Review 30th Year No. 3

Summer 1976 was The Heat Wave - and hence The Drought. This film, released in November, is a look back on the crisis and a think piece on water itself, the basis of earthly life. Review, formerly named Mining Review, was the cine-magazine of the National Coal Board whose role in using water, alleviating shortage and supporting economy drives is covered here as part of a broader look at how people, animals, industry and leisure are linked to and by water.

The 1970s had witnessed a distinct trend in industrial filmmaking: films on conservation themes, often with an oddly contemplative tone and evocative environmental imagery. This is a competent example but unfortunately by 1976 the industrial films business was entering decline, most evident here in the budget-price soundtrack. The library music works well enough over certain gently unfolding, glisteningly photographed sequences responding to nature’s changing moods - but jaunty tunes played over faster-edited sections are distinctly grating. This government film is a public record, preserved and presented by the BFI National Archive on behalf of The National Archives, home to more than 1,000 years of British history.