What are the 15 best fiction films about Socialist/Labor History IMO

[Barry Lyndon]

Battleship Potempkin-Sergei Eisenstein(1925) [Soviet Union]
Classic film about a naval mutiny in Czarist Russia.

October-Sergei Eisenstein(1927) [Soviet Union]
Dramatization of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

Rosa Luxemburg-Margarethe von Trotta(1986) [West Germany]
Biopic about the great German revolutionary, her life and her socialist ideals, before, during. and after World War I.

Matewan-John Sayles(1987) [USA]
Portrayal of a violent 1920's coal miner battle with management and a IWW organizers fight to build a union across racial and ethnic lines with Chris Cooper and James Earl Jones.

Grapes of Wrath- John Ford(1940) [USA]
Adaptation of Steinbeck's novel about the plight of 'Okie' migrants from the Dust Bowl.

Libertarias-Vicente Aranda(1996) [Spain]
Spanish film about woman who joins the anarchist militia during the Spanish Civil War.

Come and See-Elim Klimov(1985) [Soviet Union]
Ultra-violent but riveting film about a teenager who joins the Soviet partisan war against the Nazis.

Rome Open City- Rosellin(1945) [Italy]
Portrayal of the Italian anti-fascist resistance movement during World War II, classic of Italian neo-realism

Salt of the Earth-Micheal Wilson(1954) [USA]
Movie banned during the McCarthy era that sympathetically portrays a strike by Mexican zinc miners in the US Southwest.

Soy Cuba-Kalatosov(1964) [Soviet Union/Cuba]
Soviet-Cuban joint film project dramatizing 1950's Cuba and the subsequent revolution.

Che-Steven Soderbergh(2008) [USA]
Epic film about the exploits of the Argentinian revolutionary in Cuba and later, Bolivia, in two parts. First part is much better then the second IMO.

Panther-Mario Von Peebles(1995) [USA]
Fictionalized account of the founding, rise, and fall of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in the Los Angeles black ghetto in the 1960's.

Breaking with Old Ideas(1975) [People's Republic of China]
Film about how class inequality was fought in the education system in Maoist China.

The Baader-Meinhof Complex-Uli Edel(2008) [Germany]
Fast-moving thriller based on the exploits of the Red Army Faction. a Marxist terrorist group in West Germany in the 1970's.

North Country-Niki Caro(2005) [USA]
Charlize Theron plays a iron miner fighting a court case against sexist harassment and abuse from male co-workers in 1989 Minnesota.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Reds (1981)
The reporter John Reed managed to capture the russian revolution, even if the movie tend to focus to much at him and his personal life, it still good.

Land and Freedom (1995)
A unemployed worker in Liverpool, joins the republican side in the spanish civil war to fight against fascism.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006)
About the irish fight against brittish imperialism.

To Live (1994)
About a ordinary familys life, in China, and its changes, frome the chinesse revolution to the cultural revolution.

Everlasting Moments (2008)
A women, living in the early 1900s Sweden, who discover she has some skills with photography, tries to learn more and we get to see her familys life during a turbolent time.

Matewan (1987)
Miners in West Virginia takes class struggle to the militant level.

[RadioRaheem84]

1900

and this has to be mentioned for a third time; MATEWAN.

Such a great film. My all time fav.

[praxis1966]

It's not nearly as obvious as the rest of these films, but Haneke's Caché is a good one. It deals with France's colonial past, specifically the Algerian War of Independence and the Paris massacre of 1961. Haneke uses the story of a family and its patriarch's dark secrets coming home to roost as an allegory for how unpleasant parts of a nation's history tend to get swept under the carpet. Excellent film which I only just saw this morning...

[mossy noonmann]

i agree excellent film.
not sure i 'got' all of it.

[praxis1966]

i agree excellent film.
not sure i 'got' all of it.

Well, I had the privy of a 25 minute interview with him in the special features portion of the DVD, so that helped. He was very critical of modern French society, given that nobody ever talked about the 1961 massacre until he happened to catch a documentary about it late one night on television. He didn't even know about the event in which (to use his words) "200 dead bodies were floating in the Seine." He basically went on to say how the horrific secret the father kept and the way he denied real culpability was similar to the way he viewed the modern Frenchman's treatment of that massacre.

It was basically Haneke waving an accusatory finger, saying that all of French society was guilty for allowing something like that to happen and then not talking about it. It's a theme that's central to a lot of his work, most recently in The White Ribbon where IMO he's waving the same finger at German society for the Nazis and the Holocaust.

