Some Working Class Films

[canikickit]

http://members.aol.com/lsmithdog/bottomdog...og/CHRONFIL.htm (http://members.aol.com/lsmithdog/bottomdog/CHRONFIL.htm)

[Saint-Just]

I am interested as to why they included the film 'Falling Down'. I think it is an extremely good film. They described it:

'disenfranchised American goes off the deep end into terrorism at system.'

The film does not have any particular political agenda I do not think. I would suggest anyone to watch this as a very enjoyable film.

[canikickit]

It certainly is a great film.

I take it as a representation of the American Dream's effects on an average worker.
Douglas is a good employee, slaving away in the rat race, spending hours in rush hour traffic daily, who comes to the end of his tether.

He is already pissed off because his "nuclear family" was a failure and his wife and child are no longer in his life, and one day it's all too much. We have representations of the extreme right in Douglas's own character and the gun shop proprietor, while the upper class family whose garden Douglas is in near the end represent the protagonist's unreachable aspirations.

There's also the chap portesting at some stage because he lost his job, being "not economically viable".
There's probably more examples in there.

[Saint-Just]

Yes, extremely interesting. I agree, although I have never realised this view of the film myself.

I think there is one mistake the film made, or a way in which it took the political meaning out of the film, that is in the end you find that Douglas had some kind of mental health problem, and that his actions are rested on that. When the script was produced most studios rejected it as too controversal. Maybe taking that political edge off the film by doing that was part of the compromise to realise the script. The film has so many moments that are simply gripping to watch like the drive-by, the fast food resteraunt, the golf course etc.

Taking your view into account I can see it is more of a working-class film, I just never understood it correctly.
I think Falling Down is Joel Schumacher's best film. I recently watched Phone Booth and that was fairly good.

[Mano Dayak]

Germinal (French movie based on the book by Emile Zola)

[Mr Mojo Risin]

hey, somebody i know told me to see the film "American History X." Is it worth it? Because the guy who told me this is one of those pop-&#39;emo&#39; kids who is SO nonconformist that he lets me know of it every 2 minutes how he does his own thing, so much so that he even has joined the nonconformist club. <_<

[Mr Mojo Risin]

hey Elisa, by the way, I just noticed that we have the same Che-Lives Birthday&#33;&#33;&#33; October 21st, baby&#33;&#33;

[Mano Dayak]

Originally posted by Mr Mojo Risin&#39;@Nov 7 2003, 08:20 AM
hey Elisa, by the way, I just noticed that we have the same Che-Lives Birthday&#33;&#33;&#33; October 21st, baby&#33;&#33;
In your profile there&#39;s October 22nd...but anyway, it&#39;s nice&#33;&#33;&#33;

[Danton]

"American History X." Is it worth it?

I recall it being a decent movie, that kid from Terminator 2 is in it and Ed Norton plays his brother, recently released from a racially aggravated manslaughter sentence... It&#39;s about his rehabhilitation....

[FabFabian]

Falling Down is considered a working class film? :lol: Yeah, angry, middle-class, man gets downsized and pissed off with the world. HO-HUM.

Ken Loach is the guy you want to check out. He is the master at the British working class film. Kes is amazing&#33;

[YKTMX]

Yeah, angry, middle-class, man gets downsized and pissed off with the world. HO-HUM.

I didn&#39;t get the impression that he was at all middle-class. He seemed to just be an average Joe with a shitty office job, that he had actually lost.

As for Falling Down, it was pretty reactionery, but it did explore some decent ideas about alienation and modern life.

[YKTMX]

I think Falling Down is Joel Schumacher&#39;s best film


I prefer &#39;A Time To Kill&#39;. Phone Booth is good aswell, better than Batman and Robin anyway :o

[FabFabian]

I checked out said list and their definition of a working class film is pretty damn lame.

[canikickit]

You always have something negative and skeptical to add.

[timbaly]

How was Fargo, or Rocky a working class film?

[praxis1966]

American History X is a pretty good one; the younger brother is played by Edward Furlong btw. Has anybody seen Harlan County, USA? I saw it just recently and it was pretty damn good. I believe Sally Fields plays the female lead; wife of one of the coal miners.

[Danish]

Of course Rocky is a working-class film&#33; Rocky is a working class hero.

Roger & Me is an amazing film. Michael Moore is a much better filmmaker than writer.

I think that list mainly includes films that comprise of working-class characters. Perhaps the greatest socialist film of all-time is A Bug&#39;s Life.

[Saint-Just]

You should have a look at MIMs movie reviews (http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/movies/index.html), they look at how working-class a film is. Its very funny, MIM is a bit of a joke. Anyway, this is their short review of &#39;A Bug&#39;s Life&#39;:

&#39;Disney and Pixar&#39;s "A Bug&#39;s Life" has as good side and a
bad side. The good side is that it portrays the successful
collective struggle of the apparently weak oppressed and
exploited (in this case, an ant colony) against the
apparently strong oppressors and exploiters (in this case,
a band of grasshoppers). So it could be used as a parable
about the struggle against u.&#036;. imperialism. The bad side
is that it never directly ties its oppressors (the
grasshoppers) to the biggest oppressors in the real world,
the imperialists.&#39;

http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/movies/r...ng/bugslife.txt (http://www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/movies/review.php?f=long/bugslife.txt)

go there for the longer version.

This is their review of Falling Down (the film I mentioned earlier in the thread):

&#39;Falling Down (1993)

D FENS is every white working husband who has been laid off by
corporate Amerika in the last decade: a middle-aged white-collar worker
laid off from a missile plant and named after his license plate. D
FENS attempts to shoot his way back to a mythical 1965 when life was
better and white men were on top (as if they aren&#39;t any more). The
lesson for Amerikans is to continue arming and wait patiently for
Amerika to legalize domestic mass murder--as it has already legalized
international genocide. Trotskyists need look no further for the
vanguard leadership of the Amerikan white working class.&#39;


This is an extract from another review, a review of &#39;The Powerpuff Girls&#39;:

&#39;Although it would be no problem for the Powerpuff Girls to build homes
for all the homeless and organize food production for the hungry--because we&#39;ve
seen their speed in building crazy mutant monkey bases and laboratories--
they still prefer to fight the relatively minor violence of crime one case at a time
instead of resolving its roots or eliminating much larger sources of violence.

In conclusion, the Powerpuff Girls are a reactionary, pseudo-feminist enterprise.&#39;

[timbaly]

Originally posted by [email protected] 6 2003, 12:27 AM
Of course Rocky is a working-class film&#33; Rocky is a working class hero.
Rocky wasn&#39;t even a worker, he was lower class but not working class. He was just an enforcer/collector for a lone shark. He wasn&#39;t a productive person in society at all.

[FabFabian]

I voiced my opinion, if you don&#39;t like it TOUGH&#33;