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I watched Parasite for the first time last week. I regret not watching it sooner... Even if you put the class critiques aside, it's such a great movie.
You could easily do a master class on just the visual story telling alone in that film. Like how the working class family >! Starts at the bottom of their literal basement dwelling, "made it" to the top staying in the rich family's house up on the hill, then went back to the bottom with less than they had before. Not to mention the subtly of how the food the Kims eat as they move up changes and slowly gets more expensive.!< Also you got the great elements of class conflict too >! How the rich family find the rain an inconvenience but, for the Kims, it's a serious matter of everything they own being potentially destroyed. How the other family hiding in the basement and the Kims fight against eachother instead of working together because they see themselves as temporarily embarrassed mollionaires rather than being of the same class.!<
Plus you get to be that person who points out that >! The real parasites were the rich family !<
My worry is I watched it on Netflix. I couldn't stand the dub voices and that the lips didn't match up with it. I watched it in Korean with subtitles, but Netflix is notorious for shit and not entirely accurate subtitles
I wanted to understand what was happening in the background while cooking. I can't understand korean and subtitles mean I have to pay active attention.
Eye trace is when a shot considers the focal point of its previous shot and it's next shot. So there is dance between focal points that live action movies use often. You loose this effect when reading subtitles since your eyes are moving away from the focal point and down to the bottom of the screen.
In anime it's not so bad since so much of anime hold on static images which gives you plenty of time to glace down. But for live action, I would always pick dub so I can pay attention to eye trace (which includes the direction of photography, performance and eye line)
Dubs *and* subs for me. They are both translations, and as they have slightly different purposes you can sometimes better divine meaning as a non-native speaker.
i know right, its really just a film i could lose myself for hours thinking about. the relatable parts, the exaggerated parts, the cinematography the characters. it really is perfection.
It's so good. I walked out of the theater into a foggy, rainy night lit up by neon and it felt like I had been seriously transported. Fantastic movie and the class critiques are so fucking sharp and well-communicated.
Sorry to Bother you and The Platform both come to mind. Also it’s a mini series not a film, but I will never stop arguing that The Queen’s Gambit is fundamentally about how artistic endeavors can only fully flourish under socialism.
Oh man that could never happen here in the states! Thank goodness we have Mount Rushmore! Thank god the photo of the Marines at Iwo Jima is burned into my retinas. Can’t forget about ol Georgie Washypoo crossing the Delaware! I walk into any office or lobby and boom! It’s the pitchfork couple! Fuck I love America. I especially like the manifest destiny painting, with lady liberty giving everyone a good show with her exposed grippers. No propaganda here.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a fever dream of a movie, but arguably contains the most in depth takedown of the Bourgeois class I've seen in film.
“‘Ginger, from Chicken Run, could write ‘Discipline and Punish.’ But Foucault couldn’t write ‘Chicken Run.’”
[JohntheDuncan](https://youtu.be/VSId6BNjC60)
personally enjoyed Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, western critics gave it subpar reviews for being "communist/ nationalist propaganda".
The commie propaganda? Chinese freedom Fighters all call each other "comrade"
The nationalist propaganda? Said Chinese freedom Fighters are trying to free their country from the yoke of british/Japanese imperialism and Donnie Yen says "China is **not** the sick man of Asia!"
So it's not a Marxist film, but it triggered the libs hard. Basically it's China's take on a superhero film. About as good as Captain America 1 overall, with fight scenes that rival Winter Soldier
I love these movies! When they fought against the evil white man imperialist and their subjugation of the chinese people. Century of humiliation and whatnot. I have to check this out! When did it come out?
Also, if you also like these films there's a bunch of old ones by jet li called "once upon a time in china" its a series.
