The Long, The Short and The Tall - drama anlysis

The Long, The Short and The Tall

By Luke Parsons 11E

For my 20th century drama I chose to read and analyse, “The Long, The Short and The Tall,” a war drama written by Willis hall in 1958. The Long, The Short and The Tall was set in the Malayan jungle in 1942 during World War II. The play features seven British Army soldiers who have been sent out on a standard reconnaissance mission. During the mission the soldiers came across a little hut in the middle of nowhere. After a general patrol of the area the soldiers decided on a twenty minute break. The break didn’t go to plan after a long series of events, including Private Whitaker forgetting to pick up the batteries for the radio set and the group taking a prisoner-of-war. The soldiers stay the night. Then things start to go horrible wrong and culminates with the gruesome death of the whole patrol apart from Johnstone.

Willis Hall wrote this war play during an era of when many war plays portrayed the English as winning the war and being all great and mighty. Willis Hall however created a very dramatic play that endeavoured to show people that this was not the case and there was more to war than winners and losers.

I think Willis Hall wrote this play to show the British public the truth about war and the horrors of the British soldiers went through at this time. This is something that many war plays did not offer at this time.

Willis Hall claimed that his play was not an anti-war play, which I agree with but it’s more of a factual play that told the truth and about what our men went through. However the play does show another perspective of the British Army and shows the brutality and terrible conditions that many young men went through.

I think many people go to see war plays for the drama, action, violence and death but Willis Halls play doesn’t offer any of this. Instead it offers an emotional journey portraying Army life as it was not propaganda which was offered by other plays at this era.

In this drama there are seven British soldiers;

Sergeant Mitchem, R. The leader of the group; he comes across very friendly and seems to get on well with the other members of the group. He is very well respected for his experience.

Corporal Johnstone E. A very cold, moody and negative member of the team. He always tries to be better than every-one else. He sees himself as a macho man who has little respect from the other soldiers. He often has arguments with Bamforth.

L/Corporal Macleish A.J. He is a quiet man, who has a lot of respect for Mitchem. He often sits back and doesn’t do that much, however he always takes part in group activity and discussions. Macleish addionally doesn’t like Johnstone however respects his rank.

Private Smith. He is a family man who has two children and provides a positive influence to the group. He is a lot like the Japanese soldier due to both the two men having children and a family at home waiting for their safe return. Both are laid back men.

Private Whitaker. He is a younger solider. He is the baby of the group and is introduced to make the audience see what it was like for many young men in World War II. Whitaker represents the many young men who never saw adulthood and gave their life up to fight for their country.

Private Evans. A quiet guy, who’s laid back and lets the world go by. He contrasts with Johnstone. Johnstone is the big tough guy, trying to act big and Evans is the guy who doesn’t want to be there but is anyway.

Private Bamforth. Bamforth is the laughter behind the whole group. With Bammo’s funny cockney jokes and digs at other members he provides humour to the play. He also shows what many young soldiers at this age were going through.

There is one other character, a Japanese soldier who happened to be wandering around on his own and ended up in the hut with the patrol. The Japanese soldier illustrates the truth behind war. He also shows how desperate some of the soldiers were at this time. Whilst a prisoner-of-war, he gets the photographs of his family and some cigarettes given to him by Bamforth ripped up. Both events provide an emotional build up before eventually being shot by Whitaker and left rotting in the hut at the end of the play.

In my essay I am going to analyse how Willis Hall uses tension, violence, pathos, and humour to create an inspiring war play.

For tension and violence I am going to look at the middle of act one. There is also violence in these pages. For violence and pathos I am going to analyse the end of Act II, I am also going to analyse the start of act II for violence, pathos and ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

In my essay I am going to analyse how Willis Hall uses tension, violence, pathos, and humour to create an inspiring war play.

