The Trotsky

[Revy]

I just heard about this movie....I don't know if it has been discussed before.

8d5p6JccaMo

apparently it is about a guy who thinks he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. and so he acts like him. and people think he's crazy but wins over the students to his cause.

[rednordman]

looks totally hilarious.

[Chambered Word]

I lol'd, I'm definately gonna see this in cinema. :laugh:

[A.R.Amistad]

Think the Trotskyist movement will all of the sudden become hip and cool after this movie? The we'd really have a good base of cadre :thumbup1:

[Angry Young Man]

Wasn't Trotsky's wife called Natalya?

[Belisarius]

Wasn't Trotsky's wife called Natalya?
Trotksy had two wives during his lifetime.

[khad]

I really don't have much against Trotsky, but this leftspoitation makes me gag.

Best ending ever if he gets icepicked.

[mykittyhasaboner]

Unionizing high school? :lol: While an entertaining concept, I don't know if this film will work out well.


Best ending ever if he gets icepicked.
I would watch it if this happened.

[RED DAVE]

I really don't have much against Trotsky, but this leftspoitation makes me gag.

Best ending ever if he gets icepicked.I can just see a movie called "The Stalin." He's a bureaucrat in a student political party, and after they take over the student government, he accuses his colleagues of a Columbine-like terrorist plot.

You started it!

RED DAVE

[khad]

I can just see a movie called "The Stalin." He's a bureaucrat in a student political party, and after they take over the student government, he accuses his colleagues of a Columbine-like terrorist plot.

You started it!

RED DAVE
And this is meant to offend me how?

I wouldn't watch any of these absurd leftspolitation films, not even one based on Durruti, Bakunin, or Proudhon.

All this reflects is society treating the left like a bunch of clowns. Of course, you're obviously too busy acting like a child.

[DecDoom]

I get the feeling this'll be just another stupid teen movie.

And as for people being inspired, I figure that for every person that is genuinely inspired to learn about Trotsky and his theories, there'll be 10 hipsters that shout about how Trotskyist they are before they head off to vote Democrat.

[Martin Blank]

If you live in the U.S. and have Comcast cable services, chances are that you have this movie available through the OnDemand section, since it is part of the package of movies they're including for their annual showcasing of the Tribeca Film Festival.

[Sir Comradical]

I can just see a movie called "The Stalin." He's a bureaucrat in a student political party, and after they take over the student government, he accuses his colleagues of a Columbine-like terrorist plot.

You started it!

RED DAVE

With Joseph Djugashvilli played by Zac Efron...

[jake williams]

I'm actually super pumped to see this. Jay Baruschel is adorable, and a big chunk of the film was shot around where I live and go to school. The last shot in the trailor is in front of a building at McGill called the Shatner Building :)



Unionizing high school? :lol:
It can certainly be done, in fact as I write this I'm taking a break from writing an article on precisely this subject. There are problems with skills and maturity, but a far bigger barrier is mostly chauvinism and ignorance on the part of older students, or teachers.

[which doctor]

This movie looks awful.

[Vanguard1917]

Looks shit.

[A.R.Amistad]

I get the feeling this'll be just another stupid teen movie.

And as for people being inspired, I figure that for every person that is genuinely inspired to learn about Trotsky and his theories, there'll be 10 hipsters that shout about how Trotskyist they are before they head off to vote Democrat.

I'm like...so totally Trotskyist.....yeah

[theblackmask]

First we get video games about Stalin fighting aliens, and now this. Leftsploitation isn't a term I've heard too much, but I definitely think it applies here.

[Chambered Word]

Best ending ever if he gets icepicked.

I cannot lie, I would laugh too, even though I quite like the man himself.

[9]

Wow this is depressing.

[Pirate Utopian]

Was discussed in the Say What You Want Thread.
http://www.revleft.com/vb/say-you-want-t132148/index4.html#post1730942

[mykittyhasaboner]

I'm actually super pumped to see this. Jay Baruschel is adorable, and a big chunk of the film was shot around where I live and go to school. The last shot in the trailor is in front of a building at McGill called the Shatner Building :)



It can certainly be done, in fact as I write this I'm taking a break from writing an article on precisely this subject. There are problems with skills and maturity, but a far bigger barrier is mostly chauvinism and ignorance on the part of older students, or teachers.

How would such a thing work out though? I'm sorry, I'm not trying to argue here I'm just really astounded at such an idea. Surely, a student's union would be able to express the interests of the students, but I'm not sure how they would achieve a more or less equal status with teachers and admins.

