Although short films related to World War 2 are some of my favorite things to watch, not all of them are created equal. This one (made during the war) is pretty nondescript, but can almost be considered a predecessor to modern game shows. I say this because it involves showing the audience questions on a screen and encouraging them to answer, and each question has to do with US military history. Quite a few of them have answers that are intentionally misleading, such as when it asks when the tank was invented. Most people would say slightly before or during the First World War, but that's where they're wrong. The first thing that could be considered a tank was drawn up all the way back at the end of the 1400s by Leonardo da Vinci, and consisted of a round, wood plated vehicle with sloped sides. Strangely, da Vinci also seemed to predict sloped armor, which is a real feature on modern armored vehicles which gives them greater survivability. If a tank shell hits a piece of armor at an oblique angle, it won't go through as easily. The film then goes on to say how planes, parachutes, and submarines were also thought up by da Vinci during his lifetime, but because he was trapped in the 15th century, he couldn't make any of them work practically. The film (incorrectly) describes Leonardo's design for an ornithopter as a plane, which isn't really true since it has no motor and flies by flapping its wings. While the craft might have been capable of flight once airborne, even da Vinci knew of its biggest drawback: no human being would possibly have enough arm strength necessary to get it off the ground. Disappointingly, the film doesn't make any mention of his design for a helicopter, since what we recognize as helicopters today did exist in world war 2 (but weren't widespread). Overall, this film isn't really anything special. It gives some insight into terms the armed forces used back then to describe a container of milk or some other item, but aside from this, there isn't much to acknowledge. I just think it's weird that TCM shows things like this right after films that have nothing to do with the Second World War.
Review of Victory Quiz