In the middle of Act I, a Japanese soldier is spotted walking towards the hut. The soldiers all hide however confused Whitaker leaves the radio set on the table. The Japanese soldier sees the radio set on the table and goes in to the hut. As the Japanese soldier enters the hut Johnstone and Mitchem swiftly capture the soldier. At this point there is a large amount of tension present because the patrol is waiting for the Japanese soldier to enter the hut, but at the same time they’re hoping he doesn’t. Willis Hall has specially done this to “make them wait.” This is one of three guidelines which playwrights follow when writing a play. Make them cry, make them laugh and make them wait. Willis Hall has made the audience wait in this scene and by doing so makes the audiences heart start to beat faster and gets them to grip to their seats to a point where they can’t even move. When I first saw this scene I was very much gripped to my seat and my heart was beating very fast, waiting for the Japanese soldier to come into the hut.

When the Japanese soldier entered the hut, he represents the enemy and is expected to be shot and killed. However Willis Hall chooses not to do this but instead keeps the Japanese soldier alive. Hall shocks the audience by doing this. Hall also turns the whole scene upside down by keeping the prisoner alive, everyone expects the prisoner to be killed by Bamforth but it never happens and Hall allows the audience to ease off a little and relax.

The tension in Act I starts when Bamforth tense’s up and raises his rifle. Bamforth alerts the patrol that he has seen someone; he does this in sharp, slow, short and snappy sentences. “Sarge…. Sarge! I thought I saw a movement down the track…. It’s there again.”

The other members of the group see that Bamforth is tense and it starts to rub off.

(The men are still and silent) is the stage direction. This shows that Bamforth’s sense of urgency has rubbed of and the men have come down from the humour and laughter moment. The audience has also come down from the happy moment and is also worried. The men are now back on the ground and remember that their in the middle of a jungle, no one around to help them out and that they are “up shit creek.” Mitchem seems most worried and starts’ giving out orders left right and center. “Hold it all of you! What’s up? Get down! Get out of sight! How many of them? Can you see?”

These orders send panic through the hut and puts added tension into and on the men. Most hit by these orders is young scared Whitaker, who being too scared and shocked can’t move and leaves the radio, set on the table. There is pathos present in this scene because the audience can sympathise with Whitaker a lot and the audience can really feel for him. The audience is made to feel that Whitaker is a young man who shouldn’t be out fighting in a war but instead out in the park playing with his friends and being with his girlfriend. Willis Hall uses Whitaker to do something wrong. Throughout the play he is portrayed as messing up. First he can’t get the radio to work due to the batteries for the radio set being duff and now finally he leaves the radio set on the table.

As the tension in the hut continues to rise Bamforth notices that the Japanese soldier is just having a cigarette and skiving off. Bamforth being the comedian of the patrol bursts out with laughter. Hall did this to allow the audience to relax a little as the tension from the play rubs off on them. By adding this section into the play Willis Hall makes the audience “laugh” and “wait” two of the three rules that playwrights follow when writing a play.

All the patrol’s hearts are still beating fast as they wait for the Japanese soldier to go away. While this is going on the audience is waiting for the scene to blow up and something very dramatic to happen. During this period of “waiting” the audience are glued to the front of their seats.

Finally Hall allows the audience to have the big event they have been waiting for and the Japanese Soldier sees the radio set that Whitaker left on the table and enters the hut. As he enters the hut he is greeted by Johnstone who grabs him and tells Evans to kill him. Evans then tells Johnstone he can’t do it. Johnstone then asks the other men in the patrol to do it but none of them can. Big brave Bamforth steps in and says he’ll do it but by this time Mitchem decides to let the prisoner live. This is an important part in the play because Bamforth said he would have killed him; however later in the play Bamforth is almost begging Mitchem not to kill the prisoner. The tension in this scene is very high and very tense, none of the soldiers really know what to do or what to think and the audience also feel the same. They know that all the men are too scared to kill the prisoner but they know he is the enemy. The audience starts to feel sorry for our men who are there.

In this scene Willis Hall starts to change the whole way we think about war and the whole way we think about “our” men and “their” men. The truth that the Japanese soldier is there to kill our soldiers but this doesn’t affect the audience’s views on how they feel about the prisoner and how they feel that he should be treated.

