GOPHER BROKE National Film Board of Canada, 1979. Distributed by National Film Board of Canada #106C0179107. 16mm Film. 24 min. 3 sec., colour, sound. $410.00. Grades 10 and up. Reviewed by Gary Goulson. Volume 11 Number 3. 1983 May. The descriptive release for this film says in part:          Gopher Broke, through the reminiscences          of the retired sergeant, brings back the era of          the Great Depression. Care has been taken to recreate          the physical aspect and atmosphere of a small Prairie          town in the Thirties. Archetypes of that period walk          the main street, contributing color, and their opinions.          Part of the Adventures in History series, this short          drama evokes the restlessness of a people whose lives          were not rooted by the exigencies of a job. There were          no jobs. The film leavens this hard truth with comical          situations which do not, however, mask the seriousness          of the times. What is apparently intended as a half-comic, half-serious vignette of a painful period rings false. Worse than that, the characters are a succession of comic caricatures. In trying to be cute, the producers have made the people seem pathetic and ridiculous. The real dilemma of hopeless-ness-for young and old-has been missed completely. This is all very sad because the National Film Board has done other memorable things with this same era, the poignant Drylanders for instance. I hope Canadian men and women who lived through the depression and Canadian school children who are trying to discover what it was really like are not subjected to Gopher Broke. Gary Goulson, Faculty of Education, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC.