<< EVEN THE NOBEL ... ~ MAIN ~ THEOLOGY OF WATER MANAGEMENT >>
NO SHORTAGE OF TARGETS
We could do with a new batch of anti-commie films.
I’m working on a script that sees George Clooney have the smug beaten out of him by a gang of Iraqi and Cubans. It also features a little sub-plot in which Michael Moore becomes a subsistence farmer.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 10 15 at 09:34 PM • permalinkWhat, an anti Che film….now???? How about an anti jihadi film, no wait, you might get a death threat, can’t have that, you wouldn’t want to stand up to REAL oppression with people that actually mean you harm???
Posted by Old Tanker on 2007 10 15 at 09:36 PM • permalinkI wouldn’t mind seeing some of the films mentioned. Man on a String, Trial, etc.
I like thrillers. These days, I don’t want to sit through two hours of film, just so the main character can figure out that “America is Evil”.Posted by daddy dave on 2007 10 15 at 09:37 PM • permalinkSeems kind of ungrateful and all - especially since one of those states is about to save you from global warming.
Posted by Margos Maid on 2007 10 15 at 09:52 PM • permalinkIts a bit like holyweird claiming that its only now “safe” to make anti war films. They then say something along the lines of “to balance out all the pro war films of the last few years”.
My response is usually “what pro war films”, and no I don’t include the ones where the evil Arab terrorists turn out to be innocent or being manipulated by Hitlers nephews 3rd cousin (again).
A mighty heart and a number of others manage to play the “look were neutral” game, but claiming neutrality where one side is the country most people in the world want to emigrate to, and the other side is fanatical head hacking despotism’s is just silly.
Nor do I include the “direct to video” shoot em ups either.Posted by thefrollickingmole on 2007 10 15 at 09:54 PM • permalinkConsidering the fact that Hollywood was plagued by “popular front” leftists in the 1930’s and 1940’s, it’s amazing that any anti-communist films got made at all. The influence of leftists in Hollywood cannot be underestimated, not only with respect to the production of pro-Soviet propaganda trash like Mission to Moscow, but also in regard to what didn’t get produced. For example, Arthur Koestler’s devastating anti-Stalinist novel, Darkness at Noon (published, I believe, in 1941), was converted into a play starring Claude Rains. Efforts to make it into a movie were quashed by left-wing writers in Hollywood (including the very red Dashiell Hammett).
Among anti-communist films not mentioned in the linked article, I’d recommend Red Danube(1949), starring Walter Pidgeon. Based on the novel Vespers in Vienna, written by Bruce Marshall*, it features Pidgeon as a British colonel in post-war Vienna, struggling with the moral dilemma of having to hand over a Russian refugee to the Soviets. Ninotchka, a 1939 comedy starring Greta Garbo, does a good job underscoring the absurdity of rote communist ideology. Tovarich (1937), stars Claudette Colbert as an expatriate Russian princess living in Paris. While the movie’s political bent is played down to some extent, Basil Rathbone gives a sensational performance as a brilliant, but absolutely ruthless Bolshevik. There is also a Warner Brothers movie from the late 1940’s (or early fifties), the name of which I cannot remember, which is about a village somewhere in Eastern Europe that finds itself in communist territory after a flood changes the course of a river, and describes both the efforts of their new masters to impose dictatorship, and their own efforts to escape. In more recent times, there is the superlative 1999 production of Animal Farm, which I believe may have been made for British television, but which was shown on one of the cable channels in the U.S.
* In re: Bruce Marshall, he is a Scottish novelist who wrote in the 1930’s and ‘40’s, and if you’re not familiar with him, you should be.
Excellent link.
Sort of on-topic: I watched John Frankenheimer’s SECONDS over the weekend. Among the cast was Will Geer - good old Grandpa Walton himself.
Rather a different fella in real life. Follow the link.Posted by SwinishCapitalist on 2007 10 15 at 11:01 PM • permalinkThere are a thousand yet-to-be-made films about the death and devastation of Mao’s Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Mao was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 70 million.
I look forward to films being made about Stalin’s enforced famines in the Ukraine 1932-33 when troops confiscated the harvests and ten million people starved to death.
The misery and death of Stalin’s gulags? Apart from
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970) what else has been made?The 1990’s sci-fi show Babylon 5 had a strong anti-dictatorship message, and let’s just say our heroes did not exactly toe the pacifist line. I’ll always remember (the gist, at least) one piece of dialogue:
“President Clark’s very popular. The crime rate’s almost zero. He’s brought peace.”Captain Sheridan (scornfully): “Yeah - the peace of the gun.”
