THE WORLD UNDER THE BOMBS – FROM GUERNICA TO HIROSHIMA/ LE MONDE SOUS LES BOMBES - GUERNICA TO HIROSHIMA.
France, 2016, 140 minutes, Colour and Black-and-white.
Directed by Fabrice Salinie, Emanuel Blanchard.
A significant documentary to be seen widely. As the title indicates, there is a focus on bombs, the dropping of bombs, their effect, especially in the decade between the bombing of Guernica and Hiroshima, 1936-1945.
This is a French documentary screened on television in two parts, also made available on Australian streaming.
The underlying perspective of the documentary is that the dropping of bombs is horrendous.
The early part of the film shows the development of flight, the incorporation of developments in weapons making, creation of larger and deadlier bombs, used in World War I. There were developments during the 1920s but, especially in the 1930s, in the context of the Spanish Civil War, the testing of the devastation of bombs and destruction of population with the bombing of Guernica.
The commentary highlights that with technological development, there were no limits to the developments of bombs, heightened by the rise of national socialism in Germany, the ambitions of Hitler, the participation of Germany in the Spanish Civil War. The commentary also highlights the taking for granted that the development of bomb warfare was necessary, for some even good.
There are various interviews with military authorities, scientists, and a telling comment from Curtis Lemay about the effect of bombings.
The film also shows the development of creation of bombs in the UK, the bombing of London and the consequences for the population, sending the children to the country, the shelters in the Underground, the devastation of the buildings – and the response of Winston Churchill, interactions with the Americans once they entered the war, with Eisenhower, the different philosophies of victory by bombing, especially with Britain’s Sir Arthur Harris, and Eisenhower and other Americans with their victory by sea and land invasion.
There is a great deal of footage of bombing, of blitzed cities like London, the destruction in Coventry, the move to bombing of Hamburg, Berlin, the famous bombing of Dresden.
And, as the end of the war moves to the Pacific, the bombing of Tokyo, the flammability of its buildings, Eisenhower, Truman, Trinity and Los Alamos, the decisions – and Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The documentary and its bomb themes continued, the room or development of bombings in the Indochinese wars, napalm, and, in 2023-2024, Israel’s bombing of Gaza.
Harrowing and recommended.
