Don't expect great art from a propaganda film like BALLOON SITE 568. It depicts the eleven-week initial training session of a group of women from diverse social backgrounds - a secretary, a homemaker, a factory worker - who decide to contribute to the war effort by maintaining barrage balloons. The training is quite arduous, involving listening to a lot of lectures accompanied by practical activities, followed by solemn lessons in the potential risks involved; all of them will be in the front line when the bombing of Britain resumes.
The women respond to their task with enthusiasm, realizing, no doubt, the significance of their roles. They receive willing help from local people, offering them food, baths and shelter wherever possible, and learn to enjoy small occasions like receiving their often infrequent rations.
We also see them enjoying their few moments of leisure-time in the dance-hall, coupling somewhat self-consciously with male officers yet telling them of their inability to forge long-lasting amatory relationships. War work assumes far more significance in their lives.
As a sociological piece, BALLOON SITE 568 offers a fascinating insight into the way in which war work dominated ordinary people's lives, to such an extent that they never quite knew what was going to happen, even the very next day.
The women respond to their task with enthusiasm, realizing, no doubt, the significance of their roles. They receive willing help from local people, offering them food, baths and shelter wherever possible, and learn to enjoy small occasions like receiving their often infrequent rations.
We also see them enjoying their few moments of leisure-time in the dance-hall, coupling somewhat self-consciously with male officers yet telling them of their inability to forge long-lasting amatory relationships. War work assumes far more significance in their lives.
As a sociological piece, BALLOON SITE 568 offers a fascinating insight into the way in which war work dominated ordinary people's lives, to such an extent that they never quite knew what was going to happen, even the very next day.
