Donnie
24th April 2005, 18:27
Land and freedom is the best film ive seen it protrays what happened in the spanish civil war. Here is the basic idea of what happens in the film:
The film begins in the present: a young woman in Liverpool discovers after her grandfather's death that he fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. The film transports us back to 1936. We see what befalls David (Ian Hart), a young unemployed worker and British Communist Party member, as he sets off for Spain and joins the fighting.
More or less accidentally, David ends up in a detachment loyal to the leftist POUM. After a number of experiences with this unit, including the seizure of a town from the fascists, he receives a wound and is sent to Barcelona for treatment.
The POUM militia, as well as other forces who retain their independence from the Communist Party Stalinists, have been increasingly deprived of weapons by the authorities. Once in Barcelona David succumbs to political pressure and signs up with the Stalinists' International Brigade.
The next sequences take place during the May Days in 1937, a working class uprising in Barcelona against the popular front regime. David sees for himself that the republican government and its Communist Party allies are defending the capitalist status quo. He tears up his party card and heads off to rejoin his old comrades.
After a battle in which POUM forces, desperately short of supplies, defeat the fascists, units of the republican army arrive to arrest the POUM leaders and disperse the militia. David returns to England. A voice-over explains that the Spanish revolution could have been won but for Stalinism and that such a victory would have changed the course of the twentieth century.
The film concludes in the present with the old man's funeral. His granddaughter makes a short speech in which she explains her faith in the struggle for socialism.
Its got your typical Anarchist vs Marxist querrels.
One of my favourite parts of the film is when all the Communists in the POUM decide that the POUM should join the republican army and defeat fascism that way. But the Anarchists in the POUM say that if the the POUM joins the army the POUM will loose its revolutionary heart. Inevitably the Anarchist manage to get one over on the Communists and so they don't join the army.
Anyway another great scene is where the POUM have just taken over a village. Once the village has been taken over the Anarchists start a meeting on how to collectivise the land. Its a great example of Anarchist theories put in practice. :)
The film begins in the present: a young woman in Liverpool discovers after her grandfather's death that he fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. The film transports us back to 1936. We see what befalls David (Ian Hart), a young unemployed worker and British Communist Party member, as he sets off for Spain and joins the fighting.
More or less accidentally, David ends up in a detachment loyal to the leftist POUM. After a number of experiences with this unit, including the seizure of a town from the fascists, he receives a wound and is sent to Barcelona for treatment.
The POUM militia, as well as other forces who retain their independence from the Communist Party Stalinists, have been increasingly deprived of weapons by the authorities. Once in Barcelona David succumbs to political pressure and signs up with the Stalinists' International Brigade.
The next sequences take place during the May Days in 1937, a working class uprising in Barcelona against the popular front regime. David sees for himself that the republican government and its Communist Party allies are defending the capitalist status quo. He tears up his party card and heads off to rejoin his old comrades.
After a battle in which POUM forces, desperately short of supplies, defeat the fascists, units of the republican army arrive to arrest the POUM leaders and disperse the militia. David returns to England. A voice-over explains that the Spanish revolution could have been won but for Stalinism and that such a victory would have changed the course of the twentieth century.
The film concludes in the present with the old man's funeral. His granddaughter makes a short speech in which she explains her faith in the struggle for socialism.
Its got your typical Anarchist vs Marxist querrels.
One of my favourite parts of the film is when all the Communists in the POUM decide that the POUM should join the republican army and defeat fascism that way. But the Anarchists in the POUM say that if the the POUM joins the army the POUM will loose its revolutionary heart. Inevitably the Anarchist manage to get one over on the Communists and so they don't join the army.
Anyway another great scene is where the POUM have just taken over a village. Once the village has been taken over the Anarchists start a meeting on how to collectivise the land. Its a great example of Anarchist theories put in practice. :)