Academy Award trivia buffs will know the 1954 production \u201cA Time Out of War\u201d was the first student film to win the Oscar \u2013 in the Short Subject (Two-Reel) category, beating out competition from the Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Disney studios. And when you experience the film, you\u2019ll understand how a small no-budget student project could one-up the major Hollywood players.
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Set during the closing stretch of the Civil War, \u201cA Time Out of War\u201d takes place along the banks of a river on a hot afternoon. The Union soldiers Alden and Connor exchange light insults and occasional gunfire across to Craig, a Confederate on the opposite bank of the river. The men realize they\u2019ve reached a stalemate and agree to a one-hour ceasefire. Connor tries to catch a fish in the river while Alden and Craig trade supplies by throwing the goods in a wrapped handkerchief across the water \u2013 Craig provides tobacco while Alden offers coffee and hardtack. The men exchange mild small talk, with Alden taking a brief nap. Connor\u2019s fishing efforts produces an unexpected result \u2013 there will be no spoilers here, except to say that the discovery reaffirms a sense of humanity that often percolates unexpectedly in times of crisis.<\/p>\n
Writer\/director Denis Sanders adapted Robert W. Chambers\u2019 1897 short story \u201cPickets\u201d for this film, which was originally meant to be a thesis project when he was an undergraduate at UCLA. The film moves at a quiet pace \u2013 there is no speechmaking or profound insights in the dialogue, but rather the quietly startling reality that wartime enemies might have more in common than they realize. The soundtrack\u2019s minimal use of nature\u2019s noises and instrumental music adds to the serenity of the ceasefire period. Terry Sanders, the brother of Denis, captured the humid beauty of the riverbank in an effective orthochromatic black-and-white cinematography, and the underplayed performances by Barry Atwater\u2019s Craig, Robert Sherry\u2019s Alden and Alan Cohen\u2019s Connor adds to the authenticity of the project.<\/p>\n
For those who mistakenly believe short films need to be overstuffed with talk, action, music and sound effects, \u201cA Time Out of War\u201d provides a brilliant example of what can be achieved in this genre.<\/p>\n