Friday A/V Club: Uncle Sam Reminds You to Visit Your Local Draft Board
An artifact from the age of peacetime conscription
From the U.S. Army in 1955, here's a film about the draft called Time to Go. Come for the propaganda, stay for the long, tedious description of each sort of deferment!
You may not want to sit through the whole thing, but here are some high points worth jumping to:
• At 1:20, a young man makes a novel pitch for the military life: "I don't think time in the service ever hurt anybody."
• At 1:56, the narrator praises the people who work for the local draft board: "none of them have to do the job if they don't want to." That may be true, but it might not be the best angle to take in a movie about conscription.
• At 11:12: You know who's against the draft? Women, that's who.
Here's the full film:
Bonus link: As of this week, the Friday A/V Club is a year old. Check out our past posts here.
