934 until 1991, reviewing every film that was released in British features within the respective month. All films from the large commercial releases to art-house films were included, with a detailed review and release date of each picture.

 

In its entirety, the primary objective of the bulletin would have been to sell copies. However, as the BFI is an organisation existing within the public sector of the economy, it would be fair to assume that during the World War 2 period (1st September, 1939 – 2nd September, 1945) and the surrounding years, the reviews would be modified to suit wartime needs. For instance, reviews for films released during the period may be more in favour of films which are motivational, painting the Allies in a positive light whilst simultaneously vilifying the Axis nations. Therefore, positive reviews would encourage civilians to view them. Examples of films within this period include The Great Dictator (1940), Man Hunt (1941) and notably Hangmen Also Die! (1943) which depicted the death of Reinhard Heydrich (“The Hangman”), a high-ranking Nazi official who died at the hands of an Allied assassination mission. Films as these would most likely not receive negative views in order to keep spirits high.

 

This item would be effective in telling us exactly how the war affected cinema in the UK, as it displays exactly the content put out during that period. As the bulletin reviewed every film that came out each year, reading it would also give modern day scholars an insight into the opinions of an audience of the time. A clear theme of war in these films (as the examples stated show) may have altered the cinematic audience slightly. Women might have been put off going to the cinema and seeing war focused films as it would remind them of the trauma and danger their husbands, fathers and sons were in at that moment. Although many of the films produced in the UK would have favoured Britain and shown a positive outcome, the action of violence and innocent deaths during such a difficult time may have reduced audience numbers. World War films have become increasingly popular in the 21st century with a male target audience and so it would be interesting to know whether they were as popular at the time the war was occurring.

 

This bulletin had given us an insight not only into how audiences were reacting to film during the war, but how it was utilised as propaganda and recruitment. It would be easy to think that the film industry might slow at a time of such economic deficiency, however these film bulletins prove that it not only thrived but was used to help the war effort.

One thought on “Group D – British Film and WW2

  1. TUTOR FEEDBACK

    This is a really interesting selection – the BFI Bulletin has the potential to give a range of useful information for anyone interested in British cinema in the war years. The post gives some good contextual information about the publication and its founding institution. The group make some good attempts to consider the function of a periodical like this, but the problem here is one of speculation that could be more easily answered by having picked a single issue and looking in a little more detail at what was contained within that issue, rather than talking about the Bulletin more broadly. What were the reviews actually like? I’d caution against suggesting that reviews give us access to audiences and how they reacted – remember that reviews mediate, promote, criticise from the perspective of one professional individual — they are not the voices of ‘everyday’ cinemagoers. Consider what kind of evidence we would need to get closer to audiences and their reactions. What kind of historical sources would allow us this kind of access? We might need to turn to, say, oral histories, or memory work with people still living, or personal writings from the period, or perhaps Box office figures and statistics.
    Overall, therefore, some engaged and thoughtful work – for future work of this kind with the archive, I’d recommend trying to specific rather than generalise, picking an example of an issue or issues to allow you to comment in more detail on the source and what it contains.

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