As for the particulars of the film, Haneke said in the interview that he intentionally leaves his films open to interpretation... That he doesn't like Hollywood films that wrap everything up in a tidy little package for you... Hence, the final scene in Caché, where the Algerian guy's son is seen talking to Pierrot outside the school and the mystery of whether or not the mother is really having an affair with the family friend Pierre (Haneke said the naming of the two characters was done intentionally to heighten suspicion, suggesting perhaps that Pierre was Pierrot's real father). Haneke wouldn't be pinned down on those issues, because he thinks that the audience using its imagination to fill in the gaps is part of the fun of going to the movies, and I tend to agree.

[Proukunin]

La Chinoise - Movie from Godard about a group of revolutionary Maoists in 1960's France. The best film on Moaism.

[RED DAVE]

Salt of the Earth
Norma Rae
Bread and Roses

Nice trilogy about American labor. Interestingly, each one of them also deals with "the woman question."

Reds.

How the fuck did a movie about the history of theAmerican bohemia, the formation of the US Communist Party and the Russian Revolution ever get made?

RED DAVE

[The Idler]

Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)
follows the stories of the five now unemployed men who lost their jobs including Yosser Hughes, a man driven to the edge of his sanity by the loss of his job, his wife, the authorities' continued attempts to take his children away from him and his constant attempts at salvaging his male pride (often the main give-away of his insecurity).

F.I.S.T. (1978)
a Cleveland warehouse worker named Johnny Kovak who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional "Federation of Inter State Truckers", and finds that he must sacrifice his principles as he moves up through the union and attempts to expand its influence. The movie is loosely based on the Teamsters union and their former President Jimmy Hoffa.

[RED DAVE]

Hoffa starring Jack Nicholson and Danny Devito, about you know who. Definitely worth seeing.

F.I.S.T. is worth see if only for a scene where the workers ambush a bunch of deputies.

Also catch "The Organizer," starring the great Marcello Mastroanni about a strike in Italy around 1903.

RED DAVE

[Pretty Flaco]

Where can I find a place to watch Matewan?

[KC]

Harlan County USA should be required viewing for everyone here.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Reds.

How the fuck did a movie about the history of theAmerican bohemia, the formation of the US Communist Party and the Russian Revolution ever get made?

Warren Beatty.

And it probably helped that some of the morals you can take away from the film are that revolutions will always fail and free love doesn't work.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

Harlan County USA should be required viewing for everyone here.

I would definitely recommend that and "American Dream" by the same director (about the P-9 strike). But those are both documentaries.

I'm not really sure how a film like "Reds," which is based on the real life of John Reed, is "fiction" either though.

Beyond all the classics, which have been mentioned, Bound for Glory, about the life of Woody Guthrie is one to watch. The struggles of migrant workers during at the time and organizing attempts are featured prominently.

[x359594]

...Reds...How the fuck did a movie about the history of theAmerican bohemia, the formation of the US Communist Party and the Russian Revolution ever get made?

Dave, just barely.

Trevor Griffiths' original screenplay was called Comrades and had politics in the foreground with the love story in the background. Beatty re-wrote it and reversed the emphasis. Griffiths wanted to take his name off the picture but his agent persuaded him not to. Supposedly his original screenplay will be published in the near future.

[brigadista]

Norma Rae is quite good

[Rooster]

Fiction or factual?

The only movie that comes to mind that hasn't been mentioned is Frieda. A film about Frieda Kahlo, the Mexican surrealist artist. It's a weird film. It doesn't really focus on her art much nor on politics, but her husband was a high up in the Mexican communist party and it has Trotsky in it. Still, it was pretty decent.

You can also check out the Battle of Algiers. That's a good film too. It's shot in a documentary style, I guess. Black and white film. I think that one might be public domain by now. It's not strictly about socialist or labour history though.

[Frosty Weasel]

Every 1984 adaptation is a pretty good example of what not to do after a Revolution.

[gestalt]

La Commune (Paris, 1871) - Peter Watkins
Blind Chance - Krzysztof Kieslowski
Hunger - Steve McQueen
Killer of Sheep - Charles Burnett
Man of Marble, Man of Iron - Andrzej Wajda

[black magick hustla]

man la commune is really boring and is one of those artsy movies and all the actors are real bad cuz they are like not real actors and the director wanted to make a statement with that so bewaaare

ken loach is p. entertaining. "libertarias" a spanish movie is basically a fuckin soap opera with guns and durruti and references to bakunin and kroptotkin its p. entertaining. reds is good too

[Sir Comradical]

Soderberg's 'Che' shouldn't be up there. It was a terrible film.

