Summary: Documentary about the Imperial War Museum, asking whether it glamorises war or deprecates it.
Description: The film uses some material from our archive but is mostly shot in and around the Museum. Bill Grundy asks "Is the Museum a monument to man's might and magnificence or a celebration of his insanity?" Noble Frankland is interviewed next to an aircraft exhibit and says that war and violence is a modern preoccupation and the Museum is here to root this interest in historical reality. Grundy decides that there is little indication in the Museum that all the ironmongery was designed so men could slaughter one another. The exhibits are said to be only the "tip of the iceberg" of the memories, records and data held by the Museum. There is film of schoolchildren climbing over the exhibits and one visitor says he thinks the Museum is a good thing. There is film of the October 1968 fire and the damage caused. Lord Soper says the "effect of the Museum is harmful... (because it fails to say) that war is a supreme crime that humanity commits against itself". Frankland says ignorance of war is much worse, for its prevention, than knowledge of it.
Alternative Title:TODAY [Series Title]
Colour:Colour
Digitised:
Object_Number:MYY 46
Sound:Sound
Access Conditions:NON-IWM
Featured Period:1946-1975
Production Date:1971
Production Country: GB
Production Details: Thames Television (Production company)
Tiffin, Peter (Production individual)
Waldorf, Len (Production individual)
Wilkinson, Keith (Production individual)
Dixon, Terry (Production individual)
Minell, Vic (Production individual)
Slade, Freddie (Production individual)
Grundy, William (Bill) (Production cast)
Personalities, Units and Organisations: Frankland, Anthony Noble (person)
Grundy, William (Bill) (person)
Soper, Donald Oliver (person)
Keywords: buildings, British - institutional: Imperial War Museum (object name)
society, British - education: Imperial War Museum (object name)
GB, England & London, SE <Imperial War Museum> (geography)
propaganda (concept)
Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour
Sound format: Sound
Soundtrack language: English
Title language: English
Subtitle language: English
Technical Details: Format: 16mm
Number of items/reels/tapes: 1
Footage: 650 ft; Running time: 18 mins
