Shell Shock / Battle of Blood Island (Something Weird)

Rating:
Summary: Weak Films, Great Shorts
Review: Both of the main features are weak and the 4 stars is solely due to the fascinating bonus shorts.

Shell Shock has an interesting set up, but it just fizzles out. It held my attention, but at the end I was left feeling like I could have spent my time better. Overall, it was like a weak episode of Combat.

Battle of Blood Island, on the other hand, was an utter chore to sit through. Early on in the film, all the Japanese troops commit suicide, so the two surviving US soldiers are left on the titular island alone to spend the whole film alternating between bickering with each other, then apologizing to each other for said bickering. There is no battle (just the aftermath). There is no blood. And it wasn't filmed on an island. It could just have easily been a terrible drama about a couple of guys stranded in a desert, or in a mountain after a plane crash, or (fill in with any scenario in which two people could be stranded in the middle of nowhere). Only recommended for those who feel the need to see a young Roger Corman say two or three lines in order to save money.

The only real reason to get this DVD is for the amazing shorts. "Information Please" is a film produced by the US Air Force during WWII to teach soldiers about the methods Germans might use to trick prisoners into providing information. It is largely done through a film-within-a-film (a fake German film about how to conduct interrogations).

"Our Job in Japan" is a jaw-dropping War Department film made just after Japan's WWII surrender in order to explain to soldiers, often by using stock footage taken completely out of context, why the US must continue to occupy Japan. The film is as outrageously racist as any film the Nazis made. For example, it tries to degrade the Japanese by explicitly arguing they are a bunch of irrational pagans, and goes out of its way to insult Shintoism. Also, the War Department argues that Japan has no culture (they don't say why, but I guess it's because the Japanese didn't eat hot dogs or play baseball.) One concession the War Department makes: the Japanese do have brains like other humans, and therefore could be taught by US occupiers how to use them (the US War Department's words, not mine). Overall, this documentary, like Mein Kampf, is a horrific artifact that is simultaneously historically and sociologically important (as a study of racism), although its contents have zero validity.

And, lastly, in "We've Got Another Bond to Buy", a famous crooner/child-abuser tries to appeal to the patriot in all of us by arguing that there is profit to be made in them there War Bonds. You can sing along by following the bouncing ball.

Rating:
Summary: Weak Films, Great Shorts
Review: Both of the main features are weak and the 4 stars is solely due to the fascinating bonus shorts.

Shell Shock has an interesting set up, but it just fizzles out. It held my attention, but at the end I was left feeling like I could have spent my time better. Overall, it was like a weak episode of Combat.

Battle of Blood Island, on the other hand, was an utter chore to sit through. Early on in the film, all the Japanese troops commit suicide, so the two surviving US soldiers are left on the titular island alone to spend the whole film alternating between bickering with each other, then apologizing to each other for said bickering. There is no battle (just the aftermath). There is no blood. And it wasn't filmed on an island. It could just have easily been a terrible drama about a couple of guys stranded in a desert, or in a mountain after a plane crash, or (fill in with any scenario in which two people could be stranded in the middle of nowhere). Only recommended for those who feel the need to see a young Roger Corman say two or three lines in order to save money.

The only real reason to get this DVD is for the amazing shorts. "Information Please" is a film produced by the US Air Force during WWII to teach soldiers about the methods Germans might use to trick prisoners into providing information. It is largely done through a film-within-a-film (a fake German film about how to conduct interrogations).

"Our Job in Japan" is a jaw-dropping War Department film made just after Japan's WWII surrender in order to explain to soldiers, often by using stock footage taken completely out of context, why the US must continue to occupy Japan. The film is as outrageously racist as any film the Nazis made. For example, it tries to degrade the Japanese by explicitly arguing they are a bunch of irrational pagans, and goes out of its way to insult Shintoism. Also, the War Department argues that Japan has no culture (they don't say why, but I guess it's because the Japanese didn't eat hot dogs or play baseball.) One concession the War Department makes: the Japanese do have brains like other humans, and therefore could be taught by US occupiers how to use them (the US War Department's words, not mine). Overall, this documentary, like Mein Kampf, is a horrific artifact that is simultaneously historically and sociologically important (as a study of racism), although its contents have zero validity.

And, lastly, in "We've Got Another Bond to Buy", a famous crooner/child-abuser tries to appeal to the patriot in all of us by arguing that there is profit to be made in them there War Bonds. You can sing along by following the bouncing ball.