at Internet Archive
I believe that what separates modern nations from the old model — and affiliations that aren't nations — is in the consistency of the national narrative. These days that is molded in cinematic terms.The much-celebrated sound bite phenomenon only works because as a shortcut it refers back to that narrative. All sound bits are cinematic. If we want to understand ourselves, we need to understand the stories we've joined.That's why I'm spending a bit of time with films that define what it means to be British. I'm not British myself, so It should be a bit easier to see. I write this shortly after terrorist attacks in London, an event which forces the UK to snap back to references of who they are. I saw this on a double bill with a quintessential Battle of Britain movie. You can see there that the whole enterprise is designed to convey a short list of characteristics. War movies are seldom about war and always about who we are.This is different. Possibly no collection of films define the Brits more than Ealing comedies. And I think this is the clearest.The setup concerns a small suburb of London. Ordinary folks... that's important.By some plot device, they become non-Brits in the midst of Britain. They cling to this, as one says they fight so hard to be non-British because they ARE British.As this unfolds, what we see is self-evaluation of what it means to belong and what the characteristics of the group are. I could list what I saw, but that's boring.Much more interesting is that everything I saw was a mild version of what we'd see later with the "Goon Show" and Monty Python. The "Minister of Silly Walks" bit seems pretty tight.Slight fun. Important. InsightfulTed's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
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