as contribution to the war. Whether that includes administrative tasks or taking larger roles such as active fighting.

I think that the power of documentary films gives messages objectively. Unlike the commercial fictional feature or the non-commercial sponsored documentary, Jennings’ war films showed objective scenes rather than explaining each scene. Observing the British’s everyday tasks during the wartime without any commentary may help audience focus on the film objectively.

Having not been alive during the 1940’s makes it more difficult to determine how normal and real these shots and scenes were. However I still feel a strong sense of realism to this film, like what we are watching is how life was in the 1940’s. You don’t get the sense that these are actors trying to perfect their lines and scenes, instead they’re just normal civilians going about their normal lives, which is what they were supposed to represent. From the very soft and happy start to the film to the gradual shift to a more serious plot, Jennings doesn’t put together scenes to excite and entice his viewers, rather he portrays something that can almost be interpreted as truth.

I think it is the fact that this film tried to stay as objective as possible, without giving its opinion or something. For instance: when one man is asking the other what he used to do for work before the war and the guy is saying ‘writing, advertising and stuff’. They have different accents (the guy who asked the question probably never could do something in advertising). It shows that these two men did only meet because of the Second World War. Different people from different backgrounds came together because they wanted to do their part. It doesn’t say ‘look how different these guys are’ or they don’t judge each other for something, bit I think the viewer knows. I think that makes a documentary more objective and may help the audience to observe the film in a more objective way.

I think the power of documentary films is that they reveal audiences to real-life scenarios. The Jennings war film inspires a new understanding of viewer’s world and showed the impact of each scene rather than explaining them.

It is not an easy task whether it be for theatrical purposes or in the case Jennings tries to portray, the reality of the British firefighters that had to fight fires while defending their own lives from the bombs being dropped. The fact that these individuals had to go out and put out fires is an act of courage as is, but with the added element of the bombs, their perseverance to do what had to be done for home and country is even further elevated. Jennings recognizes this and seeks to capture and portray it in her film.

on an active fighting duty or being a messenger, each individual takes an important role.

I think heroism is in the sacrifice that people make for the greater good without the need of being asked. The men who went out to put out those fires during WW2 were not doing it because they thought they would be remembered, but because it was a job that needed to be done and it was a way to do their part during the war.

The film shows the real life firefighters and their hardship the field fighting a major fire. Jennings tries to depict their brotherhood, and the fury of flames, and the sacrifice of these brave men in their duties. In this regard, brotherhood of team members and the dramatic story turn into a heroic display, and thus we can see “heroism” clearly.

I think that Jennings takes an interesting approach to heroism in this film. He first humanizes his characters and portrays them as regular people, ones you wouldn’t think would be heroes. An example of that is when they are all crowding around the piano and singing upbeat songs. Then things shift in the film and you see them doing their jobs but not in a extraordinary fashion. Despite the commonality in their actions, as a whole they are still heroic nevertheless.

I think heroism is when you just do something, just because you want to rebuild something or help someone, instead of watching from the sideline and waiting for stuff to happen. They all did their part. For instance before the fighting began, the men are all together next to this piano and singing a song about dying. It’s almost some sort of tradition, this has been going on for years. ’Don’t miss me when I’m gone’ they sing. It some sort of fraternization, some sort of community singing. They knew they could die but they did it anyway, because they felt like it was the right thing to do. For their country, but mostly for their people. For me, that’s true heroism.

The essence of the heroism is a ruthless dedication to reality and to the accurate necessities of our lives – in the film, people didn’t question about devoting their life to the war just like their singing lyrics shows. At this period, it was what they had to do, and I think that will eventually lead to the heroism.

When one does mundane tasks such as picking up calls or filling out paperwork, one forgets the importance as to what they play themselves in the overall structure of the organization. From the radar detector personnel, watchers of German aircraft, to the women who would relay messages to the fire stations themselves, everyone played a part. Even when a bomb hit the building of one of these relay women, she dragged herself to her post and continued to do her responsibility. Her actions as an individual show how pivotal her role is in the overall structure of the system she is a part of.

I think a key point here is the importance of the individual stems from the fact that this a time of war. Without a war a viewer could not really see how important each individual is. Since it is a dangerous time and situation Jennings is able to show how every action by every worker is highly valuable and has a huge impact to completing the overall task . Without war the importance of the individuls’ actions would just be lost.

