Films Dealing With Communism

[TheCuriousJournalist]

What are some?

The most recent one that I've watched, twice now actually, was Reds. And found it amazing. But I'm eager for more.

[Flying Trotsky]

The Baader-Meinfhoff Complex is a great film dealing with the RAF in Germany. Really long film, but really good.

Pan's Labyrinth only mentions Communists in passing (they appear throughout the film), but they're still shown in a positive light- something you usually don't get to see.

The Edukators technically never says its characters are Communists, but it's pretty evident that they are. Also a really good movie.

Fight Club isn't Marxist, but there's a lot of really good anti-Capitalist and anti-Consumerist messages to be had there.

American History X is actually about Fascism, but it's a good film that every Communist should see.

Of course, there's The Motorcycle Diaries, which depicts how Che Guevara started down the path to becoming a Communist. An excellent film.

The Trotsky is, I think, probably my favorite film of all time. Really intelligent, really funny.

[Caj]

I second these: Fight Club, American History X, The Trotsky

The first two are among my favorite movies of all time.

[o well this is ok I guess]

La Chinoise

[¿Que?]

Woody Allen's The Front. Not really about communism so much as the 1950's blacklisting of artists in the entertainment industry.

[RED DAVE]

Woody Allen's The Front. Not really about communism so much as the 1950's blacklisting of artists in the entertainment industry.Cool film but not directed by Woody Allen. He stars but doesn't direct. The depiction of the plight of the blacklisted artists, from funny to tragic, is terrific.

The actual director was Martin Ritt, who was blacklisted and went on to direct the great Normat Rae. Many other people who worked on The Front had also been blacklisted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Front

RED DAVE

[Rooster]

The Trotsky is, I think, probably my favorite film of all time. Really intelligent, really funny.

You should watch Children of the Revolution. It totally lampoons the Stalinist mindset.

http://i.neoseeker.com/boxshots/TW92aWVzL0RyYW1h/children_of_the_revolution_frontcover_large_Kw7QB9 cpHM6cvQ5.jpg

Also, you can try Woody Allen's Bananas

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[a rebel]

I thought Che with Benicio Del Toro was really good. Also the mini series Carlos on Sundance channel, Its three movies about two hours long each.

[Magón]

Salvador is good. Directed by Oliver Stone.

[Flying Trotsky]

Also, you should check out Romero. It deals with the rise of Liberation Theology and the Marxist revolution in El Salvador. An older movie, but still informative.

[Flying Trotsky]

Battle In Seattle doesn't deal with Communism (it mentions black bloc anarchist protesters), but it still makes some interesting points.

Defiance wasn't exactly positive about the Communist partisans it depicted, but it mentions the efforts of Communists in fighting the Nazis, and there's even a bit where one of the characters mentions Communism's attack on antisemitism.

[Flying Trotsky]

It's technically a tv series, not a movie, but Sons of Anarchy does occasionally touch on the subject of true Anarchism. Emma Goldman is mentioned early on, and questions of liberty and the state constantly come up.

[Book O'Dead]

The French film "La Commune" by Peter Watkins:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Commune_(Paris,_1871)
Claude Berri's "Germinal", based on Emile Zola's book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germinal_(1993_film)
John Sayles' "Matewan"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matewan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sayles

[Rooster]

And I guess you could watch these if you're interested in documentaries.

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[Fawkes]

If you want movies that deal with communism, much of the output of Hollywood in the 40s and 50s qualifies (On the Waterfront being a great example). However, pretty much all of these are very unsurprisingly pro-capitalist. Regardless, negative depictions of leftism in films are great for analyzing the history of communism in the U.S. (or whatever country the movie's from) and how the bourgeois has gone about addressing it.

For a very implicitly pro-communist movie, check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I feel like I mention that movie in pretty much every thread here, but that's because it's so kickass :cool:









and fuck fight club

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Miklós Jancsó's The Red and the White, (1968) A Hungarian/Russian co-production about the counter-revolution in 1919. It was banned from Russian movie-houses. Chillingly accurate description of what it feels like to be on the shit side of the stick in a revolutionary situation.

[thesadmafioso]

Why no mention of Sergei Eisenstein?

I would certainly have to recommend The Battleship Potemkin and October.

Though, fair warning with October, it was filmed just as Stalin was ascending to power, meaning that as a result about 40 minutes of footage focused on Trotsky's role in the revolution was cut and the only scene he is included in nothing short of a revisionist fabrication of history.

Also, Land and Freedom and Libertarias are quite decent works on the Spanish Revolution.

[Susurrus]

1900/Novecento, Italy from 1900 to post WWII(epic as in very long)
To Live, China from Civil War to Post-cultural revolution
Can't think of any more that haven't been named yet.

[Dzerzhinsky's Ghost]

Death of a Prophet. Awesome bioepic of Malcolm X starring Morgan Freeman.

One Day In September. Really good doc on the Black September group and the Munich games hold up.

[Rooster]

I would certainly have to recommend The Battleship Potemkin and October.

I saw that in the cinema recently :D

It finished in silence and I stood up to clap but I was the only one. Kinda bizarre sitting in a huge room full of people in silence.

[A Revolutionary Tool]

One of my all time favorite films is the Italian movie The Bicycle Thief. Although it's not about communism it's directed by a communist and it really highlights the plight of the poor. Really great film.

[00000000000]

'Land and Freedom' - Ken Loach, set during the Spanish Civil War, fascinating scenes where anarchists and socialists debate how to implement their ideas in places where they beat the Fascists

[thesadmafioso]

'Land and Freedom' - Ken Loach, set during the Spanish Civil War, fascinating scenes where anarchists and socialists debate how to implement their ideas in places where they beat the Fascists

I'd say it was more like the socialists and anarchists arguing against the one Stalinist of the bunch over the implementation of their ideas, but beyond that I'd say that's a accurate description of the film.

[TheCuriousJournalist]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys, keep them coming.

Of the ones suggested I had already seen the RAF movie, fight club, the trotsky, che, motorcycle diaries, and a couple others. I'm going to acquire "Land and Freedom" and "Salvador" now.

[Tommy4ever]

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys, keep them coming.

Of the ones suggested I had already seen the RAF movie, fight club, the trotsky, che, motorcycle diaries, and a couple others. I'm going to acquire "Land and Freedom" and "Salvador" now.

Land and Freedom is free on youtube. Watched it earlier today. :thumbup1:

[Arlekino]

I would give good credit for Soviet films relating with communism.
"Communist"
And Quiet Flows the Don
Lenin in Poland
Hot snow
I think you can find them online with English subtitles

[communard71]

I saw the Red and the White on Netflix and had to turn it off after about 40 minutes because I felt like I was watching soldiers running around, being captured, and taking their clothes off (watch it and you’ll know what I mean). Otherwise, as mentioned above, Land and Freedom is excellent and the same guy who made that made The Wind that Shakes the Barley which is about Irish revolutionaries and is excellent because of that but the main character slowly reveals himself to be an Irish Communist and is the movies hero. Check it out.

[Chris]

Flame & Citron (danish 2008 movie about part of the danish resistance during WW2) mentions communists quite a bit, although the main characters are part of the bourgeois "democratic" resistance. They are called communists by characters in the film though, since they are for a militant anti-nazi resistance (the only major political group in denmark + norway which had that line where the communist parties).

[rollshevik]

The corporation. Not really communist or socialist per se, but it's turned many of my friends at the very least away from capitalism. It's very good at exposing the base fundemental flaws of capitalism.

[ColonelCossack]

A few months ago I saw a 3 and a half-hour film about the life of Fidel Castro, called "Fidel".