I really love films about the left, whether about their victories or their failures. Last night, I watched Oshima's 1960 film Night and Fog in Japan, which is 100 minutes of late 50s Japanese leftists using the occasion of a wedding to denounce each other. I loved it.
So I thought this would be a good time to have a thread on the best films about the left. There are so many great ones!
Now, I take a pretty broad view of what a leftist film means, as I do in real politics too. So a film that simply depicts a working class life can very much be a leftist film. Doesn't have to be ideological, in my view.
For me, the best leftist film of all time is obviously The Battle of Algiers. That's because it may well be the actual best film of all time. It's actually a perfect movie. The revolutionary and counterrevolutionary ideologies are laid out in a way that actually works. Amazing.
Not to mention the scene of the three bombings by the women is one of the top 5 best scenes of all time, right up there with the theft scene in Rififi, the wedding in the Godfather, the initial chess with Death scene in Seventh Seal, the end of Wild Bunch, etc.
My other very favorite leftist film is Marco Monicelli's 1963 film The Organizer, with Mastroianni. Just an amazing film about a single organizer in a working-class community. Astounding and should be much wider seen.
Then of course there is The Battle Potemkin, with the iconic Odessa steps. Those early Soviet films were great.
Many of Chaplin's films of course were legendary and great leftist films. A socialist himself, what better shows the plight of the worker than Modern Times?
The Grapes of Wrath is only kind of a leftist film, not to mention Steinbeck erases the Mexican and Filipino experiences from California. But while the book ends so damn depressing, the hope at the end of the film puts it over the top.
Even though I still think Tom Joad votes Goldwater in 1964.
Wajda's A Generation is a wonderful film about the Polish resistance in World War II. Even though Wajda later fell afoul of the Polish authorities, he had so many--Man of Marble and Man of Iron are both astounding films about the left and resistance.
If you haven't seen I Am Cuba, that's a must film for any leftist. Sure it's Soviet ideology being placed upon the Cuban experience, but it's awesome.
John Sayles' Matewan is certainly one of the best modern films about the left in the United States, moreover it's great on a small budget. Imagine if that film was properly funded.
The Baader-Meinhof Complex is simply awesome. I love how a look at the Red Army Faction covers up no warts. Plus the scene where they are training with the PLO and they want to hang out naked while the Palestinians are serious revolutionaries is another all time favorite.
Of course, Salt of the Earth is great. You can just stream that on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, fix that problem today.
Other great early Soviet films such as The End of St. Petersburg and Earth are well worth your time. Earth especially--more revolution through tilling the Ukrainian land!
For that matter, Eisenstein's Que Viva Mexico, even though it is incomplete, is another great Soviet view of Latin America.
And for a more recent Mexican film eviscerating the PRI, Mexico: The Frozen Revolution is well worth your time.
And for Argentina, It Happened in Hualfin is really powerful.
The work of Chris Marker is odd but wonderful and Grin Without a Cat is a must watch about what happened to the Paris 68 movement.
Speaking of Marker, I've seen many films from his comrade and the wonderful Agnes Varda, but not any of her early 70s leftist documentaries.
The Times of Harvey Milk is a great documentary about the rise of gay political power. You should watch it.
I have an extremely warm place in my heart for The Spook Who Sat By the Door. It's little known, but not only does it have a kick ass Herbie Hancock soundtrack, it's about the first black CIA agent who takes what he learns and starts a black nationalist revolution in Chicago.
Who wouldn't want to watch that!!!!
Then there is Punishment Park, the 1971 film about Nixon declaring martial law and rounding up all the hippies. Most of the film is a show trial between hippies and the citizen tribunal of conservatives trying them. It's largely people screaming at each other. I love it.
Born in Flames is the best early feminist film, in my view. The only problem with it is that it was so low-budget and shot over so many years that parts of it are pretty incoherent, makes it hard to use in the classroom.
Some of the films of Ken Loach are great leftist films. But other than The Wind That Shakes the Barley, his best lefty films are the ones that portray the British working class, such as Sweet Sixteen. Many of his ideological films are bad, such as Bread and Roses.
That said, I have a special place in my heart for Land and Freedom, even if I end up half-siding with the Stalinists in the end. And the same with Carla's Song, about Nicaragua. It's agitprop, sure. But I like agitprop.
Another favorite is Denys Arcand's The Decline of the American Empire, a great Canadian film from 1986.
Norma Rae goes without saying, even if the film significantly whitened who really organized those Carolina mills.
I also think The China Syndrome is pretty great. Plus whenever I show it in class, the scenes of how Jane Fonda is treated by her colleagues makes everyone realize Anchorman was mostly true.
Then there is Costa-Gavras' Z. Which mostly makes me want to cry.
I confess I've never seen The Battle of Chile, which I need to fix.
One very early film that is fascinating from the left is Voice of the Violin. It's actually an anti-leftist film, but it manages to convey anarchist ideology in a silent film strictly through physical motions, which is really an achievement.
One can argue whether the early Preston Sturges films were leftist or actually anti-leftist, but they are great depictions of Great Depression poverty. Plus they are hilarious and that's usually missing from leftist film.
12 Years a Slave is obviously a recent titanic achievement in leftist filmmaking. And if anyone wants to argue that a film just about slavery is not a leftist film, well, please don't make that argument because it's wrong.
There are lots of others too, but I need to get to work. Anyway, we should all watch more leftist films!