Everybody is doing their part, making their own decisions, playing their role. The men fight, the women fill out paperwork and they all take it extremely serious. You have this close-up of the hands of this woman and they are extremely feminine. They show that it’s no problem to work and still be feminine at the same time. There is also a lot of inter-cutting in the film to show what the men and women are doing for work. They are responsible for their jobs and know they are part of this larger system where everybody plays their role.

For example, despite it was not usual for women to work at this period, in the film, they were doing deskwork. Even when they sensed the imminent danger, they didn’t stop their work – it tells the importance of each individual. Each of them working together to help out others.

Men and women risking their lives throughout the film show the endurance of the British Spirit. From the army personnel looking for German invasion and airplanes, to women working in buildings while under bomber siege to the fire fighters risking their lives in the dead of night with the fires they are battling as their source of both warmth and danger show how the British Spirit endures. The way that the Royal British Airforce, despite being outnumbered drastically, still took to the skies to defend their country goes to show that despite the odds the British Spirit endures and Jennings succeeds and capturing that to a degree.

It reminded me of America’s own Rosie the Riveter during WWII.

When the fire station was bombed and the woman attending the phones went on to give her message is a good example of the British spirit. It shows that they will keep doing their jobs until their dead. As long as there is a chance they can keep going, they will still fight.

I think British Spirit is courage. When the sirens and noise of German airplanes are heard loudly. All members of firefighters would be nervous. But they continue to sing, and thus they keep their spirits up, and they are to be brave firefighters to save other citizens from attacks.

The British spirit is the power of how all the workers kept doing their jobs despite being in life threatening situations. From bombs to heavy fires these workers kept on working.

Singing can be seen as an example of one’s spirit. After the chaos and hard work we see them signing- this is a way how to uplift your spirit and feel better despite what happened. especially when everyone else is doing it.

In this documentary, they sing all the time, they talk with everybody, women and men are equal, people from different backgrounds are treated the same way, you can really see they are all in it together. So it really shows the British spirit, the togetherness during the war of wanting to fight for their country and their people.

I think the British spirit is solidarity and community. People at that period tired of continually interrupting their sleep to go back and forth to their work. Women are the good example of this British spirit. In the film, they didn’t stop working even though there was imminent danger to their lives.

The “British Spirit” is all about togetherness, patriotism and unity. During the time of war they came together and took care of their own. They did this not because they were told to, but because they had to. It’s not in them not to help others.

There is no doubt, what happened to Britain by the Germans did occur. Jenning’s uses a script in order to provide a storyline of events even though this must of been one of many, many stories of the people of Britain. While not ascertaining hers is based on a true story, it is however based on real events. The characters used, such as the fire fighters, were real fire fighters which adds to the validity of the events that transpired. By combining both Jennings is able to create a video that shows the will and endurance of the British, thus remaining a constant reminder to stand the test of history of what the British are capable of under peril.

However, that content can be organized in a way where the main purpose of including those scenes is intentionally “scripted” to draw attention to the strong collective efforts of including EVERYONE in the war.

By blurring the lines of what is scripted and what is reality, it makes the scripted scenes feel much realer. If “this” part is true why can’t “that” part be. This helps the propagandist purposes of the film be more believable.

I think Jennings mixes the genre of scripted drama and documentary films. Jennings uses real firefighters instead of actors to show the roles of “reality.” Producing all scripted dramatic scenes of firehouse describe their real life. The drama with the realism makes the film approach people easily.

The script here is that Jennings is still the director and he is in charge of putting the shots and scenes into a film. The arrangement, order, and character placement is still all his. The reality is these were real events that did take place and through his script he is able to portray these occurrences in a very realistic way. Since Jennings is able to masterfully orchestrate the script and reality, in my opinion his propagandistic purposes are achieved at the highest possible rate.

It is a government financed film so it has to be propaganda in some sort of way. That doesn’t necessarily has to be a bad thing but it’s good to remember. It’s scripted but it tries to be as faithful as in the way people used to talk (older English) and you can still call it a documentary I would say, because everything that’s portrayed actually happened (and a lot of people in this documentary were or had been fireman, I heard). So I would say it’s propaganda, but one that tries to stay as close to the truth as possible.

The reality is obviously what happened in Britain by the Germans. Adding spice to real-life scenarios by editing each scenes, that is scripted. This makes the film a bit more dramatic and gives viewer better understanding to the event.

But in this film, scripted is the visualisation of events and the message the documentary tries to portray. At the same time, we come to realize the reality of the situation by taking our own step back and viewing the documentary from a different perspective than the one we’re expected.