Australia produced frustratingly few feature films during World War Two, but did come up with some first rate documentaries. The best known is the Oscar-winning Kokoda Frontline but there is also this effort, written and directed by Tom Gurr. Gurr had written South West Pacific which had been so criticised in some sectors that the Prime Minister ordered it's distribution cancelled and a new film made which emphasised real people and men on the front line. This was the result.
It's the story of a patrol from some real life soldiers along Shaggy Ridge in the Finisterre Range (not particularly well known battlefield, but then not many places in PNG outside Kokoda and Port Morseby are). They fly into the jungle, travel to their old base, do a patrol, see some action.
The best thing about it is, not surprisingly, the visuals - playing harmonica in a plane, native guides helping get gear off the plan, soldiers helping each other across a creek and have a swim, the long grass. The soldiers are never really given a chance to establish a character.
Peter Finch does the narration, and very well too. Like a lot of Aussie actors of the time - Chips Rafferty, Grant Taylor - he saw real service: something that should be more celebrated and known. Unfortunately he's given a few racist lines (eg "you couldn't fight the war without the boong, the steady, patient, boong"). That aside, it's a remarkable achievement and should be better known.
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