FILMS ABOUT
PEACE, IMPERIALISM and the THIRD WORLD
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) - A classic pacifist tale
set in WWI.
America's Defense Monitor . Over
200 half-hour episodes on military related subjects that challenge the
insanity of U.S. military policy. These programs are a staple in college
classrooms and over 100 PBS and cable systems around the country.
Apocalypse Now - Based on Conrad's Heart of Darkness, about a
rogue general in Vietnam driven crazy by the war.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982, Robert M. Young) A late
skirmish in the so-called Mexican War. The oppressor's need to demonize
the oppressed has seldom been better realized."Review
by John Sayles, in Mother Jones, 1996"
Battle of Algiers - This 1962 film is widely considered the best
radical film ever made. Directed by Pontecorvo in cinema verite , documentary
style, it chronicles the Algerian war against French colonialism. French
with English subtitles. There are two versions, one is about 150 min.,
the other about 210 min.
Billy Jack (1971) - Have your cake and eat it too: Billy Jack is a
very serious pacifist, a Gandhian...until the racist jerks and ruling class push
him a little too far. They he has to break out the whup-ass. "At
times a slightly cheesy story, but nonetheless powerful. Packed with themes that
are little dated. Seems to take on almost every single issue that Left Wing
folks care about. Followed by 2 sequels: The Trial of Billy Jack and Billy
Jack Goes to Washington. The latter of these two sequels is
supposed to have been suppressed by the powers that be, since it was supposed to
have really exposed the system of corporate contribution to government. A very
difficult film to find - it's never had a mainstream video release and the
original 35MM master may be lost forever - leaving only 16MM black and white
prints of dubious quality." - Jherek Carnelian
Braveheart (1995) - Award-winning story of the medieval Scottish
struggle against British imperialism.
Breaker Morant - Edward Woodward plays a soldier commanding a
squad of Australian fighting for Britain during South Africa's Boer War.
Explores the brutality and corruption of the British colonial struggle.
Camp de Thiaroye - Senegalese film about African soldiers forced
by the French to fight on front lines in Europe against Hitler. Takes place
mostly in a holding camp following the Allied Victory. Also, see Sembene's
"Black Girl," about a Senegalese woman who leaves Dakar to be a nanny for
her French employers, is exploited and learns the true nature of black-white
neo-imperialist relations.
Coming Home (1978) - Jane Fonda and Jon Voight in one of the
first post-Vietnam films about Vietnam vets.
Dades Kaden - by Akira Kurosawa, shows the devastation left by
WWII in Japanese town.
Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam (1987, Bill Couturie)
Couturie takes a simple idea--matching letters from soldiers in Vietnam
with images of the war--and creates a powerful yet surprisingly subtle
film. Couturie screened the entire archive of NBC News war footage, and
in many cases matches letter writers with TV, film, home movies, and photographs
of them at play, in action, wounded, and dead."Review
by Roger Ebert, in Mother Jones, 1996"
Dr. Strangelove - The Kennedy-era classic that spoofs the Cold
War in a story about a mad American general who blows up the world. Brilliant
performances by Peter Sellers in three or four roles.
El Norte - (1983, Gregory Nava and Anna Thomas) Beginning in
the remote mountain jungles of Guatemala, this extraordinary odyssey focuses
on two young people seeking a better life as their world begins to crumble.
When their mother is abducted by soldiers and their father killed, Enrique
and Rosa are forced to set out for the "promised land" of the north- "el norte"-The U.S. They must travel dangerous roads and cross heavily patrolled
boarders. Once in America, they are "illegals" and must live in constant
fear of discovery. But they do have each other and the faith and fortitude
of their native land. Spanish with English subtitles. (141 min.)
Fat Man and Little Boy Paul Newman stars in this movie about
the development and deployment of the atomic bomb.
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) - Hemingway's tale of the Spanish
Civil War.
Gandhi - Ben Kingsley won an Oscar for this portrayal. (188 min.)
Good Morning Vietnam - Based on a true story, Robin Williams
plays a very funny disk jockey who got very popular in Vietnam and then
got booted out.
Hidden Agenda (1990, Ken Loach) Loach's films are always, in
one way or another, political. This one is based on the Stalker Affair,
a scandal involving a senior British police official (Brian Cox) who is
investigating a shooting by security forces and gets reassigned after he
discovers the killing was unjustified. Set in Northern Ireland, Hidden
Agenda argues that a right-wing cabal successfully plotted a "dirty tricks"
campaign against Prime Minister Harold Wilson."Review
by Roger Ebert, in Mother Jones, 1996"
I Am Cuba, made by Russian filmmakers in the early '60s and explores
the communist uprising in Cuba. The cinematography is mind boggling and
the film is extremely moving.
