Pack It Right
The U.S. Army presents “Pack It Right†(1978)
This is a short film about how to best pack materials for shipping. Switches between a white family on the beach who demonstrate the different ways of packing, a shipping warehouse where the objects are being packed by African American men, and a bunch of “joe six-pack†types sitting in an office discussing the different types of packing and the importance of it.
This is has lots of great shots of how warehouses worked in the 60’s,
a family at the beach, has a H-Bomb explosion, and men in an office.
**This one clearly shows racial politics of the day, with whites at the beach and the office and African Americans in the warehouse. There is a great opening sequence with the family at the beach and the piggish husband checking out a girl in the bikini and the wife catching him. Also shots of men in a laboratory. The final shot is a very blond girl in a bikini who says “You heard the man: Pack it right†then walks away with a shot of her booty.
SHOT BREAKDOWN:
14:06 - 14:46 - Young boy fills bucket with sand, man and wife sit on chairs, wife yells at man to stop looking at girls, blonde woman walks past and man stares. Woman puts down beach towel and bends over in front of camera, title of program appears on screen.
14:48 - 15:51 - Three men talk about packing items properly. Film shows how if you pack items badly they will be damaged, packed too well and its expensive and people cannot open them and if packed correctly they will be safe, this is demonstrated by a voluptuous blond woman rolling over on a beach towel.
15:52 - 18:15 - Three men sitting in office talking about packing boxes. Shots of men packing boxes in factory and back and forth between child on beach packing his things.
18:16 - 20:04 - Three men sitting in an office talking about packing different types of items, some require more packaging than others. This is demonstrated by a woman in a bathing suit rising up from her towel. Last shot shows a woman unpacking a Venus de milo statue.
20:04 - 22:06 - Three men in an office, man jokes that if packaging regulations were in place ""back in the old days"" they could have saved Venus de milo arms. Men continue discussing packaging, shots of equipment in factory, forklifts. One forklift carries a large drum and another forklift collides with it, crash animation appears on screen and cuts to shot of atom bomb exploding.
22:07 - 24:12 - Three men in an office talking about being careful while transporting packages. Shots of packages on back of pick-up truck in pouring rain, packages on trains cars and cars slamming into one another, shot of leaking packages, shot of forklift loading a truck, shot of an overheating military jeep, shot of two men in winter gear head out into the snow with sled. Last shot is a PAN of a woman sunbathing.
24:12 - 25:38 - Three men in office talk about commercial packaging. Shots of working packing boxes and other items.
25:39 - 28:09 - Shot of a group of men standing around talking about various packing tasks for the day, more shots of factory and workers packing items. Shot of office workers using typewriters and other machines of that era.
28:10 -29:33 - man puts tape spool onto computer, nice shot. Nice shots of old computer equipment with flashing lights, shot of damaged package,man tries to repair it and places new labels on it.
29:35 - 31:15 - Men talking about safety on the job, man at work coughing, shot of scientists working on new packaging materials. If materials are not suitable then a report must be written, shot of a man typing in uniform and a fish wrapped in a paper bag sits on his desk.
31:17 - 32:09 - Boss tell other men to be sure to read up on regulations. Cut to shot of blonde woman getting up and walking off the beach, The final shot is a very blond girl in a bikini who says “You heard the man: Pack it right†then walks away with a shot of her booty.