After that tension and small amount of violence, Willis Hall allows the audience to relax by moving on to a humorous scene. Bamforth is left in charge of the prisoner and tries to make the prisoner take orders. Bamforth tell the prisoner to put his fingers on his head, which the prisoner does not understand. So in a slow voice Bamforth says “Flingers on blonce,” and the prisoner puts his hands on his head. This is very amusing and the audience starts to laugh at the prisoner. Hall has done this to start to change our view on the prisoner and the audience starts to think that the prisoner is helpless and wouldn’t hurt any one. Hall has also made Bamforth switch sides from hating the prisoner to liking him and maybe even be his friend. This is very surprising because after the prisoners entrance into the hut, the audience expect Bamforth to be very hating towards him and not friendly at all. This is due to how Bamforth reacted when the prisoner first came into the hut. Willis Hall does this to show the audience that Bamforth isn’t just a cocky arrogant Londoner but a kind warm hearted man. This scene shows the audience that wars were being fought by normal men and that our men out there were normal and not all savage killing machines. During Bamforth looking after the prisoner Mitchem comes over to talk to him. This is quite an amusing part of this act because Mitchem being a leader talks to the prisoner like he’s not intelligent. He says in a very slow and careful voice,

“You – come – with – us! Back! We – take – you – back! Back to camp!” this makes the audience laugh at Mitchem and the prisoner. By this time Hall has completely changed the view of the audience and the audience starts to think that the prisoner is one of the patrol. Wallis Hall does this because he wants the audience to be relaxed and settle down; he does this ready for his next scene.

For Violence, Tension and Pathos I am going to look at Act II. The prisoner is caught smoking and Evans, Macleish and Johnstone start to get angry. Macleish also discovers that the prisoner has alot of British army issue cigarettes. Bamforth however saves the prisoners by owning up to giving the prisoner half a dozen. Willis Hall has put this scene in just as the play starts to calm down but this scene picks the play up again and violence and tension are rapidly introduced.

Macleish the posh Scotsmen is disgusted at the fact he has just been given an English cigarette that he believes is stolen. This makes the audiences feelings about the prisoner turn once again. The audience starts to think that the prisoner is an evil thief who has stolen the cigarettes from the boys up country and its audience is once again made to feel hatred towards the prisoner.

Willis Hall did this to stop the audience thinking the prisoner is one of the team but after this event we get put back to the truth that he is not one of the team and instead is actually a prisoner-of-war.

When Bamforth comes back into the hut he sorts everything out and we are able to relax again. This allows the audience to loosen off a bit and ease up after all of the tension. After Bamforth has restored peace the audience is pleased that everything was a misunderstanding. The great sense of relief however soon makes the audience feel guilty for wanting the prisoner shot for his accused crime. There is a great deal of pathos in this scene because we can sympathises a great deal with how the prisoner feels, we start to feel sorry for him and feel that we have let him down by wanting him to be punished.

For tension, violence and pathos I am going to analyse the end of Act II.

In this part of the play Mitchem decides to go back to base. All sounds good the audience is led to believe, the patrol will all get back safely and the play is steering to the end but … Mitchem however decides that the prisoner is not going with them but fails to tell the other members of the patrol. So when Bamforth offers the prisoner a drink he is very surprised when Johnstone says he can’t have a drink. He is even more surprised when Mitchem also joins Johnstone and tells Bamforth that the prisoner is not to have a drink. Bamforth soon catches on during the argument between Mitchem and Johnstone that the prisoner is going to be left behind. All the other members of the patrol agree with Mitchem and Johnstone that the prisoner should be left. Bamforth then tries to attach himself to the prisoner in an attempt to stop anyone from killing him however he is overpowered and scared young Whitaker mistakenly shoots the prisoner. Once again the audience is left feeling very sorry for both the prisoner and Whitaker, as Whitaker buries his face into his hands.

Near the end of Act II the audience goes into the scene with a sense of relief that the patrol are going home. There is also this sense of everything has quietened down. Whitaker has just finished about talking about his girlfriend, this has allowed the audience to relax and sit at the back of their seats, nice and comfortable. Bamforth has started to sing a truthful song about the British Army and the reality of war and this starts to set up the next scene. The audience is just waiting now for the play to come to a close but before it does Willis Hall decides to add in a bit more to make this war play set in 1942 a classic.