Killing Fields, The - Based on a true story of friendship between
an American and Cambodian covering the fall of Cambodia at the end of the
Vietnam War. The Cambodian was captured by the Khmer Rouge and then escapes
to freedom. (135 min.)
Land and Freedom by Ken Loach about an unemployed man in Liverpool
who goes to fight in the spanish civil War against Franco.
La Hora de los Hornos (The Hour of the Furnaces) This
semi-documentary was made by Argentinian revolutionaries Fernando Solanas
and Octavio Getino in 1968. Designed specifically to make the audience
participants instead of just spectators, this film not only called for
political revolution in the name of Marx, Che, and others, it also called
for a cinematic revolution. The two co-wrote "Towards a Third Cinema,"
a manifesto criticizing the American "first cinema" approach to filmmaking.
Not just revolutionary propaganda (although it contains a great deal of
that), the film examines the American/European imperialism and neocolonialism
which caused widespread poverty and class distinctions across Argentina
and the whole continent of South America.
Missing - (1982, Constantin Costa-Gavras) Based on the true story
of the disappearance of an American writer, Charles Horman, after the Pinochet
coup in Chile. Focuses on the political transformation of Charles's father
Ed Horman, a New York businessman who arrives in Chile to try to find his
son. Initially trusting his advice from the U.S. embassy, Ed Harman comes
to recognize the complicity of the United States in the coup.
Like Reds, it reinforces the idea that if an American wasn't present
it didn't really happen, but explores sharp implications about U.S. imperialism.
Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek get to the point."Review
by John Sayles, in Mother Jones, 1996"
Mission, The - Based on a true story, about Jesuits in Amazon
in the 1600s who solidarize with their converts and lead an unsuccessful
Indian revolt against the conquistadors.
Moses (1994) - Ben Kingsley leads the people of Israel out of
bondage.
My Brilliant Career Movie about an Australian woman discovering
herself in the outback.
On the Beach A chillingly depressing depiction of the final survivors
of a nuclear war, waiting for the end.
The Panama Deception, "a somewhat stilted but nonetheless
informative
documentary by leftist producers about the events leading up to the US
invasion of Panama. An indictment of press control and
neo-imperialism." - Ronald Brackett
Paths of Glory (1957) Directed by Stanley Kubrick. When soldiers
are sent on a suicide mission and fail, their ambitious General chooses
from the survivors at random to face court-martial. Kirk Douglas is the
soldier-lawyer defending his comrades.
Platoon (1986, Oliver Stone). Platoon helped vets feel acknowledged,
which The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, or The Green Berets never did.
Red
Sorghum Traditional Chinese class and sex relations, and the struggle
against the Japanese Imperialist agression against China.
Salvador - James Woods brilliantly portrays the outspoken American
photojournalist Richard Boyle in 1980 during the civil war in El Salvador.
The real life Boyle collaborated with director Oliver Stone to create a
movie which is thrilling, terrifying, suspenseful and impossible to forget.
This is an exceptionally powerful film which will promote intense discussion.
(123 min.)
Sugarcane Alley, "takes place in Martinique during the
1930's, is
an excellent portrayal of French imperial possessions. A black boy
is
so smart that he gets into a white school. The movie talks about
racism, mistreatment of workers and, of course colonialism." -
Ronald Brackett
Swimming to Cambodia - Brilliant one-man performance art piece
by Spalding Gray about his participation in the making of The Killing Fields,
and dissects American foreign policy along the way.
Ten Commandments The - Charlton Heston leads the chosen people
out of slavery to the land of milk and honey.
Testament (1983, Lynne Littman) Many films have portrayed life
after a nuclear war, but none were so shattering as this. Jane Alexander
stars as a suburban mother trying to hold her family together in the aftermath
of the Bomb. We never see a mushroom cloud or know who started the war.
What we see is even more affecting: A speculation about how communities
of survivors might organize after the devastation."Review
by Roger Ebert, in Mother Jones, 1996"
Under Fire with Nick Nolte, Joanna Cassady and Gene Hackman,
on the U.S. presence in the war in Nicaragua.
Utu (1983)...Anti-imperialist film. The colonial British army
pillages Maori villages. A Maori corporal who quits the army to fight
against it seeks revenge. Simplistic, but the film does not try to
gloss over the anger of Maori by arming them with Western values.
War Games (Matthew Broderick , Ally Sheedy, Dabney Coleman -
1983) High school computer wizard David Lightman (Broderick) breaks into
computer not knowing it belongs to the United States Air Force. Lightman
sets a Soviet suprise nuclear attack simulation as a joke. It backfired.
Lightman escapes from Federal custody to find Dr. Stephen Falken, an elusive
and enigmatic computer expert, for he alone knows what Joshua (USAF's computer)
can do.
Year of Living Dangerously - Follows a journalist in the midst
of Suharto's bloody coup to overthrow the democratically elected, leftist
Indonesian government of Sukarno.
