Listen To Britain, We Will Manage

Listen to Britain, We Will Manage During the second World War, Great Britain put out pieces of war-time propaganda that had a completely different tone than that of other countries such as the USA and Germany. Instead of a definite propagandistic piece, some films take more of a poetic route to leave the message more ambiguous and not as focused on supporting and/or actually fighting in the war. An example of this is Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister’s 1942 film Listen to Britain. This poetic war-time film sends the message that life must go on during the war and Britain can manage, as long as everyone works together and does their part. While this message is not stated explicitly in the film, it is demonstrated in this specific clip through its use of only diegetic sound and music, and the symbolism in its editing. While there is no narration in the film – for example, no Voice of God – or non-diegetic sound, Listen to

In the part of the scene with the canteen, there are two men singing, providing entertainment to the large group of people in the canteen. It becomes obvious that the song they are singing is a recognizable song to group of people, as the begin to whistle along with the song after a while of the men just singing by themselves. This part of the scene with all of theme whistling proves the unity of the British people; as long as they all work together and stay united, life will go on and they can manage during the war. Another similar part of the scene to this is when the music comes on after the voice in the women’s factory. The women all sing along to it, which also depicts a sense of unity between the workers, especially as it is over top of the sound of the sewing machines. All of the sounds and music come together to show the women doing their part in the war-time effort and they are both proud and happy about