Scenes Of War

The Community Video Center at the Pikes Peak Library District (whose earlier works Everybody's Welcome, Harvest of Love, and Prisons: They Ain't What They Used To Be were reviewed in our November 1992 issue) are back collecting personal stories of interesting individuals. Scenes of War tells the story of Jim Bates, a WWII combat photographer who, at 76-years-old, still makes an annual climb to the top of Pikes Peak. Combining harrowing combat footage with an on-camera interview with Bates, Scenes of War offers a close-up look at what was an extremely dangerous profession (since combat photographers had to be where the action was, they were invariably on the front lines and, as a group, suffered severe casualties). Bates recalls, with exceptional honesty, the good times and the bad times: photographing Churchill, parachuting into a canal on D-Day and soaking his camera equipment, firing on a man who--unbeknownst to Bates--was trying to affix a white flag to his bazooka. Awarded a Bronze Star, photographer Bates also was one of the first to see the horror of a Nazi concentration camp (although he has a personal collection of photographs he took, Bates kept no pictures of the Nazi atrocities). Besides the horrors, Bates also captured some wonderful moments, including a great sequence of recuperating vets singing acapella. Collections with strong WWII holdings should definitely consider adding this. Recommended. (R. Pitman)