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Days of Our Years
Source | Archive Films by Getty Images |
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Title: | Days of Our Years |
File Number: | PA-1017 1 inch; PA-0134 Beta SP |
Color: | Color |
Type: | Educational Industrial |
Year: | 1955 |
Subjects: | Safety films Safety education Union Pacific Railroad (sponsor) Railroads Railroads (accidents) Surrealism Narratives Stories Ministers Workers (railroad) Workers (shop) Workers (welders) Welding Romance Love Workers (waitresses) Marriage Fantasies Houses and homes (new) Houses and homes (model) Suburbia Fireplaces Couples (young) Accidents Irresponsibility Negligence Driving Automobiles (accidents) Collapses Heart attacks Trains Switchmen Railroads (yards) Windowshades Sons Rebukes Hostility Anger Pregnancy Childbirth Fatherhood Blindness Eyes (blinded) Visual effects (eyes being blinded by torch) Torches Babies Fathers (blind) Cigars |
Description: | Days of Our Years Directed by: Allen Miner. Written by: Herman Boxer and Joseph Ansen. Photographed by: Alan Stensvold. Edited by: Ernest Flook. Music by: Howard Jackson. Narrated by: Art Gilmore. With Florence Shaen, The Rev. C.S. Reynolds, Henry Rupp Jr., William E. Hill and Bennie R. Wadsworth. Producer Carl Dudley took to the streets and workplaces of Los Angeles to make this despairing trilogy of accidents and their devastating effects on railroad workers and families. The Days of Our Years shows a landscape full of risks and dangers, a world where something can happen every day to careless people, where those innocent of responsibility suffer the most a world, in fact, remarkably similar to ours. The menaces that its characters face daily are not age-old quarrels between clans, ethnic groups or nations, but risks faced by working people on the job. The paradox of this film is that although it was made by a railroad company and expresses highly specific corporate interests, it's also rooted in a working-class milieu and reflects this throughout every scene. First things first. God is the ultimate authority. "It is written in the Old Testament: to each of us this allotment of years. The days of our years are three score and ten." The film opens with a choir, a church, a minister and a Biblical quote. In the age-old tradition of holding workers (rather than management or the makers of machines) responsible for accidents, this film shows stories of people who are "the victims of themselves." "I know the road does everything in its power to prevent accidents," says the minister narrator, and saddles these workingmen with complete responsibility for the risks they face. This is a common theme of safety films, which combine a healthy degree of corporate self-interest with an occasional concern for the well-being of workers and consumers. If we're not to sell this film short, though, we should look beyond its sleazier side. When ephemeral films channel to us evidence of yesterday's everyday life and culture, evidence we'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, they're really at their best and this is a great example. The Days of Our Years transcends its limited mandate to present a portrait of a white working-class Los Angeles, a culture which has now pretty much vanished. This L.A. is populated by working people who live near the railroad freight terminal and repair shops in places like Commerce, Vernon and Bell. Joe Tindler, a road electrical foreman is in love with Helen, a waitress at a local luncheonette they're saving up to get married. Two buddies on a yard train crew (George Price and Fred Bellows) plan to retire together and travel the world. And Charlie O'Neill is excited beyond words at the imminence of a new baby. These are pretty basic aspirations: marriage, a new home, retirement "after forty-two years of good, honest work," a new baby. In each case the wish is not granted because of an accident. This is not the California of 77 Sunset Strip and the Cleavers it's a working-class community resembling the urban Northeast rather than the suburbs and beach cities of southern California. Its people live more traditional lives and work at jobs that have been in existence for over a century, and the film shows this with skill and precision. The strength of the film lies in the details. When we're introduced to Joe Tindler, he's shaving his neck in his bachelor room. Keep an eye on that neck. Helen looks into a polished toaster and fantasizes her future with Joe, including the purchase of that "Plan 5 Model Home." The Prices and Bellows sit planning their retirement at a picnic table covered with National Geographics opened to ads for Hawaiian vacations. Larry Bellows pulls down a windowshade as he changes clothes, and George Price sees this as a rejection and rebuke. Saddest of all, young welder Charlie O'Neill, newly blinded and wearing Roy Orbison shades, gropes around his baby son's crib in search of a toy locomotive. We mentioned the Biblical allusions. There is something almost scriptural in the rhythm and simplicity of the narration. "George tried to go to Fred Bellows' funeral, but the doctor said no. You don't walk around two days after a heart attack. But they couldn't keep him away from the window." The minister narrator has almost complete control over the narration everything is VO except for the screams of the victims. A profound contradiction embraces most safety films, a mismatch between ends and means. Quite often the