I think it was the first TV series to have an overall story arc. If you like sci-fi and haven’t seen it, do so NOW. (And make sure to watch them in order).
I’ve read rumour of Sam Raimi (director of the Spiderman movies, Evil Dead) is planning to turn Terry Goodkind’s novel Wizard’s First Rule into a TV mini-series. Goodkind’s right-wing beliefs aren’t prominent in WFR, but it is first in a series that, by the sixth installment, is so reminiscent of Ayn Rand one could cry plagiarist (not that she, or rather her estate, is likely to mind any more than I do).
For the record, The Woman on Pier 13 is a dreadful movie. Not because of its political message, but because it’s one-dimensional and obvious. As I mentioned elsewhere the other day:
It’s a lousy movie, although its lousiness has nothing to do with the political slant of the movie. It plays out like a bad dime novel, with poor character development and a plot that would probably have been trite in the days of the silent movies. Indeed, if the plot had been changed slightly, and the movie been called I Married a Mafioso, it could easily be seen as a really bad version of On the Waterfront, since the two cover some of the same ground.
But it’s one of those fun messes. Poor Robert Ryan has to try to save it, and even though he’s normally quite good in this sort of movie, even he can’t save it. (Not that he’s bad in it—it’s just that he doesn’t really get the chance to be that good thanks to the script.)
It’s too bad TCM couldn’t fit Foreign Correspondent or Mr. Lucky into the schedule tomorrow morning to honor Laraine Day.
Posted by Ted Schuerzinger on 2007 10 15 at 11:29 PM • permalinkPJ O’Rourke’s been trying to get a new blacklist going since the ‘90s- I wonder how committed to the cause most of these bucketheads would be if they had to pony up with a total loss of income for their peabrained beliefs.
I for one would be rather thrilled to see Marty Sheen lurching around a freeway offramp waving a sign saying “Will Battle Capitalism For Loose Change”, and Susan Sarandon and Timmy Robbins sharing a dumpster with a crack addict and several large rats, or perhaps George Cloony in a posing pouch touching his toes, with a horde of obese,sweaty menopausal midwesterners stuffing dollar notes in his g-string.
This should be a start: life behind the scenes at Auntie.
Declutter expert inspects the Life Matters office
(Audio segment commences c. 34 min in)Richard Aedy, the token metrosexual presenter and staff member of ABC Radio National’s Life Matters (read: wimmins’/family issues) program.
Aedy’s office clutter:
• 14+ coffee holders for the coffee which he fetches (off premises) for his (female) colleagues and
• Paperwork from his Executive Producer Amanda Armstrong’s previous job from 2.5 years ago stowed under his deskDo the lasses also take turns screwing you with a strap-on, ‘Cinderfella’?
Auntie’s answer to ‘affirmative action’?
Sounds like a bizarre workplace S&M culture ...Mary Kostakidis getting the EPs coffee, pffft!
Gleaned from audio:
Life Matters Production Office
(Not published on website)Present:
Amanda Armstrong (Executive Producer)
Jackie May (Producer)
Tracey Tromp (Listener Interaction)
Richard Aedy (Presenter)Want to get Hollywood back to making anti-commie movies? Not a problem at all.
Pssst!
George W. Bush had somebody read Das Kapital to him once.
George W. Bush once took a year of Russian in school.
George W. Bush had an Albanian au pair.
George W. Bush named one of his dogs “Plekhanov”.
George W. Bush once looked into Putin’s eyes and liked what he saw.Turn them right around that will. Next problem please.
Big Jim McLain starring John Wayne should be added to the list. Not a great movie, but it’s lots of fun watching The Duke having to make the difficult choice between respecting civil liberties and beating the living snot out of some snivelling commie. I think it took him about 0.2 nanoseconds to make his decision.
#27 Red Dawn was made by John Milius - I don’t think it was a sneer (despite starring Charlie Sheen and the poncy guy from Dirty Dancing).
Posted by Young and Free on 2007 10 16 at 05:57 AM • permalink#15, if you want to indulge your anti-Chomsky grumpies, check out the anti-chomsky
blogPosted by carpefraise on 2007 10 16 at 08:47 AM • permalink#9 Mission to Moscow
Paco, I highly recommend everyone see this movie. Yes, it is more Communist propaganda than war propaganda. Also it is shocking that it was made in the USA and not in the CCCP. But, if you have any interest in history it is freaking hilarious and really puts Elia Kazan and the blacklist in perspective.
some highlights :
You will rarely see a ww2 propaganda film that trashes the Allies more than it trashes the Nazis. Where else will you hear an American say that Soviet show trials were perhaps a good thing?
