The United States Marine Band

Sixteen years after Warner Brothers' Vitaphone division began to produce musical shorts at its Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn, we have this example of the genre. Gone are the still camera, the flat studio set, the edit-free, single take, the unvarying format. Instead we have a camera that floats down rows of uniformed Marines, cutting between three cameras in the open air, with the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument in the background, giving way to the deck of a battleship and snub-nosed Navy aircraft.

The music starts off mostly with classical, then Navy music -- "We're Shoving Right Off" -- and some Warren an Dubin music, before it settles into Sousa's "Semper Fidelis" and images of combat.... then back to the Capitol in stately cuts.

Yup, things might have changed in re than a decade and a half, but the Marines were sill the Marines. And are.

This delivers pretty much what is says on the can, as the pristinely clad United States Marine Band gather in the centre of Washington DC to play some memorable tunes whilst the photography moves around these men in a much less static fashion than you might expect as well as taking us on a Cook's tour of the city. There are no shortages of monuments for us to see, from great military bronzes to Lincoln's memorial. It also incorporates some archive imagery of these men and others from the US military engaging in training and in action and delivers adequately as a feel-good movie for the domestic population to feel proud of their armed forces. The accompanying music features many famous tunes ranging from Liszt to de Souza and for many with few domestic prospects or watching the news of the war in Europe, it is bound to engender some thoughts of recruitment.

This is basically a wartime recruitment film. But recruiting films and videos and commercials can sometimes fun to watch. In this case if you're a U.S. Marine, you'll enjoy this 10 minutes of motivation.

The film begins with the Band playing in Washington D.C. The band sings along to the first stanza of the Marines' Hymn. It moves along to Anchors Away! and various Souza marches, as expected, and Marines are shown marching in formation past a review stand with the 782 gear of the day: M1903 Springfield rifles and rimmed dough boy-style helmets and leggings. The Commandant of the Marines Corps at the time, Lt. Gen. Holcomb, is shown in one scene.

Images of old-school battleships plowing through the seas in formation come next, followed by Marines climbing into whaleboats for a pre-WWII-style amphibious landing. As they reach the beach and lay their water-cooled Browning machine guns, the battleships are shown delivering some whoop-ass fire support with their large guns. All the while the Band is playing.

Nothing of substance, but it's a fun short to watch before you pop in a Full Metal Jacket or Heartbreak Ridge DVD.

Semper Fi!