This 1941 black and white British propaganda patriotic film is presented by The Ministry of Information, written and directed by Humphrey Jennings, and narrated by Laurence Olivier. There are seven segments, each represented by an extract from different English literary passages, poems, and speeches. Each segment is accompanied by war-time images. It opens with a cover of William Camden’s Britannia, whose words are showcased by views of idyllic pastures, woods, rocky cliffs and crags, and a castle (:47-1:35). John Milton’s Areopagitica is the background text for Westminster Abbey and its stained glass windows (1:38) bust of Milton (1:59), Royal Air Force pilots doing flight training with a Hawker Hurricane (2:07-2:35), and Adolf Hitler with his Nazi officers (2:38-2:56). William Blake’s Jerusalem is echoed in children being evacuated from London by train (2:57-3:30). A plaque of William Blake’s house is shown (3:06). The children, now in rural areas, are shown in rowboats and picking up sticks in a forest (3:31-3:54). The opening of Robert Browning’s Home-thoughts, from the Sea is shown before leading to views of Royal Navy destroyers and views of England’s coast from the ships (3:55-5:00). The grave stone of Rudyard Kipling is shown, accompanies by the words from his The Beginnings. The accompanying video is of police and firemen searching for the living in the ruins of smoldering houses and buildings after German Blitz bombings (5:02-5:40). Churchill’s 1940 We shall fight on the beaches speech is read while Winston Churchill reviews soldiers in formation (5:42), a soldier holds a Thompson M1928 submachine gun (5:49), men stack useable brick (6:00), Saint Paul’s Cathedral in fog, and marching soldiers (6:08-6:30). A statue of Lincoln in Parliament Square with tanks and traffic passing by it are accompanied by words from his Gettysburg Address (6:32-7:04). Big Ben is heard and seen through the fog. Tanks pass by, blocking the vision of it, and soldiers walk casually through the streets (7:05-7:54). We encourage viewers to add comments and, especially, to provide additional information about our videos by adding a comment! See something interesting? Tell people what it is and what they can see by writing something for example: "01:00:12:00 -- President Roosevelt is seen meeting with Winston Churchill at the Quebec Conference." This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com

• published: 11 Sep 2018
• views: 3459