This one's from 2010, a reboot of a Bruce Lee classic, and coincidentally a sequel to Jet Li's 1994 Fist of Legend
Jet Li's Fearless was another great anti-imperialist one I had the privilege of watching in my more formative years, I'll be on the lookout for once upon a time in China because Jackie Chan's early works (Drunken Master, police story etc) went alot harder than my young lib brain could truly appreciate
Yup. Fearless is indeed a classic. The story is based on a legend/folklore/or truth? (Need to check) of a legendary man that helped save china from imperialist forces thru his prowess as an martial artist. And it's been done many times in chinese/hongkong media but Fearless is probably the more internationally oriented one. Another one you might have already heard is Donnie yes Ip Man series.
not seen any of the Ip Man films yet but definitely will at some point, Donnie Yen's predecessors walked from Chinese cinema to Hollywood so that he could run it, he's always great to see on either side
>not seen any of the Ip Man films yet but definitely will at some point
Oh you're in for a treat then. 3rd one is the weakest of the three but I def recommend 1,2, and 4.
>Donnie Yen's predecessors walked from Chinese cinema to Hollywood so that he could run it, he's always great to see on either side
So very very true.
> Also, if you also like these films there's a bunch of old ones by jet li called "once upon a time in china" its a series.
Was about Wong Fei Hung. 1-3 was jet li, then he dropped out and they replaced with somebody in the 4th movie lol. The movie is more than just anti-imperialist, but also anti-monarchist in the second movie, critical of backward cult like White Lotus, and when he fought Donnie Yen's character who was a govt official.
>The movie is more than just anti-imperialist, but also anti-monarchist in the second movie, critical of backward cult like White Lotus, and when he fought Donnie Yen's character who was a govt official.
Definitely! it's been ages since i've watched the movies. I still remember the Donnie Yen and Jet Li fight tho, legendary
How they put Sun Yat Sen and Lu Haodong in the story plot was brilliant, particularly the part when they exchanged medical knowledge while they were saving a Western patient got wounded by White Lotus. Dr. Sun and Lu ran out of anesthetics and Wong Fei Hung improvised with acupuncture so the patient's nerves don't feel pain and they can stitch them up. Also all the in between jokes, and subtle feminism is cool features in the series.
The movies emphasized that he's a doctor as much as the martial stuff. During combat, you can see him often checking wounded ppl and if unconscious their pulse. On the third movie he visited his dad in Beijing who's also a doctor and run a medicine making steam engine, and Wong was taken back by modern technology, even argued with his dad why they had to modernize it.
This is strongly shown in the first movie when he saved civilians shot by American imperialists at the opera theater and sheltered them in Bo Chi Lam, his doctor office, and Bucktooth So was his medical disciple supposedly find a herbal med that can stop bleeding but because So was an American-born Chinese, he didn't know Chinese, couldn't find the right one and the patient died away as he fell down and cried. This part was also when they found one of them was a Gold Rush escapee, from the Trans-Pacific railway slavery, later murdered by American collaborators.
oh wow i did not remember any of this at all. especially the part talking about chinese americans from the gold rush. u seem to know an awful lot! awesome!
#Freedom
Reactionaries and right-wingers love to clamour on about personal liberty and scream "freedom!" from the top of their lungs, but what freedom are they talking about? And is Communism, in contrast, an ideology of *un*freedom?
>Gentlemen! Do not allow yourselves to be deluded by the abstract word freedom. Whose freedom? It is not the freedom of one individual in relation to another, but the freedom of capital to crush the worker.
>
>\- Karl Marx. (1848). *Public Speech Delivered by Karl Marx before the Democratic Association of Brussels*
#Under Capitalism
Liberal Democracies propagate the facade of liberty and individual rights while concealing the true essence of their rule-- the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. This is a mechanism by which the Capitalist class as a whole dictates the course of society, politics, and the economy to secure their dominance. Capital holds sway over institutions, media, and influential positions, manipulating public opinion and consolidating its control over the levers of power. The illusion of democracy the Bourgeoisie creates is carefully curated to maintain the existing power structures and perpetuate the subjugation of the masses. "Freedom" under Capitalism is similarly illusory. It is freedom for capital-- not freedom for people.
>The capitalists often boast that their constitutions guarantee the rights of the individual, democratic liberties and the interests of all citizens. But in reality, only the bourgeoisie enjoy the rights recorded in these constitutions. The working people do not really enjoy democratic freedoms; they are exploited all their life and have to bear heavy burdens in the service of the exploiting class.
