Help! (movie) (original) (raw)


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Last modified: 2016-03-19 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
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Unnamed Country

National Flag

[[flag]](../images/f/fic-help.gif)
image by James Dignan, 3 December 2003

In the movie Help!, the Beatles are pursued by the high priest of an eastern religious cult (played by British character actor Leo McKern) which worships the goddess Kaili, clearly based on the Indian deity Kali. Although it is never stated exactly where this religion is based, nor is the country mentioned, it is quite obviously intended to be somewhere in the Indian subcontinent. The national flag is seen hoisted over a ski-jump in Austria.It is about 3×5, and follows the Canadian patternwith a central white square between two panels of deep gold. In the central panel is a red and gold four-bladed symbol enclosed in a red frame.
James Dignan, 3 December 2003

Car Flag

[[flag]](../images/f/fic^help.gif)
image by James Dignan, 3 December 2003

A smaller, military-style version of the flag is seen flown from an army jeep. It is smaller, and closer to square (possibly 3×4). It simply shows the central emblem from the national flag, which is stretched to the dimensions of the flag. Intriguingly, on the smaller flag, the emblem's blades rotate in the opposite direction to those on the national flag. Presumably this was an oversight by film-makers far more concerned about providing a fun vehicle for the (excellent!) music.
James Dignan, 3 December 2003

As far as I could tell it was not a matter of obverse and reverse, although that's possible. The jeep flag was shown in the movie with the pole to the left, and although the national flag had the pole to the right (due to the breeze), light was showing through the flag and it appeared that the flag was mirror reversed on the two sides. If it wasn't moirror reversed (and the same pattern exactly was on the two sides), then the national flag would actually have the symbol I showed on the jeep flag (i.e., the reverse of how I drew it).
James Dignan, 5 December 2003