“History will remember Stalin as the Great Builder of the 20th century.”
“It is foolish to underestimate their strength or good faith” (that line makes me giggle)
“USSR troops are some of best trained and equipped in the world.” in reference to the Soviet invasion of Finland (it was self defense! - btw the Finns were outnumbered by the Soviets 6 to 1 but they still held on for 4 months - as opposed to the German conquest of France and Poland in about a month each.) I didn’t notice an excuse for invading Poland other than it was the terms of the Pact (which was everyone else’s fault) and it gave USSR time to build up its armyWe will defeat Germany “together with Russia, China and all free nations…” (I wish that was intended as a poke that Russia & China were separate from “Free Nations” but I don’t think that was the intention) At the end it asks “Am I my brothers keeper?” Yes you are. (Sung. Repeatedly sung in chorus. Really.)
The USSR is described as : “At least 1 european nation with no aggressive intentions is ready for what’s coming” (from a historic POV or even a contemporary POV(ie Finland, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) that statement smells. There was also no mention of the mass deportations of Latvians etc to Siberia. Is deportations the right word? I think deportation implies an alien being returned to their homeland as opposed to a citizen being removed from their homeland and delivered to Siberia)
Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 10 16 at 09:33 AM • permalink#33 Colonel: Oh, I quite agree. As an exercise in studying heavy-handed propaganda and the absurd whitewashing of communism in the early years of WWII, it is very valuable.
Here is some background on the movie; note, particularly, the section, “Pro-Soviet Film Propaganda and the OWI”.
#13 Ubique: There was an excellent Canadian documentary on the Ukriane famine, made back in the mid-80s, but it didn’t get much air time (it was shown in the U.S. on Bill Buckley’s program, Firing Line, and I think one of the commenters in the panel discussion afterwards was Christopher Hitchens; I saw it, and it was extremely good, though, obviously, heartbreaking). There is a reference to the documentary here.
Ross and others—
The best anti-communist film ever made was the French film “East West.”
Best of all, it starred Sandrine Bonaire
#34 I didn’t realize the administration’s direct role in making it a political suck up to Stalin. Of course it is wikipedia, it says
it was created with unprecedented involvement from FDR. FDR generally left propaganda to his propaganda office, the OWI (Office of Wartime Information). Yet, because of his friendship with Davies and the importance of having the American people back an alliance with the Soviet Union, it was FDR himself who was involved in the creation of Mission to Moscow, the film. FDR and Davies even met once a month during production to discuss the progress of the film.
but the cite says
through regular White House meetings with Davies in July, October, and November 1942, the president kept abreast of the film’s progress. As it neared completion in early March 1943, Davies again went to the Oval Office, where he found Roosevelt “very much interested in hearing about the picture.
...
Although Roosevelt and Davies did not know the full extent of Stalin’s enthusiasm(for American films), after previewing Mission to Moscow they hatched a plan. The ex-ambassador was to take the movie to Moscow and there to exhibit it for Stalin, Molotov, and other leading Soviet policy makers.“unprecedented involvement from FDR” might be an overstatement
OT a good war propaganda movie is “Action In The North Atlantic” Humphrey Bogart on a Liberty Ship on his way to the Soviet Union. I like it mainly because of the ending (I won’t give it all away but it involves a Liberty Ship vs a U-boat). At one point, Bogie punches out a guy in a bar who was gossiping about ship movements. I suppose in the modern version George “I stay employed because I have a nice chin” Clooney would see that as a conspiracy against free speech.
Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 10 16 at 11:37 AM • permalink#33
Both Poland and France might have gone down in the same amount of time but Poland fought to the death and paid a terrible price both during and after their part of the conflict was over. Warsaw wasn’t some quaint attempt at modern urban renewal. Can we please put Poland and France in different sentences in the future.For the record I am not Polish. Also for the record, Poland is still fighting beside us in the GWOT with bodies in the field. France not so much.
#40
Poland and France might have gone down in the same amount of time but
To put it in perspective and in the same sentence, France lost 1.3% of its population while Poland lost 18.5% of its population (the highest per capita loss worldwide).link
Posted by Col. Milquetoast on 2007 10 16 at 12:09 PM • permalinkAnd ross—Regarding “The Lives of Others”—a Hollywood remake has been announced.
The remake will be set in NYC, and people will live in fear of one of the friends or relatives selling them out to Homeland Security.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2007 10 16 at 07:42 PM • permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
They’ve been silenced.