What I watched: A BBC news special that originally aired May 15, 1949, dealing with the end of Russia’s blockade with Berlin. The film is available at BBC Archives.
What happened: We open with some triumphal music and a bit of a meta touch, as we see photographers queuing up to capture the end of the Russian blockade of Berlin. Trucks loaded with goods drive in to cheers, followed by a train. Coals and fresh vegetables enter West Berlin for the first time in almost a year. The narrator sums up the situation, describing it as a “resolution of smiles”, occurring because of agreement and not violence. “Good sense has prevailed” says the very British narrator.
We lose sound for a moment as some soldiers meet. When we return, our narrator gives us a brief history of the deadlock that lead to the blockade. The Russians insisted that the Allied Forces leave their half of Berlin, an area surrounded by Soviet territory, but as the narrator states “We had no intention of leaving. We were there by rights.” What rights those were is demonstrated by some shots of British tanks rolling through the streets of Berlin. There is some film from the previous newsreel on this subject demonstrating Berlin as being on edge.
We get some images of loyal West Berliners digging runways for British planes to land. (Evidently cameramen were not blockaded.) German children are loaded in for the return trip. The narrator describes the airlift, bearing the awkward name of “Operation Planefare” as “one of the wonders of the world” due to the massive infrastructure required. Finally, the Russians agree to open the roads, and the film abruptly ends.
What I thought: These images at the start of the film were captured just days before, when the blockade was lifted on May 11. It’s not that impressive a turnaround, but it’s still pretty striking how quickly they put together a film with cuts, music, and narration. It’s even odder that they did this for a television newsreel, considering the low viewership of British television at this time. Of course, much of this film could have been prepared beforehand, and it may have been shown in theatres as well, but I suspect much of the effort that went into this special, supersized newsreel was because of the event’s significance and not necessarily a presumed audience.
This incident is often described as the opening shots of the Cold War, a term that is even used in this newsreel. It’s clear why Britain would want to crow about their victory, and their renewed ability to make a difference on the world stage. At last, they were the subject and not the object of international charity. The “Blitz spirit” was still in recent memory, but Britain was already using it to sketch out a national mythology in which Britain appears not as a colonial aggressor but as a pugnacious everyman who simply wants to stand his ground. My skepticism of this position is not, of course, a defense of Russia’s actions during the blockade. Indeed, if the blockade was the beginning of the Cold War, it was also an early sign that both powers would treat human life as secondary to questions of ideology and influence.
In a strange way, this newsreel is a throwback to some of earliest films. In the 1890s, many films (such as those produced by Thomas Edison and the Lumiere Brothers) were simple images of trains in motion, usually not more than a minute. The train offered a convenient way to show off the chief quality of film (movement), but they also acted as symbols of progress and celebrations of the technological ingenuity that brought film itself into being. The context is somewhat different in “The Blockade Ends”, which uses industrial footage to show not a new genius but a return to power. Here the Berlin airlift is demonstrated as a triumph of British industry, the same kind of stick-to-itiveness that won them the war. (The Americans’ role in the blockade is largely pushed to the side.) The film is entirely absent of human characters. Its protagonists are instead boats, planes, trucks and smokestacks.
I’ve mentioned when looking at past BBC newsreels that they stand out as openly, even cheerfully propagandistic, with none of the phony objectivity of contemporary news. “The Blockade Ends” follows this trend, particularly in its choice of upbeat music. It is, however, surprisingly light on condemnation of the Russians. There are a few digs here and there, but for the most part the film focuses not on the blockade but British industry’s triumph over it and the happiness of Berliners at its end. Even this end is depicted as both sides seeing reason instead of an Allied victory of the wills. Perhaps there was still hope that the old wartime alliance would be restored, and that Britain and Russia could be friendly despite their differences. If so, this hope would quickly be dashed. Even as the Berliners celebrated, diplomats struggled over the fates of countries like Italy and Korea, and good sense would prevail very rarely in the decades to follow.
The Eternal Couch Potato 