Swim and Live!Official War Department 1-486 Training Film Restricted

Year Published: 1942

Creator: US Army Signal Corp Air Forces Production

Complete Record: Water Safety as developed by the American Red Cross in Washington, DC. Music by ______Orchestra in Santa Ana, California. This is much more than a simple training film. Take out the narration, and it is truly other-worldly. Narrator says that it is important that men serving on ships not be afraid of water and that the main point is that loss is first to be thought of in terms of loss of personnel. While a boat can be replaced, men cannot. Character of Private Higgins introduced as exemplar of men on ships. He hasn’t learned how to swim. Higgins is pictured waking up on typical iron army cot, guns encased in background. He is in T-shirt and lights a cigarette. Water safety school shown. Looks like Normandy Beach, but just training not war. Then training in tropical environment. Hawaii? or Southern California. This film was made after Pearl Harbor? Groups LS made up of enlisted men, some college athletes, learning to take care of themselves in water. Men shown in line along sandy water’s edge. They pair up for training and hold hands. First learn how to hold their breath under water. LS then MS Then learn how to float. Then float on back. Then begin kick fly. Men work in pairs. Aesthetically presented . . . reminds me of Busby Berkeley dance routines from camera above action. The pairing of men does carry some homoeroticism. I am also reminded that the Billy Rose Acquacade was a big hit at the 1939 World’s Fair at Yerba Buena Island and later (1950s) Esther Williams films. In formation of pairs, they learn to kick backwards. They learn to DOG paddle (inter cut of DOG paddling) on back then float propelled by arms with kicking added then hands. Diving is taught. Again a LS of men lined up along pool or sea wall. Like Busby Berkeley divers “peel off” one after another from various positions: falling in, kneeling, one knee, crouched, and finally standing up. The images resemble a Hollywood set-- palms and grass hut in background. Men then lunge into water in phalanxes not a single line. There are good shots from an underwater camera that shows the men diving and swimming under water. This is a very poetic sequence. They look like a school of fish. Next: Breast stroke. Under water shot shown. Then side stroke. Then backstroke. Long sequences of men in the water that are very homoerotic and beautiful. The bodies look suspended against and invisible background. Other strokes shown, some against a plain sea weed plane. Men instructed how to jump from a ship with a life-preserver. They learn how and when to take their clothes off under water. They are shown landing on the water in parachutes and how to escape from the cords and material. They demonstrate jumping off a ship to make a ‘Mae West’ out of their shirts that hold air when submerged. Other methods of making clothing and objects into floating devices is demonstrated. One sequence shows pairs of men floating with each other as mutual support. Dismiss the narration, and the circle formed by all the participating men is captivating. Next using kit bags as inflation devices is demonstrated. Also how to handle removal of wounded using several inflated kit bags demonstrated. The paired and quadrupled me is homoerotic and tender. First Aid for close-to-drowning victims shown as a line of men on a beach, each man that is doing the pressure and release motion straddling the prone victim and administers down and forward pressure on the rib cage to establish breathing for the victim. Finally there is instruction on how to handle fire on water when a ship might release oil. Shot of men in trunks below the water line. All you see are legs walking. Review of all strokes.