Movies they should have made

[alanjjohnstone]

It struck me how some story-lines from history or left-wing literature never ever get turned into movies.

For all their fame, where is the story of Marx and Engels on film. No television series like for Darwin. 

Events in labour history with action betrayal sacrifice and pathos, all the ingredients of a good movie, are scarce on the ground.  A few on unions but turned into organised crime dramas like FIST. But what about Debs? The massacres of the IWW or CIO 30s sit-down strikes?

1848 Paris was safe for Les Miserables, but 1871 Paris Commune, too risky except for Watkins and who could watch the full version. 

Even socialist fiction scarcely gets turned into a movie. Where is Everhard (he could only star in porn with that name!!) and the Iron Heel? The Dispossessed is still not mainstream enough even for sci-fi.

Americans might learn a bit more about their own history if it was on the Big Screen. Reds was good but an exception 

So what would be the film you would like to see made that depicts socialist/workers history or an individual or adaptation of socialist fiction. 

Me, i'd like a movie on the Kronsdadt Commune…or Nestor Mahkno…Surely even right wingers could finance an anti-Bolshevik, anti-Lenin movie! But they don't.

So if you had the wealth of Bill Gates, what would be the movie you produce?

[Ozymandias]

A couple of years ago a Sci Fi movie by the name of "Snowpiercer" was made but it failed to get any kind of general release despite it's starry cast. It concerns the class struggle on board a futuristic nuclear train. I have an illegal download copy on DVD which I haven't watched yet. I guess it might come to the same lame conclusions as "Elysium" which was released a couple of years ago. 

[alanjjohnstone]

The Assassination of Trotsky starring Richard Burton as Trotskyhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeKHthb-YMM&index=115&list=PLD5054093669285D5

[rodshaw]

Any film that acknowledges the distinction between proper socialism and what we are generally told is socialism/communism, and can present socialism clearly and convincingly as highly desirable. Not in some sci-fi film set in the distant future, but in a realistic fiction set in the present. In short, a film that makes people say, "We can have that now and we want it!"

[Ozymandias]

rodshaw wrote:

Any film that acknowledges the distinction between proper socialism and what we are generally told is socialism/communism, and can present socialism clearly and convincingly as highly desirable. Not in some sci-fi film set in the distant future, but in a realistic fiction set in the present. In short, a film that makes people say, "We can have that now and we want it!"

But we are never going to see a film like that are we? You can sneer all you want smart arse. As it happens I watched "Snowpiercer" the other day and I thought it was excellent. I recommend it to any party member. I can understand why the Capitalist Harvey Weinstein demanded 20 minutes of cuts then strangled any general release of this movie. It is too thought provoking and incendiary. The train as depicted in the film is obviously an allegory of Capitalism. Maybe workers would relate to a movie set in the future. Sadly the prospect of the 99% ever waking up in our lifetimes is truly the stuff of Science Fiction fantasy.

[Anonymous]

Comrade Johnstone, so you too are interested in Nestor Makhno. Me too. Never anything in the Standard about him. What about the companion journals of the movement?No film, but has been a comic book in two volumes, in French, of which I have only got volume 2.

[rodshaw]

Ozymandias wrote:

rodshaw wrote:

Any film that acknowledges the distinction between proper socialism and what we are generally told is socialism/communism, and can present socialism clearly and convincingly as highly desirable. Not in some sci-fi film set in the distant future, but in a realistic fiction set in the present. In short, a film that makes people say, "We can have that now and we want it!"

But we are never going to see a film like that are we? You can sneer all you want smart arse.

I beg your pardon? Who are you directing your smart arse comment to?

[Ozymandias]

 Uch ah wiz only kiddin ye on ya bam!

[Anonymous]

Who would have thought that Aurther Conan Doyle's Sherlock Homes re written for the 21st century would work but I really enjoyed it.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b018ttwsWhat about a re-written Ragged Trousered  Philanthropist set in the 21st Century? Made into a Film of course 

[Anonymous]

Kevin Brownlow`s THE MASK OF INNOCENCE is a brilliant and hefty tome all about the social consciousness films of the silent era, in the context of the social history of the United States throughout the era of silent films. Highly recommended!

[Author]

Posts