Neither for Nor Against

As neither a Communist nor an anti-Communist may I be allowed to give an opinion on the Russian film which was banned by the censor? The review of it by D.L.F. did nothing but give an account of what the makers of the film hoped it would say—not what it really did say.

The film was no more prejudiced than certain "Marches of Time" I have seen recently—in fact many scenes in the two were remarkably similar, but with a different commentary attached. When one saw scenes of school children engaged in peaceful pursuits they were labelled Americans in the American film, and Russians in the Russian film; and when tanks were shown trundling over hills they were labelled American in the Russian film and Russian in the American film. (Correction—in the American film there were two shots of trundling tanks . . . one of Russian tanks attacking Freedom and one of American tanks defending Freedom).

But the real value of the film lay not in uncovering any brutalities of American police in Vienna, not in revealing notings and discontent provoked by "American Imperialism" (for the riotings and discontent are only too prevalent on both sides of the Iron Curtain). Neither did the value lie in showing us the enormous number of Soviet signatures attached to the Stockholm Peace Petition (for the very reason why more of the Western world will not sign the Peace Petition is just because the signatures are too Red). The real worth in showing this film would be to open the eyes of the general public to the enormous amount of propaganda which is fed to us—in showing them that the Russians say the same things about us as we say about them, using practically identically the same scenes to say it. For this reason I feel the film should not have been banned. It may have helped to balance the fanatical anti-Communists who digest every word our newspapers and Government have to tell them about the Russians—balance them not by showing them what good fellows the Communists are, but that we use exactly the same lures to draw public opinion into our net of anti-Communism. (Of course the fact that no theatre would have been caught dead showing a Russian film is no excuse for banning it.)

Technically, the film was very poor indeed—bad print, bad sound track and very long and uninteresting shots of speaker after speaker talking in peculiar languages, with a barely audible English commentary in the background. I was surprised after Russia's rapid advance in earlier films that this one was not more slick.

Anonymous

(For obvious reasons. . . .)

1.	The Communists are gaining ground even in New Zealand and I'm afraid for my skin.
2.	in the meantime the Emergency Regulations have not yet been repealed.

[Anon. can rest easily—the Emergency Regulations weren't that sweeping.

—Ed.]