A Ship Is Born (1942) User Reviews

We're All In This!

[boblipton · 6/10 · 19 December 2013]

The Oscar race for Best Documentary was a big deal and the net result was that there were three winners, including one from the "Why We FIght" series and one from Australia. However, all the major studios produced a "We're all in this!" documentary. Here's Warner Brother's Oscar nominee about the construction, launching and crewing of a merchant marine ship.

Despite some notable credits, including Jean Negulesco as the director, it's pretty much an average good effort. Knox Manning speaks his overwritten narration, including the heavy-handed good humor by Owen Crump, in his usual overwrought fashion. Bill Lava's music is a combination of stirring music that offers little variation in tone. This one looks like it was included among the two dozen nominees to acknowledge good intentions.

Paint-by-numbers propaganda with a little interesting information

[llltdesq · 5/10 · 16 December 2015]

This documentary was nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary in a very crowded field, losing to four winners. There will be mild spoilers ahead:

While this is officially supposed to be a look at the making of a cargo ship (referred to here as a "victory ship", but what most people would better recognize referenced as a "Liberty ship") it is nothing more than another cheer-leading short to tell the people on the home front that their contributions to the war effort were absolutely vital.

There's a speech by one of the shipyard workers (most likely an actor) who talks about the different places various component parts are manufactured and then shipped to the yard, the inference being that men and women from all over the US have a hand in making each ship, not just the shipyard workers.

There's a bit of narration about mom and dad and sis all contributing scrap metal, rubber and so on, all of which was necessary in order for the ship seen here, the "Fred Morris", can be launched. We then go to a scene where we see the start of the training program for the Merchant Marines and the diverse backgrounds of the men being trained. This short is now essentially a boost and a recruiting tool for the Merchant Marines. This covers the training and the various specialties needed.

Once again, the drumbeat of, "Everyone is in this and must be for us to win", making it clear that the Merchant Marines, like every other branch of service, is comprised of regular, ordinary folks-like you, or your son.

This short is worth seeing once.

A Ship is Born

[CinemaSerf · 5/10 · 11 February 2024]

This might have made for a better silent film. A musical accompaniment to these astonishing feats of engineering and teamwork rather than the relentlessly effusive and almost triumphalist commentary from Knox Manning. Of course, in 1942 this did have a propaganda function illustrating not just how crucial the shipbuilding programme was, but also at just how widespread the input to this massive construction project was - not just the ship building, but the constituent parts and people coming from all over the nation. Back to Manning again, though, and boy does he like a list. Nobody can be left out as he mentions the mother with her kitchen pot and the father from Minnesota doing his bit too - a state by state and job by job monologue. The imagery works. One ship is launched and immediately thereafter another keel starts being laid down and ir delivers at times a fascinating look at the labour-intense processes that get these things onto the water and then to the selection of the erstwhile land-lubbers who now join up to serve at sea. People from all walks of life who turn up for training in theory, on land and at sea. Essentially, this is an American merchant marine recruitment video that does it's job but doesn't really feature too much about just how ships are designed or built.