Mitchem informs the men that they are returning to base soon, which puts a sense of urgency through the men as they start rushing about getting things ready to go back. This brings the audience back to the play and gets the audience back interested in what’s going on.

In the mad rush which the audience is caught up in, Bamforth offers the prisoner a drink. This kicks off a big argument between Bamforth and Johnstone. Before the Japanese soldier gets chance to have a drink, Johnstone says,

“There’s no more buckshees for the Nippo.”

We start feeling even sorrier for the prisoner however the audience becomes more engrossed in the argument between Bamforth and Johnstone. The tension within the hut is nearly at an almost high with all the other members of the patrol listening in but not getting involved. There is an anticipation of violence between the two men but Mitchem finally gets involved and agrees with Johnstone and tells Bamforth that the prisoner is not having a drink. Mitchem also lets out that the prisoner is not going back to base with them. The audience starts to feel a bit of hatred toward Mitchem and Johnstone. Willis Hall has done this especially so the audience starts to feel sorry for the Japanese soldier and the audience’s views towards the great British heroes has changed without them knowing about it. Willis Hall has put the audience in a state of feeling sorry for the prisoner rather than feeling sorry for our men.

Bamforth starts to question the other members in the patrol to see if any of them will stand up for the prisoner with him. While he is doing this every member of the audience is hoping that one of the men will stand up for the prisoner, however none of them do, leaving the audience in a state of shock. Bamforth is gutted and is also in a state of shock and doesn’t really know what to do. Bamforth then decides to attach himself to the prisoner in an attempt to stop anyone from killing the prisoner.

The audience is now at the edge of their seats once again. This time they hoping that Bamforth can some how change Mitchem and Johnstone’s mind about the prisoner however they all know that it’s not going to happen. In this scene Willis Hall has put the audience right in the middle of this conflict, the audience wants the patrol to get back safe but they don’t want the prisoner to get killed.

Mitchem and Johnstone grab hold of Bamforth to allow another member of the patrol to kill the prisoner. Willis Hall decided to pick young Whitaker for the job. Whitaker gave the prisoner an order to sit down, “Get down! Sit down!”

“Or I have to put a bullet in you,” but the prisoner carries on rising. At this point the audience is praying that the prisoner listens. The prisoner continues to rise and Whitaker finally puts a bullet in him. Everyone inside the hut is shocked along with every single member of the audiences. All anybody can do is stay still and not move. Whitaker drops his Rifle and buries his face into his hand and says “god…god…god.” Mitchem carries on as normal but Whitaker is just still, not knowing what to do. The other members of the patrol continue what they were doing. The audience is still in a state of shock from what Whitaker has just done. Willis Hall has used the “make them cry,” at this point in the play. He has used it too such an extend that the audience really do feel like crying. Their upset over the fact that young Whitaker has just killed someone, upset over the fact that the Japanese soldier that they got to know so well has just been shot and their upset over the fact that the patrol has pretty much carried on as normal.

We can feel a great deal of pathos towards the patrol and once again a lot for Whitaker and Bamforth. We feel a sense of lost for Bamforth, as he has become very attached to the prisoner. We also feel very bad for Whitaker who has buried his face in his hands to almost hide him self from what he has just done.

This is why this play is such a good war play, because even though there are no special effects and it’s only a few soldiers in a small hut. Willis Hall still has the same ability to change how people are feeling and thinking.

Through out the play Willis Hall has manipulated how he wants the audience to feel. If he wants them to be at the edge of their seats, he gets them there. If he wants them relaxed and happy, he does it and that is how and why this World War II war play written in 1952 is so good.

I enjoyed reading and watching this play a lot. I thought that the film was going to be full of special visual effect and the latest sound effect but none of this was present. There was not any decent visual affects at all, not really any sound effects apart from a bird at the start and at the end of the film and there wasn’t a really great story line, but still it had the same effect as some of the latest films. Willis Hall is a very talented writer and knows how to work his audience.