Report from Korea
HE failing of the documentary approach to the record of battle is that it dramatises everything with an equal eye: On the right a village is burning, in a market town to the left The soldiers fire, the mayor bursts into tears. . . . The steady eyes of the crow and the camera’s candid eye See as honestly as they know how, but they lie.
It is more true, more human in the best sense of the word, to find our attention caught andefixed on the unsightly disasters of war. Here alone is its human. meaning crystallised in the outrage to life, feeling and dignity. From this point of view the BBC dramatisation of Rene Cutforth’s 38th Parallel, over 3YC, came closest to the truth. The eye that observed events in Korea gave more attention to some things than to others; to the symbol of the blackened corpse beneath two fused iron electric light poles, to the-man who could not see, sit, or lie because he had no skin. It had seen and recorded "the totally unprivileged position of the Koreans." It was an eye which knew the difference between true and false restraint. Therefore, I could trust it and I could forgive the one or two lapses when the script was reeled off mechanically.
Westcliff
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19530402.2.25.6
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 716, 2 April 1953, Page 13
Word count
Tapeke kupu
217Report from Korea New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 716, 2 April 1953, Page 13
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Material in this publication is protected by copyright.
Are Media Limited has granted permission to the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa to develop and maintain this content online. You can search, browse, print and download for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Are Media Limited for any other use.
Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
Log in