[Davie zepeda]

http://gamevideos.1up.com/video/id/23934

Heres the stalin game if you want to take a look lol

[spiltteeth]

Not a trotskyist but the movie is great.
Really, very inspiring.

Plus there's a bunch of humor only us leftists would get.

One of my favorite parts is when the main guy throws a 'social justice' dance at the school - everyone dresses up like their favorite revolutionaries - of course someone shows up as Ann Raynd and gets thrown out!

Highly recommended.

[Jimmie Higgins]

^I love the Ayn Rand part.

Isn't this movie plot similar to a Monty Python skit where someone thought they were Trotsky?

Actually a friend of mine once was playing around with a screenplay idea about a high school teen movie about a not-popular girl who is made over to become part of the popular clique and she ends up uniting all the school cliques around a school spirit campaign and is elected as president of student council. She becomes a fascist dictator of the school, builds a cult of personality around her and the last 2/3rds play out in 1984 style in high school: the announcements are a recorded loop talking about how cool the girl is and how she wants everyone to be as cool as she is so they should follow her dictates; cheerleaders as brown-shirts; permanent detention for the stoners. The last 1/3rd is an ill-fated attempt to raid another school (their school budget was spent on spirit events and pageantry) which quickly fails and the girl kills herself with a cyanide capsule.

This friend went to my high school - it's not a far off description:lol:.

[Sir Comradical]

Not a trotskyist but the movie is great.
Really, very inspiring.

Plus there's a bunch of humor only us leftists would get.

One of my favorite parts is when the main guy throws a 'social justice' dance at the school - everyone dresses up like their favorite revolutionaries - of course someone shows up as Ann Raynd and gets thrown out!

Highly recommended.

Download link?

[jake williams]

How would such a thing work out though? I'm sorry, I'm not trying to argue here I'm just really astounded at such an idea. Surely, a student's union would be able to express the interests of the students, but I'm not sure how they would achieve a more or less equal status with teachers and admins.
In what sense? Not to hijack the thread. But at any rate, it's been done, with mixed success of course. I can link you up if you like.

[Manifesto]

Download link?
Been looking so much but unless you sign up for the website which apparently is a pain in the ass to get out of I cannot find anything.

[Sir Comradical]

Been looking so much but unless you sign up for the website which apparently is a pain in the ass to get out of I cannot find anything.

Which website?

[Manifesto]

Which website?
filez-express.com and downloadaccess.net from what I can tell. Sorry I am pretty sure it is not allowed to post links to torrents.

[Manifesto]

Oh yeah and be careful besides regular reasons, titles can often be misleading.

[khad]

I fucking called it. Another big joke on the left by the fucking liberals, from a rich liberal douche who is proud to say he slummed it as a leftist.

And you people just lap this piss up.

http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/the-trotsky/


The precedent for The Trotsky is obvious when you think in terms of delusional idealist heroes making fools of themselves tilting at windmills. If that isn’t obvious enough, I am referring to Don Quixote.

In The Trotsky, the hero has an obsession about starting unions. In an early scene, he pisses off his father after leading the workers in his garment plant on a hunger strike to form a union. We are supposed to laugh at this scene because the workers appear content in their job and because Leon’s inflamed rhetoric and pose-striking are at odds with the reality in the plant. Jacob Tierney, the son of a successful liberal-minded film producer, clearly has not stepped foot in a garment plant lately, places that are not so nearly as clean and benign as the one depicted in his film—nor are the workers so contented.

This comic situation is repeated throughout the rest of the movie as Leon persuades fellow students that they need a union. The headmaster and his assistant, two people who are obviously familiar with the 1960s—perhaps as activists, resist his efforts. Once again, the students fall in line like sheep behind the delusional hero who has leadership abilities totally at odds with his obvious psychological problems.

One 1960s activist eventually comes around to supporting Leon’s dubious cause even though he initially regards him as Quixotic. This is Frank McGovern (Michael Murphy) an American draft resister about my age who had become a kind of William Kunstler-type lawyer in Canada. When Leon approaches him to support the unionizing efforts at his father’s plant, McGovern sends him on his way, understanding that the youth is living in a fantasy world. At the end of the movie, in a showdown with the cops and school administration, McGovern backs Leon. Supposedly he is the “best hope” for the new generation. The whole thing has an utterly pat quality, like the moralizing conclusion of a situation comedy during prime time.


