Share
Clip description
Frankie McCoy (Ken Shorter) enters basic training at Kapooka camp, but neither the food nor the discipline agrees with him. Sergeant Quinn (Peter Aanensen) waits for him to slip up, during harsh training on the obstacle course.
Curator’s notes
The Kapooka scenes are the film’s main non-studio section, and they’re important to establish the film’s subtext. You Can’t See 'Round Corners is partly a film about taking responsibility, and Frankie wants to avoid all responsibility. The script offers no critique of the idea of conscription as such, but a strong critique of anyone opposed to going to fight, as many young men were at the time. In this sense the film can be seen as part of the pro-war lobby of the late 1960s, when the issues were a matter of national debate. Films and newsreels had taken a similar position in favour of conscription and Australia’s participation in both world wars, but many of those were government-sponsored films. This one was a commercial production by a television network, from a book written in 1947, before conscription was reintroduced in Australia in 1964.