[brigadista]

panther is also a terrible film

[blake 3:17]

Passionfish definitely

Also Clockwatchers

Two that are kind of iffy on some levels, but actually very interesting and challenging films where work plays an important role are The Woodsman and Monster's Ball. I think both are brilliant films and manual labour, "work" work plays a large role in each.

More offball, I'drecommend The Informant. It's apparently relatively true, but also freaking absurd. Much better on the second watch.

[HalPhilipWalker]

The Dreamers is a good film with some marginal things to say about the nature of love during revolutions. It has more to do with art though. Set during the May 1968 Paris riots.

[praxis1966]

Panther-Mario Von Peebles(1995) [USA]
Fictionalized account of the founding, rise, and fall of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in the Los Angeles black ghetto in the 1960's.

I don't know how this escaped my attention when this thread was originally started. Panther was set in Oakland, not LA, because, well, that's where the fucking Black Panther Party was founded.:lol:


The Dreamers is a good film with some marginal things to say about the nature of love during revolutions. It has more to do with art though. Set during the May 1968 Paris riots.

It has more to do with titillation, IMO... lulz

[x359594]

The Dreamers...Set during the May 1968 Paris riots.

That was hardly a riot. It was an "almost revolution." The insurrection was little more than exotic background for the love story.

[Adil3tr]

The Cradle will rock is great

[eduCWIbrasil]

La Chinoise - Movie from Godard about a group of revolutionary Maoists in 1960's France. The best film on Moaism.

Depending on what were Godard's intentions, it could be a good or a shitty movie. I don't know much about him.

Maybe 1) he was trying to say "Communists are young pseudo-intellectual retards" and the movie sucks (and the whole pseudo intellectual alternative structure of the movie is some sort of sarcasm).

Or maybe 2) he was a non-maoist socialist who tried to picture how they were stupid (sorry if i'm offending any maoist, but the ones i know here in Brazil do remind the ones in the flic).

If i had to guess, i would say it's the first one though.

[x359594]

Depending on what were Godard's intentions, it could be a good or a shitty movie. I don't know much about him...

Godard was a Maoist for about 20 years. Today he's a "Marxist without adjectives." his latest movie is Film Socialisme.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

The Grapes of Wrath is one of my favorite movies of all time. So greatly produced and just an overall kick ass movie and the book is even better. But what I really like about it is that it's not so politically charged that people just call it socialist propaganda but it makes people think about the fantasy of the "American Dream" and about the plight of working class/poor people. It gets people to start saying "wow do they really fuck the people over like that who are just wanting to get a job and survive." It gets people to think and it's not so preachy that people end up hating it.

[x359594]

...it's [The Grapes of Wrath] not so politically charged that people just call it socialist propaganda...

A great movie to be sure, but at the time of its release (1940) it was in fact called socialist propaganda (as was Steinbeck's novel.)

[A Revolutionary Tool]

A great movie to be sure, but at the time of its release (1940) it was in fact called socialist propaganda (as was Steinbeck's novel.)
Yeah I'm aware but I'm talking about right now in our history. If I'm not mistaken it was "preserved" by the Library of Congress. But where I live now, in the Central Valley of California, the reception amongst the bourgeoisie was of course pretty damn bad that they banned it in many places here and would even burn the book.

[praxis1966]

A great movie to be sure, but at the time of its release (1940) it was in fact called socialist propaganda (as was Steinbeck's novel.)

The irony is that at least where I went to high school back in the early 90s they were teaching it as part of the curriculum... And that was in the Deep South. The book, that is, not the movie.

[PhoenixAsh]

Anybody mention Red Dawn yet?

:D


in more serious reply: "Daens"

Its more about social struggle than socialism but it plays a part in the film.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

The irony is that at least where I went to high school back in the early 90s they were teaching it as part of the curriculum... And that was in the Deep South. The book, that is, not the movie.
That's what I'm talking about, we don't think of it as socialist propaganda anymore, a lot of English classes have it as part of the curriculum to read it. But how it mirrors a lot of what happens to migrant workers today(especially the illegal ones) is just sad.

[x359594]

...how it mirrors a lot of what happens to migrant workers today(especially the illegal ones) is just sad.

That's right, The Grapes of Wrath is still relevant today; just change the skin color of the family and it could be about present conditions.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Wow just watched Harlan Country, USA. Best documentary I've ever seen. I've watched all those mushy movies and I've never cried during a movie but I was watching this and I did. Thanks for putting that on this list, I would have never seen it otherwise.

