Weekend Cinema - Down t'pit..
By: Another ethnographers dream film of old.. 1941, The British Council which very briefly was an organisation set up to promote British trade and cultural stuff to the world.. some say it was more a propaganda tool for the government of the day but irrespective they put out some wonderful old films like this one here. It starts with the premise Britain needs lots of stuff from abroad - lots of it.. thousands of tons of meat comes from places like Argentina and the commonwealth countries of Australia and New Zealand and these places wanted something in return. Coal was one of the most valuable commodities the country had as a result of the whole country once being covered in lush deep forests for millions of years and as it was compressed it turned into coal - sort of. Anyway, the film focuses upon the men who would travel down below some two thousand feet deep to hack out the Black Diamonds - and what a hard and dangerous task it was. About a third of the coal mined went to export whilst the rest was used here at home for it was the primary source of energy for some one hundred years or more until the advent of the oil found in the North Sea in the middle 1960's. All this is accompanied by the famous Welsh Coal Miners Choirs - who'd have thought rough and tough miners could sing like angels!
Anyway enough tosh - take a look at this old gem - should you like this sort of thing - and if you don't gthooh for this ain't for you, sorry (crosses fingers).