Content area
Full Text
An artist of vast imaginative ability with an affinity for the fantastic, McCay suffered from a troubled social conscience, which manifested itself in the intrusion of reality into the world of the dream.1
- Judith O'Sullivan
Preface - Not Yet Documentary
On Friday, May 7, 1915, at approximately 2:10 in the afternoon local time, 30 kilometers off the southeastern tip of Ireland and within what the German government had declared to be a war zone, the submarine U-20 fired a torpedo toward the Cunard Liner, Lusitania. The torpedo hit the Lusitania's hull and exploded. A much larger explosion followed. The size of this second explosion caused the Lusitania to sink in 18 minutes, killing 1198 passengers and crew. Among the dead were 128 Americans, citizens of a neutral country. As the New York Times reported in its headline, a "grave crisis" was at hand.
Among the early responses to the sinking was a British Pathé newsreel item that began by relating the news in a manner typical of the newsreels of the day. It showed a sequence of shots of an ocean liner departure, including a shot of the Lusitania's bow. That the Lusitania had been launched in 1907 and had crossed the Atlantic two hundred times suggests that these shots needn't have been of its last crossing. An inter-tide tells us that life on board was going its merry way. We see rather well dressed people playing a game that involves moving eggs about with spoons. Another inter-title interrupts this happy play to tell us that what we just saw is "instantly transformed to." What follows is a sequence of shots of people on what may be some sort of boat. They are running about in badly acted panic. The camera, rather unconvincingly imitating a ship in distress, is tipped back and forth. In one recurrent set of shots within the sequence, there is what appears to a jet of water being sprayed on the passengers, most likely from a hose being held just off screen. One of the "Lusitania victims" can be caught turning to the camera and smiling.
This newsreel item is not particularly interesting for its use of generic footage and the inclusion of obviously staged shots. Those techniques date...