Band Drill

Band Drill (1894)

*** (out of 4)

This Edison film runs a very short 20-seconds but from a historic point of view it remains quite entertaining. In the short running time we see a group of men performing a section from the play "The Milk White Flag", which was apparently very popular back in the day. Not knowing much about bands I really can't say too much on what you're actually seeing but those with a fancy for these types of film will do doubt want to see this.

On DVD from Image or available online at countless sites.

"Band Drill" is an example of one of the very earliest films ever made in the silent era that takes a well-known theatrical skit or play, and films it to create a motion picture version of the original spectacle. Before cross-cutting, closeups, medium closeups and other modern film techniques came into play (which started to take over at about 1910 and later) one of the most commonly used methods of storytelling in film was, quite frankly put, a drudgery of long shots taken in a certain order, one after the other. When it came to theater, this type of storytelling was acceptable (after all, there can be no closeups when you watch a play) but when adapting long shot scenes to film, it becomes a rather dull monotony. Thus, it was all for the better when Griffith entered the scene and began to change film grammar in his uses of the advanced techniques listed above. As it is, these cutting techniques were already starting to be experimented with by the time the early 1900s rolled around.

"Band Drill", as mentioned before, is clearly one of the earliest (if not completely the first) motion pictures that begins this concept of filmed theater. Even though Edison had been filming with long shots since his company began (with Dickson's and Heise's performance films of dancers and athletes) those earlier films were by no means scenes of filmed theater. Oftentimes, they were mere demonstrations which, while typically shot from an audiences' perspective, did not present a play or skit in any sense of the word. While this very brief 20-second short consists of only one scene and is a mere stand-alone shot of a band leader directing musicians, it also happens to be a very small fragment of Charles Hoyt's "A Milk White Flag" play--a theatrical piece which I admittedly know nothing of in regards to plot or content. Additionally, the exact same day this short clip was made, Dickson and Heise also made at least four other films of scenes from the same play, using the professional actors from the original performances. This act alone remains; the rest are either lost, undiscovered, or not available online.

Even despite the fact "Band Drill" is only a representation of Hoyt's play, one has to wonder exactly why, of the five-or-more films they made, Dickson and Heise chose to film this particular scene. When one of the oldest motion pictures systems in the entire world can produce only silent pictures, would it not be more sensible for the company to shoot a more active scene that could work without sound? Either the band practice scene was a favorite with the masses, Frank Baldwin was insistent that he be featured in his role of Steele Ayres, or the other scenes featured too many sets and props (since no sets are really needed in this film). Either way, watching "Band Drill" on its own provides a sort of mystery, without further information, as to what was its context.

Being a scene of a theatrical play does, however, have its advantages. Because of the fact the names of the actors were already billed in the various places the play was performed, the film historians must have had no hesitation at all as to who played who. Even the names of those who played the musicians, such as Fred Boardman, Paul Pfarr, George Goddard, etc, are known. (Strangely enough, a seeming relation to Boardman also plays a musician, but his first and middle name are represented only by the initials J. F.). The costumes of every character, which must have been lovely when seen in reality, still look fairly good on black-and-white film. With these pluses and the fact it helps us remember the title of an outdated play we would otherwise have forgotten, "Band Drill" remains of historical interest; but even keeping those things in mind, one has to wonder why, of all the scenes they filmed of this play, this rather pointless scene had to be the one to survive.

This is the kind of movie that seems to have little to offer when viewed by itself, without reference to its original context. If it were nothing more than one simple scene of a band at practice, then there are only a couple of details that would be worth noticing, so that it would be of limited interest at best. But it is more interesting when seen with its original setting in mind.

This was one of several features (most of them now lost), filmed by the Edison Company, in which they re-enacted scenes from Charles Hoyt's stage show 'A Milk White Flag'. The now-forgotten Hoyt specialized in plays that that satirized or parodied contemporary attitudes and trends, and/or human nature in general. This scene comes from a musical that in large part poked fun at the military and patriotic spirit that was so widespread in the USA in the 1890s (and which culminated, later in the decade, in the popular demand for war with Spain).

In this short scene, the self-important band-leader leads his players into position, in a parody of the pomp and pride that was associated with the state and local militias of the era. Hoyt's production was designed to deflate them just a bit in the popular mind, not by showing any disrespect for genuine patriotism, but by depicting how some persons saw the military lifestyle simply as a way of promoting themselves socially or politically.

With its historical and social background, the brief movie takes on more significance, in calling attention to social trends that were soon to have their effect on world events.