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Rating: 
Summary: The Road to Hell is Paved by Good Intentions
Review: Educational Archives is an excellent collection of "educational" films ranging in date from the 1940s to 1980s providing a wonderful look at the concerns of society and its often misguided attempts to change children (and, in some cases, adults) during those periods. (Interestingly, the 1980s films have the most dated fashions).In these mini masterpieces you get to meet all sorts of interesting characters. There's Chalky, a talking drawing on a chalkboard who, in only 10 minutes, turns a potentially homicidal young bully into the paragon of politeness, then, after the lesson is over, has the young man help him commit assisted suicide! Then there's Soapy, a bar of soap dressed in yellow tights and puffy purple sleeves with fancy elbow length cuffs who sneaks into a young boy's room at night to teach him that washing does not make you a "sissy" by gesturing flamboyantly and making the boy watch a film of a rugged cowboy soaping up. On the other end of the spectrum is Mr. Bungle, a fun-loving puppet who children despise so much that they do their best to act like pod people in order to avoid being anything like him: Mr. Bungle wouldn't neatly line up his utensils on his lunch tray before eating, so I will! In another film a woman learns the truth about hot dogs by taking LSD: they are actually made of still-living troll dolls who have been taken away from their wives and children (leaving them without support) and are cruelly being served as food to those who haven't had the veil lifted from their eyes by popping acid (the film is unintentionally more pro-vegetarianism than anti-drug). But after learning all this from the troll doll, she cruelly stamps it to death! There are "real" people too, like a stereotyped Italian shopkeeper with syphilus, a mother who apologizes for interrupting her son's masturbating, a factory worker who trips and falls every 2 seconds, and teenagers doomed to die in car crashes on their prom night. In "The Outsider", a seriously mental girl breaks into tears wondering why other kids order chocolate icecream when she orders root bear. And there's celebrities! Sal Mineo (the guy who dies in "Rebel Without a Cause") sarcastically makes fun of drug addicts then sings a lame song about russian roulette. Lorne Greene advocates using pets as aids in teaching young children about reproduction. In "Shy Guy", narrated by Mike Wallace, a young Dick York stars as a likeable outsider who is encouraged by his father to spy on other young men so he can learn to copy them, conform and become boring. Lou Rawls recommends that blacks join the Navy as a solution to racial discrimination (!) Best of all, there is a stoned looking Sonny Bono dressed in a shiny gold suit who, in a supposed anti-pot film, actually teaches kids that it is okay to smoke pot except while in a bad mood or operating heavy machinery. As a male, I also finally got to see one of those special films only girls get to see about menstruation (basically an extended TV commercial for maxi pads, complete with blatant product placement). Not all of the films are funny, but all are fascinating in their own ways. I'm not sure what "Why Doesn't Cathy Eat Breakfast?" is trying to teach, but she has some interesting posters. Unfortunately, some of the Sex and Drugs films are edited for time, most drastically in the case of "Narcotics: Pit of Despair", but that film is available complete and in a better print as an extra feature on the DVD for "Blood Freak" (also highly recommended to those interested in unintentionally humourous anti-drug propaganda). There are other films I wish were included in the collection, e.g. the Navy's "LSD: Trip to Where?", but the Educational Archives is a great start, filled with amazing films, many I've never heard about. Hopefully additional volumes will be released in the future.
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