inspiration, The New Lot (UK 1943: Carol Reed) was screened as part of the growing documentary film movement. The New Lot concentrates on the actual recruitment and training of real-life soldiers. According to Geoff Brown, In line with the film's non-commercial function, no names of personnel are given onscreen: instead, we are informed the film is "supervised by an officer appointed by the General Staff". The Home Guard exercise sequence proves a limp way of demonstrating the recruits' teamwork; aside from that, director Carol Reed, editor Reginald Mills, and scriptwriters Peter Ustinov and Eric Ambler (both with experience as Army privates) devise ingenious ways of fulfilling their propaganda brief. Class stereotypes remain, and condescension curls round the presentation of Loman - happy to spend his entire life laying bricks. But the humour is spry and the understanding of the ordinary conscript genuine; and the war film spoof, with Robert Donat and Stewart Rome, makes a clever and unexpected finale.7 The Way Ahead takes this premise and then expands upon it via an open-ended narrative which sees the men being conscripted, entering the platoon’s site, getting acquainted to the rigours of army training, until finally they meet their fate in battle. The final heart-wrenching scene has the men, in the midst of fighting, walking through the rubble of a desert town. As they walk into the distance, with bullets and mortar shells crashing around them, they become shrouded in mist and so disappear into…? The film’s open-ended narrative structure allows the contextual audience to guess as to the individual’s outcome. Whilst it is certainly an incredibly tearful and heartfelt moment as the soldiers disappear, what was most important about The Way Ahead, was that it showed the credibility to the argument that conscription was a vital part of securing the defence of Britain
7
Geoff Brown, “The New Lot” at http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/730052/ (accessed on 30th November 2010)