In an interview with Daemon’s Media website (http://www.daemonsmovies.com/2009/09/03/the-trotskys-director-jacob-tierney-exclusive-interview/), Tierney talks about the inspiration for his singularly unfunny and apolitical movie.


In truth I was really moved as a teenager by Ken Loach, by his movies and particularly ‘Land and Freedom’ which I saw when I was like fifteen. It just made the biggest impression on me. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was a very serious teenager, very engaged and I wrote a lot and I was probably a bit boring. I wanted to make a movie about socialists in high school, something really revolutionary, something that basically felt like ‘Land and Freedom’ a bit. I wrote that script and it was about a bunch of kids in high school trying to get the Spanish Civil War added to their curriculum. It was just so bad and so boring, and I was like, ‘Fuck me. I am not Ken Loach.’ Then what ultimately happened is that I was reading it one day and I started to laugh because I thought, ‘Who the fuck talks like this? This is insane. You would never be able to listen to someone talking to you like this in real life.’ I thought that was kind of funny as an idea. ‘I like to laugh.’

[Lyev]

This is cultural hegemony, right? The capitalist class is vast in it's economic influence, and therefore soaks up any social, cultural or political trend that is in the slightest bit threatening. Typical example is Guevara. He's not a revolutionary anymore, he's a cool dude on a t-shirt, in films and in books. The commodification of revolution or rebellion suits the bourgeoisie just fine. Something hostile becomes the reverse of what it used to be, and someone makes some money of off the top of it. Another example would be the use of "anarchy" as a fashion label. I'm sure you've seen some angst-filled, teenage wanker walking around with the anarchy "A" on his t-shirt, even though he doesn't know who Bakunin or Goldman were. Another very recent example, for UK comrades, or anyone who's seen the advert (a sociologist pointed this out to me) is John Lydon and the recent anchor spreadable adverts or whatever that butter is. The Sex Pistols were very anti-establishment, well-known, in the media, and they were at the centre of a movement. Now that he's going on about butter and cows and shit, Lydon seems a lot less threatening than he did back in '77. This is just another "threat" that capitalism has soaked up. This was something I chatted about with a lecturer who teaches sociology, so I think I'm right, but I could be way off. It's an interesting subject nonetheless.

[Sir Comradical]

filez-express.com and downloadaccess.net from what I can tell. Sorry I am pretty sure it is not allowed to post links to torrents.

I'd be more than happy to just buy it but I don't know where.

I read that blog you wrote about your dad, wow.

[Manifesto]

I'd be more than happy to just buy it but I don't know where.

I read that blog you wrote about your dad, wow.

It has not been released on DVD yet, if it will. The only thing I can think of right now is if when it comes to America that it will be easier to find online hopefully. Splitteeth found a way somehow, the movie is not supposed to be in NY for another month but he probably watched it Comcast OnDemand since it is on there. A bit pricey though. :/

Yeah people usually say that about him haha. He is a terrible human being but that is typical, he is a Conservative.

[Sir Comradical]

It has not been released on DVD yet, if it will. The only thing I can think of right now is if when it comes to America that it will be easier to find online hopefully. Splitteeth found a way somehow, the movie is not supposed to be in NY for another month but he probably watched it Comcast OnDemand since it is on there. A bit pricey though. :/

Yeah people usually say that about him haha. He is a terrible human being but that is typical, he is a Conservative.

What's your relationship with him like?

[which doctor]

I can't wait for the ISO review to come out.

[Manifesto]

What's your relationship with him like?
A bit personal, no? Oh well. It is probably not that uncommon assuming other people hate their parents too. I secretly resent him but he knows nothing of it and thinks I agree with him on everything. Little does he know ;) I don't know how else to describe it, I just hate him and everything he stands for, I suppose he is ok when he is not being an asshole. Maybe you could be a little more specific on what you are asking?

[Chambered Word]

I'd be a bit more impressed by a version of 'Fuck The Police' where Trotsky raps about how the NKVD is always after him.

[Sir Comradical]

A bit personal, no? Oh well. It is probably not that uncommon assuming other people hate their parents too. I secretly resent him but he knows nothing of it and thinks I agree with him on everything. Little does he know ;) I don't know how else to describe it, I just hate him and everything he stands for, I suppose he is ok when he is not being an asshole. Maybe you could be a little more specific on what you are asking?

