Anarchist-themed movies

[Ermo Kruus]

Does anybody have any recommendations to films that deals with anarchism, or more specifically, deals with historical anarchist events? I've already seen Libertarias (which is about Anarchist Catalonia) and I really enjoyed it. :)

[Tablo]

Land and Freedom. Only other one I can think of. If you want to read a book there is Homage to Catalonia.

[praxis1966]

Butterfly is really well done, although it's not at first readily apparent that it's anarchist. It's set in the 8 - 10 months leading up to the fascist revolt in Spain and focuses on a leftist school teacher and his favorite pupil. Highly recommended.

There's also this thread (http://libcom.org/forums/united-kingdom/any-good-anarchist-films-17042009) over at LibCom which you might find useful.

[NormalG]

v for vendetta
although no historical importance

[Bronco]

La Commune, I'd recommend the theatrical cut, the full version is ridiculously long (almost 6 hours I think)

[Ermo Kruus]

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys, keep 'em coming! :)

[x359594]

You can find a list of over 100 titles here: http://www.christiebooks.com/Film%20Database/anarquismo/index.html .

You can watch several films from the list in the film department of Christie Books: http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/ .

[Rakhmetov]

Libertarias made by the Spanish but subtitled in English.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCF9YWk5W-s&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF-r5ekAGaU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=punlfke2RX8&feature=related

[praxis1966]

You can find a list of over 100 titles here: http://www.christiebooks.com/Film%20Database/anarquismo/index.html .

You can watch several films from the list in the film department of Christie Books: http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/ .

Yeah, Stuart Christie's list is referenced in that LibCom thread I mentioned. There are some other user suggestions there as well...

[Lyev]

v for vendetta
although no historical importanceI was gonna suggest this, but I thought that the anarchist elements (although I am not an anarchist) were far more prevelant in the graphic novel. The more subversive side was very much watered down in the screenplay adaption -- there is more a kind of general 1984, dystopian feel to it, with lots of insurrection, bombs, masks etc. Maybe it is only 'anarchist' in its aesthetics, and I guess because the protagonists are broadly 'anti-state'. But I don't really see how the film version is explicitly politically anarchist.

Also, there is a Korean film simply called Anarchists (2000) about a cell of anarchists in about '20s South Korea, I think. I haven't got round to watching it yet, but it seems to be at least sympathetic to the anarchists themselves, rather than portraying them as rabid terrorists or something. Certainly looks interesting, anyway. And as regards the historical factor which the OP mentioned, well, I think that anarchism has a quite an interesting or relatively prevelant role in Korea's overall history. Found this, if anyone, incl. the OP, is interested http://libcom.org/history/1894-1931-anarchism-in-korea

EDIT Oh yeah, maybe try Can Dialectics Break Bricks?, which was made in the aftermath of Mai '68, because I think it retains a revolutionary position on the events whilst being overall quite critical of Marxism. It is a film about radical politics through martial arts. (Haven't watched it either, I can't bloody find it anywhere.)

[RED DAVE]

Here's a sleeper: Behold A Pale Horse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behold_a_Pale_Horse_%28film%29), about Spanish revolutionaries exiled in France. It's a mainstream flic starring Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn.

RED DAVE

[x359594]

Behold a Pale Horse is loosely based on the the career and last raid of Francisco Sabate who was killed in an ambush by the Guardia Civil. Unfortunately, the movie was depoliticized (the novel on which it's based was more forthcoming about the politics of the protagonist and other characters.)

By contrast, the French movie La guerre est finie (1966) lays out the politics (the protagonist played by Yves Montand is a Communist) and has a similar plot.

[Ermo Kruus]

Thanks for all the recommendations! I'll have a look at all of them when I get the time! :)

[Tim Finnegan]

Not quite a movie, but the animated series Aeon Flux deals with a lot of ideas about individualism and control and so forth in a manner that could be considered anarchist.

And, yes, there is also an Aeon Flux movie, but: no. Don't.


I was gonna suggest this, but I thought that the anarchist elements (although I am not an anarchist) were far more prevelant in the graphic novel. The more subversive side was very much watered down in the screenplay adaption -- there is more a kind of general 1984, dystopian feel to it, with lots of insurrection, bombs, masks etc. Maybe it is only 'anarchist' in its aesthetics, and I guess because the protagonists are broadly 'anti-state'. But I don't really see how the film version is explicitly politically anarchist.
I'll second this one. The film basically adopted the anarchism and fascism of the original comic as costumes for American liberalism and neo-conservatism. The original politically theme- described by Moore as the ideological poles represented by (his understanding of) anarchism and by fascism, that is, between the primacy of individual liberty in anarchist ideology, and the total subjugation of the individual to the state in fascist ideology- is completely absent, and the grounding in the contemporary politics of 1980s Britain (V playing a one-man Class War-come-Antifascist Action, Norsefire a souped-up National Front) left only as a relic, with V instead playing a sort of Liberal Batman, and Norsefire playing an exaggerated (or, if you're feeling generous, logically concluded) version of the Republican Party, in a style described by TVTropes as "putting on the reich (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PuttingOnTheReich)".