The Infantry Blues (1943)
Private Snafu grumbles about being stuck in the infantry while every other branch looks cushier — until he sees firsthand that the Navy, the Air Corps, and every other outfit have their own miseries to complain about.
Directed by Chuck Jones, The Infantry Blues tackles interservice grumbling head-on, using Snafu’s envy of other branches to remind foot soldiers that no assignment in the army is free of hardship.
Background
The Infantry Blues is a Private Snafu short from the World War II Army Signal Corps series, directed by Chuck Jones. The series used the bumbling soldier to teach troops about military life through animated comedy, and animators from the Warner Bros. studio worked on the shorts. This entry takes on a familiar complaint among soldiers, that the infantry is the worst assignment in the army. Like the other Snafu films, it was produced by a federal agency, which makes it a work of the US government and places it in the public domain. Its circulation in archives has kept it available for study of wartime training films.
What to watch for
Watch how the short is built around envy. Snafu grumbles that the infantry has the worst assignment while other branches look cushier, then sees each of them up close and finds their own miseries. The structure moves through a series of comparisons that undercut the soldier’s complaint, which is the film’s point. At around four minutes the gags are quick, and the lesson is delivered without much subtlety. Its central idea, that no branch of the service escapes hardship, is stated plainly for audiences who were still in training, and the cartoon’s humor makes that message easier to take.
