These short films are the extras on the BFI Flipside release of Peter Watkins' Privilege (1967), which will be reviewed in the near future...
Diary Of An Unknown Soldier (Watkins, 1959)
A moving portrait of WWI from a first-person viewpoint, this anti-militarist short has some starkly poetic images of a war-ridden landscape and a frank, cynical narration (by Watkins himself, 24 at the time) from the perspective of a young soldier about to embark upon the front line (perhaps a precursor to Stuart Cooper's Overlord, 1975). He nervously glances around his waiting post detailing the character of each man in his squad, questioning the morals of one gruff looking chap who seems to revel in the violence, and says he won't be content until he runs three Germans through with his bayonet. The best moment in the film actually comes at the end where the narrator spots a captured German prisoner sat eating soup. Our protagonist notes how normal the prisoner looks, no different to the men of questionable ethic he's fighting beside. It's just a different uniform. This may be a slightly naïve view, but I support Watkins' humanism and empathy towards the soldiers. The film also serves as a document of the fear experienced by a solider approaching the frontline; when you're so numb you can't even feel the abrasive fabric on the strap to your backpack. When every crunching footstep of a soldier passing by brings the reality of war ever closer. The brief scene of conflict in the film is just a frenzy of violence; the camera moves in a slightly disorienting fashion between fallen soldiers and their weapons. All this for a little bit of earth, our narrator says. All that bloodshed just to reclaim some soil. Again, a naïve and perhaps basic viewpoint given the wider context of war, but also a true one to the individual who, in the next few seconds, knows he's going to lose his life and never see home again...
The Forgotten Faces (Watkins, 1961)
Hungary, 1956; oppressed students are fighting back against their communist government and the bloodshed has rolled into the streets. Young boys carry grenades and cower in fear as soldiers patrol with rifles, killing the men and women only four or five years their senior; perhaps an older brother, or a sister? Watkins is best known for his mock documentaries The War Game (1965) and Culloden (1964), both of which shoot fictional content as if it were being seen through the eyes of a modern news crew. The films have such intense realism and stark bleakness that in fact many do think of them as being documentary - The War Game even won an Oscar in that category, and got itself banned in Britain. This short has the same quality as those films, taking the form of newsreel footage. There's a rousing revolutionary speech, an assault on an ambulance and the execution of military forces, but the most shocking and vital moment comes at the end when our narrator (Frank Hickey) proposes the importance of the individual human life in conflict. He takes the wider picture - two strongly opposing sides both of which think they are right - but then shows us faces that have previously appeared in the film, including a doctor, journalist and young siblings. Executed, missing or deported seems to be their fate, and the war-ravaged souls looks pensively into the camera searching for an escape, or perhaps even an answer. Some of them will have fallen without a grave; some of them hanged, or even burned. One young boy was shot in the back while struggling to throw a grenade. His friends laughed. One of the final shots in the film is of a soldier holding a flag. He is holding it not high with pride but low with defeat, and the flag has a hole through the middle, much like the country it represents...
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