Because it's a bit like the relationship between me and my dad. My dad supports the war in Afghanistan but opposes the Iraq war. He calls himself a socialist but then says that capitalism works. He's basically a confused man who doesn't 'get it', if you know what I mean.

[Manifesto]

Because it's a bit like the relationship between me and my dad. My dad supports the war in Afghanistan but opposes the Iraq war. He calls himself a socialist but then says that capitalism works. He's basically a confused man who doesn't 'get it', if you know what I mean.
Yeah he does sound extremely confused lol. Is he racist, sexist, and homophobic too? And do you hate him too?

[Red Commissar]

I think there's a movie in India called "Stalin", but I think it has nothing to do with Stalin.

As for this film, I won't comment. Don't feel too strongly in either direction.

[Sir Comradical]

Yeah he does sound extremely confused lol. Is he racist, sexist, and homophobic too? And do you hate him too?

No. And No I don't hate him.

[Manifesto]

I think there's a movie in India called "Stalin", but I think it has nothing to do with Stalin.

As for this film, I won't comment. Don't feel too strongly in either direction.
Yeah it was with this Indian guy....weird as hell though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i83HrlW6HQQ

No. And No I don't hate him.
Oh well still that is very odd that he thinks like that. Some people do support the Afghanistan War but not the Iraq one, don't ask me why.

[Crux]

I think there's a movie in India called "Stalin", but I think it has nothing to do with Stalin.

As for this film, I won't comment. Don't feel too strongly in either direction.
There's a leading trotskyist in venezuela called Stalin, I believe.

[Barry Lyndon]

So they'll make some dumb parody about Trotsky, but not a straight film about the real Trotsky's life. At least Iv'e never heard of one.

[CJCM]

I just heard about this movie....I don't know if it has been discussed before.

8d5p6JccaMo

apparently it is about a guy who thinks he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky. and so he acts like him. and people think he's crazy but wins over the students to his cause.

I thaught it was some Hollywood Glossy, sure sounds like one.

[khad]

So they'll make some dumb parody about Trotsky, but not a straight film about the real Trotsky's life. At least Iv'e never heard of one.
Joke's on you, socialists!


In an interview with Daemon’s Media website (http://www.daemonsmovies.com/2009/09/03/the-trotskys-director-jacob-tierney-exclusive-interview/), Tierney talks about the inspiration for his singularly unfunny and apolitical movie.


In truth I was really moved as a teenager by Ken Loach, by his movies and particularly ‘Land and Freedom’ which I saw when I was like fifteen. It just made the biggest impression on me. It hit me like a ton of bricks. I was a very serious teenager, very engaged and I wrote a lot and I was probably a bit boring. I wanted to make a movie about socialists in high school, something really revolutionary, something that basically felt like ‘Land and Freedom’ a bit. I wrote that script and it was about a bunch of kids in high school trying to get the Spanish Civil War added to their curriculum. It was just so bad and so boring, and I was like, ‘Fuck me. I am not Ken Loach.’ Then what ultimately happened is that I was reading it one day and I started to laugh because I thought, ‘Who the fuck talks like this? This is insane. You would never be able to listen to someone talking to you like this in real life.’ I thought that was kind of funny as an idea. ‘I like to laugh.’

[Crux]

So they'll make some dumb parody about Trotsky, but not a straight film about the real Trotsky's life. At least Iv'e never heard of one.
Well Trotsky plays a part in Frida but off hand I can't think of any movie specifically about trotsky.

[Kléber]

there's this one, interesting watch with good on location historical scenes in mexico city, but it kinda sucked, got a lot of things wrong

http://shahlaz.persiangig.com/image/Uploads/Assassination.%20of.Trotsky.jpg

[Yawn]

:blink:they trying to mess wit Trotsky's rep. Fail!

[Die Rote Fahne]

I'm actually looking forward to this haha.

It's a Canadian film as well, which looks surprisingly good.

[Honggweilo]

not to be the devils advocate, but i actually know trots who fit this stereotype of almost believing they are a reincarnation :laugh:

[Foldered]

I really don't have much against Trotsky, but this leftspoitation makes me gag.

Best ending ever if he gets icepicked.
I agree. Leftspoitation is an incredibly apt term. It's also a very easy way to make the left seem like a movement of "teenage angst" that isn't serious.

I was planning on posting a review here after I watched it. Probably still will.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

I have not watched it, but I saw who was acting as Trotsky and cringed. I hate that actor.