The morse code during the 'telegraph dog' scene

Gyramuur · **Joined:** Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:32 am

JerseyCaptain wrote:

Gyramuur wrote:

While I do concur that they should have tried to keep certain things like that historically accurate, if they were to insert the full message into the film it would have taken a full 5 minutes to write out (presuming they were typing at a similar speed as in the film), if not longer. In a film that's about an hour and fifteen minutes long, that's a huge chunk of the film's playing time (6.7% to be precise). From a movie goer's perspective, that would seem highly obnoxious, and I don't think most people (kids especially, them being the target audience) would sit through five minutes' worth of morse code; it would have been a drawn out scene of nothing but perplexity for the viewers, and it likely would have hurt the film's ratings. There's a difference between slow pacing in a film, wherein every minute does something in the film's favour (such as establishing the characters, atmosphere/mood, the setting), and inserting a five minute break into an otherwise fast paced kids' film for the sake of historical accuracy.

I don't disagree with what you're saying; it would have been nice if they had tried to keep things accurate as possible - but the full message would be unreasonable considering the film. In a more historically accurate piece, a scene like that might slip by if done properly. The least they could have done (without breaking the pacing) would be to have some kind of short message that was pertinent, such as "HELP NOME." or something to that effect; maybe a small portion of the actual message, even.

Given that I am also a "movie goer", I still differ with your analysis of how long it would have played out, and whether or not it would have been distracting. Nevertheless, even if it were possible that it played out for an actual five minutes, if the full message were considered, I think we both know that Spielberg would have simply done with this what he did with pretty much every other historical aspect of the movie...changed it to suit the production overall. Either they would have shortened it, or would have changed it altogether (in a sense they did...just to absolute gibberish, apparently).

Frankly, in the grand scheme, it doesn't really matter whether or not they did insert the real message. 99% of the people who watched this movie are either not going to care, or would find it a bit too tedious to sit there and try to work this out. And maybe a bit like picking nits over what is nothing more than a children's animated movie.

No criticism is meant of what effort you put into trying to find this out. It's impressive that you actually spent the time on it. But I think you're probably one of a VERRRRY small percentage of people who might have even bothered or cared. Especially given the fact that, considering the movie as a whole (especially given its tagline of "the true story of an American hero"), it ran utterly roughshod over the actual history of the events it purports to portray.

No doubt in a more historically accurate piece, as I said, it could be done. ^^ Perhaps a young child could be sitting in the doctor's office wherein the telegraph operator could also be stationed, and he or she would be having dialogue with their parents, wondering if they'll be okay, as well as additional shots of the sick children to show just how serious this epidemic was. A three or four minute scene like this with the operator tapping away in the background would be fine, as the telegram wouldn't be the main focus of the scene and subsequently it wouldn't detract from the film - it would just be a nice additional detail that could add to the overall setting.

Honestly, I'm kind of disappointed this film wasn't more historically accurate - it's a straight up slap in the face to the 19 other mushers that carried the medicine, and a huge slap in the face to Leonhard Seppela and his lead dog Togo, whom carried the medicine through the longest and most dangerous stretch, as it disregards their efforts and turns Togo into primary antagonist Steele. It's kind of insulting, really - they take what's already a huge point of contention, Balto getting most of the credit, and go on to exacerbate that by giving Balto even more credit by making him look like the big hero that did most of the work (the musher himself is depicted as being unconscious for the voyage, leaving all responsibility for guiding the team back home to Balto). I feel like they didn't really care about historical accuracy and were more concerned about making something that would appeal to kids; but I also feel like they could have kept a good balance between accuracy and entertainment value if they really wanted to.

As for me being part of a small percentage, you bet I am! When I initially developed my curiosity, I took a quick look online to see if anyone else had decoded it; not only had no one decoded it, but as far as I could tell no one even mentioned it. I am, as far as I can discern, the first known person in existence to try and decode these messages. It's possible others have done so in the past, but they might have realised it was just gibberish and ergo gave up, not bothering to announce their findings. Going into it, I didn't expect historical accuracy or even verbal accuracy (him typing out what he was actually saying), but at least some sort of easter egg for people to find; it would be a perfect place to put one - that said, I am disappointed that it was jargon. Still, I'm glad I took the time to decode it. As much as this film butchers the actual events, I still love it and its characters. It's a film that I think I'll always be willing to watch, and being the curious individual I am, I was going to wonder at the morse-code at some point or another.

BaltoSeppala · **Posted:** Thu Nov 06, 2014 11:29 am

Well surely I would have loved to see the movie made with more devotion to historical accuracy and the historical record. Anyone who knows this history, I think, would feel the same. The real story has more than enough drama and adventure to at least equal what appears in the existing movie.

Not to say that I don't like the movie as it is. On its own, it's a good movie. And a fair piece of animation. And I have it on DVD (along with the other two). But it always bothered me that the tag line didn't read "based upon a true story" rather than inferring that what viewers see in it IS the true story. Which it most certainly isn't.

But again, no foul on your desire to try and sort out the message.

xArcticGx · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 1:06 am

I haven't had time to verify it myself, but in a review of the Balto soundtrack, I read that in track 8 Jenna/Telegraphing The News, starting at 0:58, ( http://youtu.be/945Gd79GaOM?t=58s ) the flutes can supposedly be heard playing Morse code. It certainly sounds like it, but your findings leave me suspicious of that claim. Would you mind checking that as well?

// Note: I have no idea why the block for my post is so big.

Gyramuur · **Joined:** Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:32 am

xArcticGx wrote:

I haven't had time to verify it myself, but in a review of the Balto soundtrack, I read that in track 8 Jenna/Telegraphing The News, starting at 0:58, ( http://youtu.be/945Gd79GaOM?t=58s ) the flutes can supposedly be heard playing Morse code. It certainly sounds like it, but your findings leave me suspicious of that claim. Would you mind checking that as well?

// Note: I have no idea why the block for my post is so big.

I'm thinking that perhaps it's morse, but they might just be writing out some kind of jargon. Withal! you do have me curious, and methinks I'll investigate the track later. ^^

BaltoSeppala · **Posted:** Wed Nov 12, 2014 5:51 am

It's probably just another random nod to the critical importance of wireless telegraphy in the real story, as well as the movie itself. If they didn't put any real message in the telegraph scene itself, I'm thinking it's going to be the same with the soundtrack.

Gyramuur · **Joined:** Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:32 am

Gyramuur wrote:

xArcticGx wrote:

I haven't had time to verify it myself, but in a review of the Balto soundtrack, I read that in track 8 Jenna/Telegraphing The News, starting at 0:58, ( http://youtu.be/945Gd79GaOM?t=58s ) the flutes can supposedly be heard playing Morse code. It certainly sounds like it, but your findings leave me suspicious of that claim. Would you mind checking that as well?

// Note: I have no idea why the block for my post is so big.

I'm thinking that perhaps it's morse, but they might just be writing out some kind of jargon. Withal! you do have me curious, and methinks I'll investigate the track later. ^^

Yup, it's total nonsense; it's just there for the purpose of melody. When decoding it, we get something resembling RUVAS. For a laugh I dropped that into google, and I discovered that "Ruvas Forest" is a level and song in Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. That game was released 13 years after Balto came out, so no doubt they are completely unrelated - but here's that song anyways, lmao http://youtu.be/4SNredsfyBI not bad, if I say so myself.

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The morse code during the 'telegraph dog' scene