The Homefront (review)

amusing film clips, but resistance to workplace rationalization is much more difficult to capture on film. Also missing from the Clockwork is a clear explanation of whether reorganizing work (e g. through informal work groups) would solve the problem of the degradation of labor that Breitbart has illuminated or whether fundamental change would only come with an alteration in the ownership of the means of production. The film uses conventional ingredients of the historical documentary genre— stills, old film footage, contemporary interviews —but uses them effectively. An excellent sound track enlivens the film. The narration, however, is spoken rather woodenly and makes the film seem longer than its twenty-five minute running time. Films that focus on working-class struggles may be more exciting to watch than Clockwork, but teachers of labor history and labor studies will want to supplement them with the more depressing but equally important tale told in this film. Roy Rosenzweig George Mason University The Homefront, a film/video produced and directed by Steven Schecter. Black and White in three parts (89 1/2 miutes total). Distributed by Churchill films. The Homefront is a neatly packaged three part history of the impact of World War II on American society. Produced and directed by Steven Schecter, it provides large doses of extremely interesting footage that can be a useful addition to American history courses. The film is a welcome relief from the deluge of contemporary films intent on revitalizing heroic warriors who are placed in contexts devoid of social or political realism. As an attempt to explain how World War II "changed Americans forever", however, the film is neither particularly profound nor comprehensive; neither does it ever attempt to compare the domestic impact of World War II to earlier or later conflicts . The film does provide the viewer with a number of themes: the war was a "time of opportunity for the underclass" and for women seeking employment; the quick 70 conversion from a peacetime to a war economy produced diverse effects; the racial prejudice against both blacks and Japanese Americans. The Homefront is especially valuable in spotlighting social factors of the war experience that are often overlooked such as the centrality of mail in the communications process, and the existance of "door key children," and juvenile delinquency. Racial discrimination is effectively addressed both in a set of interviews conducted in Baltimore and in another segment on the controversy surrounding black demands to become trolley operators on the Philadelphia Transit Company. There is also some tantalizing language used upon occasion, such as the description of the f ifty-tank-an-hour Chrysler plant in Detroit as a "gigantic stage production," but the wider implications of such a spectacle are never addressed. The main problems with this film revolve around its lack of a coherent thematic approach and its oversight in acquainting viewers with important facets of government involvement in the economy. Episode after episode cascades upon the viewer like the newsreels themselves from which footage has been extracted. In addition, there is no mention of the Office of War Information or the Office of Price Administration; one never hears of the dollar-a-year men who ran so many government agencies. Wartime politics are slighted and the Detroit Race Riot of 1943, a major event of wartime America, is poorly explained. Nonetheless, as an antidote to the Rambo mentality of our times, this film and the subject it treats has much to offer. Like Studs Terkel 's stunning book The Good War, the texture of lives impacted by World War II is a subject of much sensitivity and complexity that is a welcome focus of this film. Gregory Bush University of Miami 71 ...