[Amphictyonis]

Boys from the Blackstuff (1982)
follows the stories of the five now unemployed men who lost their jobs including Yosser Hughes, a man driven to the edge of his sanity by the loss of his job, his wife, the authorities' continued attempts to take his children away from him and his constant attempts at salvaging his male pride (often the main give-away of his insecurity).

F.I.S.T. (1978)
a Cleveland warehouse worker named Johnny Kovak who becomes involved in the labor union leadership of the fictional "Federation of Inter State Truckers", and finds that he must sacrifice his principles as he moves up through the union and attempts to expand its influence. The movie is loosely based on the Teamsters union and their former President Jimmy Hoffa.

I've seen FIST and that movie shows what was wrong with the labor movement at the time. It was pretty anti-socialist. Silvester Stallone was in it. Just saw it in 2010. They actually kicked communists out of their union and said they support capitalism (in the film). This also happened in reality.

[x359594]

I've seen FIST and that movie shows what was wrong with the labor movement at the time...This also happened in reality.

F.I.S.T. is a complete fantasy. The whole story is a fictionalized account of the growth of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during the 1930s through the 1960s and the rise of Jimmy Hoffa. It shows nothing about actual organizing, it falsifies the era it's set in, and barely touches on the real struggle to organize truckers. The 1934 Minneapolis strike is a travesty of the real event.

One can hardly generalize about the entire labor movement based on a bogus movie centering on a single union.

[praxis1966]

F.I.S.T. is a complete fantasy. The whole story is a fictionalized account of the growth of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during the 1930s through the 1960s and the rise of Jimmy Hoffa. It shows nothing about actual organizing, it falsifies the era it's set in, and barely touches on the real struggle to organize truckers. The 1934 Minneapolis strike is a travesty of the real event.

One can hardly generalize about the entire labor movement based on a bogus movie centering on a single union.

^This. F.I.S.T. made me wanna stab my eyes out. I mean it's bad enough that the filmmakers chose a crappy actor (Stallone) as their leading man, but did they have to choose crappy writers as well? Though the ending is complete fiction, from what I understand Hoffa (DeVito, 1992) is a lot closer to the real story.

[Amphictyonis]

F.I.S.T. is a complete fantasy. The whole story is a fictionalized account of the growth of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during the 1930s through the 1960s and the rise of Jimmy Hoffa. It shows nothing about actual organizing, it falsifies the era it's set in, and barely touches on the real struggle to organize truckers. The 1934 Minneapolis strike is a travesty of the real event.

One can hardly generalize about the entire labor movement based on a bogus movie centering on a single union.

The labor movement at the time did in fact have anti communist leanings. Not so much in the 1930's but after WW2. Hoffa or any story depicting Hoffa does show what was wrong with the labor movement fictional or not. My point was it was a horrible film. I know it was fiction.

[Urban Rubble]

Maybe not overtly political but The Treasure of the Sierra Madre has always been one of my favorite films. It tells the story of a group of gringo gold miners in post-revolutionary Mexico who strike a vein of gold, naturally shennanigans and hijinks are the result.

If you've never read anything about the guy who wrote the original book (B. Traven) check out his story, it's pretty amazing. None of the details of his life are really confirmed but the general story is that he was an Anarchist living in Hitler's Germany who fled to Mexico. He spent the next 30 or so years traveling around Mexico writing novels about labor struggles/indigenous uprisings (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is his most famous, he also wrote an epic 6 book series about Chiapas and the struggle of indigenous mahogany plantation workers). His style always reminded me of Upton Sinclair. Nobody has ever confirmed his real name, the only thing resembling a public appearance he ever made was showing up on the set of The Treasure posing as his own agent, apparently to collect a check.

[Hoplite]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Battle in Seattle (2007).

It depicted the events around the protests at the WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999. Very good.

[x359594]

...None of the details of his life are really confirmed but the general story is that he was an Anarchist living in Hitler's Germany who fled to Mexico...Nobody has ever confirmed his real name, the only thing resembling a public appearance he ever made was showing up on the set of The Treasure posing as his own agent, apparently to collect a check.

As a matter of fact his identity has been convincingly uncovered by Will Wyatt in his book The Secret of the Sierra Madre. Wyatt made a very good TV documentary about his search for Traven's true identity.

Whether or not one agrees with Wyatt, all scholars agree that Traven entered Mexico in 1924 so he never lived in Hitler's Germany. Under the identity of Ret Murat he was a member of the short lived Munich Soviet and fled when the German Revolution was crushed in 1919 and eventually made his way to Mexico.