ABSTRACT
More than twenty years after British troops reclaimed the Falkland Islands from a brief Argentinean occupation, it is still difficult to assess what ‘‘meanings’’ have been attached to the conflict. Certainly documentary films about the war have broadly attempted to reexamine the picture of the Falklands conflict solidified by Britain’s popular media in 1982. In addition, perhaps more than might reasonably be expected of a war fought in the late twentieth century, these documentary films have had to belatedly address deficiencies in journalism during the conflict. Indeed, any survey of documentaries about the war must begin with the efforts of the small band of journalists who accompanied the British Task Force to the South Atlantic. As Julian Barnes remarks, the Falklands may
well have been ‘‘the worst reported war since the
Crimean’’ (The Guardian, February 25, 2002). Some of the problems were logistical; the Falklands are a very long way from Fleet Street and Broadcast House. However, many commentators since 1982 have focused more on the role of the Thatcher government in managing the release of information to the British public. These scholarly accounts frequently point to the quick release of ‘‘good news’’ and the apparent delays that befell ‘‘bad news’’ as it crossed the Atlantic. Images of the war, most of which were still photographs rather than film footage, were also tightly controlled by Ministry of Defence officials. Given these wide-ranging limitations on original coverage, it is clear that the documentary tradition of the Falklands War did not properly begin in 1982.