most effective accident reduction strategy for a filmmaker seems to be to present dramatized accidents. When audiences see careless, pain and suffering and their devastating effects, it's thought they'll act more safely. But does it really work that way? Simply examine your feelings as you sit and watch a film like The Days of Our Years. If you are a typical spectator, what you're doing is really waiting for the accident to happen. This is the payoff, the gratification, the closure. I'd argue that this process is distracting enough to weaken, maybe even crowd out, the intended message. In fact, The Days of Our Years builds up to the climactic accidents with great skill and drama, and it does this not once, but three times over. Some safety films employ unorthodox measures to get the viewer's attention or focus on the risks and pitfalls of ordinary behavior. There's nothing radical about The Days of Our Years it's simply an extremely well-made film pitting the risk of life-disrupting accidents against closely held values of ritual, community and family succession. "Let not man by his thoughtlessness diminish the blessings of the Lord." It's like a safety shoe you put on to protect your foot. TITLE CARD: "The days of our years are three score and ten..." --Psalm 90:10 stock shots: Good baby shot (eating). Minister shakes hands with man on crutches. BLAMING THE VICTIM: (22:15:12) The VO of the minister begins the story: "Here in my parish there are only some who can look back. They are the victims unable to reap the full enjoyment of the days of their years. They are the victims of themselves." FOREBODING: VO of the minister: "Yet try as we may, do as we will, there comes a time..." AMBULANCES: (23:03:26) An ambulance screeches into a railroad yard and men lift a stretcher to place it into the ambulance (strange LA shot). SOLEMN BYSTANDERS: Zombie looking railroad workers observe their co-worker being taken away in the ambulance. Minister's VO: "A fellow worker hurt. You never get hardened to a sight like this." stock shot: (23:18:10) Billboard with image of a mouse and mousetrap stating, "Why Take a Chance? So Little to Gain." MORALIZING: (23:35:12) Minister comes out of house, pats forlorn little girl on head (she holds a doll and sits on the front stoop). Minister's VO: "You might say I have sort of an inside track when it comes to knowing the inside story behind an accident. It strikes me that the ones who we hurt most by the carelessness that causes accidents are the ones who weren't even there." LOVE STORY LOWERED EXPECTATIONS: (23:50:20) The story of Joe and Helen. ORIGINS NARRATIVE: (23:50:20) Helen's fantasy of love, marriage, home, and baby. TRANSITIONAL DEVICES: We are introduced to Joe as he shaves his neck (foreshadowing). His bachelor lifestyle is shown. (25:58:00) Helen looks into toaster and dreams about her perfect marriage to him equipped with house, baby, and all other domestic amenities. The dream ends when the toast pops up. CAR CRASHES: (28:27:08) Joe drives yellow truck with passengers in the back down San Fernando Valley Road. He goes through a stop sign, passes a car, and finally has an accident. We hear the noises of a car crash, see a truck on its side and Joe lying motionless in the cab of the truck. Cut to Joe in neck brace, then to Joe and Helen's actual wedding in which they wear dark clothes, and he can barely kiss his bride due to his brace (bleak wedding). BITTERNESS: (30:38:17) Old George Price sits on his front porch with a blank expression. He is embittered by an accident from long ago. The film takes us back in time. George and his neighbors are having a picnic. Next we view the day of the accident. George is feeling sick, but he unwisely forces himself to operate the train. INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS: (33:03:18) George Price has a heart attack as he plunges forward in the train. He grabs his chest and passes out. He crashes into the train in front of him. His best friend, Fred, was standing on top of the train. He is killed. stock shots: Funeral procession. Various shots of men operating dangerous shop machinery (34:55:10). Safety posters (35:12:00). Railroad workers leaving hospital with arm slings. MATERNITY CHILDBEARING: (35:30:10) The story of Charlie O'Neil and his wife. Charlie, a welder, and his wife are about to have a baby. Charlie drops her off at the hospital (to give birth) and then rushes off to buy cigars. ACCIDENTS (INDUSTRIAL): Charlie brings cigars to work. At first, Charlie takes the proper safety precautions when approaching co-workers who use dangerous equipment (torches). But once he gets the magic phone call telling him his wife delivered a healthy baby boy, he carelessly runs to a co-worker (who is using a torch) to offer him a cigar. The man is surprised by Charlie, and turns with the torch blinding Charlie for life. REMORSE: Charlie plays with his baby boy who he cannot see. He wears dark sunglasses. The minister's VO ends this story: "There is nothing you can say to Charlie. He has said it all to himself many times. He has said that he was careless , and it could have been avoided, that he knew better, he only forgot for one tiny second, and in every case Charlie is right. Still, the thing is not. Charlie has never seen his baby son. Charlie never will." MORALIZING: Minister continues moralizing. A train goes by and he says , "The Lord has allotted them ...Let not man by his thoughtlessness diminish the word of the Lord." |