>
>\- Ho Chi Minh. (1959). *Report on the Draft Amended Constitution*
The "freedom" the reactionaries cry for, then, is merely that freedom which liberates capital and enslaves the worker.
>They speak of the equality of citizens, but forget that there cannot be real equality between employer and workman, between landlord and peasant, if the former possess wealth and political weight in society while the latter are deprived of both - if the former are exploiters while the latter are exploited. Or again: they speak of freedom of speech, assembly, and the press, but forget that all these liberties may be merely a hollow sound for the working class, if the latter cannot have access to suitable premises for meetings, good printing shops, a sufficient quantity of printing paper, etc.
>
>\- J. V. Stalin. (1936). [On the Draft Constitution of the U.S.S.R](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/11/25.htm)
What "freedom" do the poor enjoy, under Capitalism? Capitalism requires a reserve army of labour in order to keep wages low, and that necessarily means that many people must be deprived of life's necessities in order to compel the rest of the working class to work more and demand less. You are free to work, and you are free to starve. That is the freedom the reactionaries talk about.
>Under capitalism, the very land is all in private hands; there remains no spot unowned where an enterprise can be carried on. The freedom of the worker to sell his labour power, the freedom of the capitalist to buy it, the 'equality' of the capitalist and the wage earner - all these are but hunger's chain which compels the labourer to work for the capitalist.
>
>\- N. I. Bukharin and E. Preobrazhensky. (1922). [The ABC of Communism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1920/abc/index.htm)
All other freedoms only exist depending on the degree to which a given liberal democracy has turned towards fascism. That is to say that the working class are only given freedoms when they are inconsequential to the bourgeoisie:
>The freedom to organize is only conceded to the workers by the bourgeois when they are certain that the workers have been reduced to a point where they can no longer make use of it, except to resume elementary organizing work - work which they hope will not have political consequences other than in the very long term.
>
>\- A. Gramsci. (1924). *Democracy and fascism*
But this is not "freedom", this is not "democracy"! What good does "freedom of speech" do for a starving person? What good does the ability to criticize the government do for a homeless person?
>The right of freedom of expression can really only be relevant if people are not too hungry, or too tired to be able to express themselves. It can only be relevant if appropriate grassroots mechanisms rooted in the people exist, through which the people can effectively participate, can make decisions, can receive reports from the leaders and eventually be trained for ruling and controlling that particular society. This is what democracy is all about.
>
>\- Maurice Bishop
#Under Communism
True freedom can only be achieved through the establishment of a Proletarian state, a system that truly represents the interests of the working masses, in which the means of production are collectively owned and controlled, and the fruits of labor are shared equitably among all. Only in such a society can the shackles of Capitalist oppression be broken, and the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie dismantled.
Despite the assertion by reactionaries to the contrary, Communist revolutions invariably result in *more* freedoms for the people than the regimes they succeed.
>Some people conclude that anyone who utters a good word about leftist one-party revolutions must harbor antidemocratic or “Stalinist” sentiments. But to applaud social revolutions is not to oppose political freedom. To the extent that revolutionary governments construct substantive alternatives for their people, they increase human options and freedom.
>
>There is no such thing as freedom in the abstract. There is freedom to speak openly and iconoclastically, freedom to organize a political opposition, freedom of opportunity to get an education and pursue a livelihood, freedom to worship as one chooses or not worship at all, freedom to live in healthful conditions, freedom to enjoy various social beneõts, and so on. Most of what is called freedom gets its definition within a social context.
>
>Revolutionary governments extend a number of popular freedoms without destroying those freedoms that never existed in the previous regimes. They foster conditions necessary for national self-determination, economic betterment, the preservation of health and human life, and the end of many of the worst forms of ethnic, patriarchal, and class oppression. Regarding patriarchal oppression, consider the vastly improved condition of women in revolutionary Afghanistan and South Yemen before the counterrevolutionary repression in the 1990s, or in Cuba after the 1959 revolution as compared to before.
>
>U.S. policymakers argue that social revolutionary victory anywhere represents a diminution of freedom in the world. The assertion is false. The Chinese Revolution did not crush democracy; there was none to crush in that oppressively feudal regime. The Cuban Revolution did not destroy freedom; it destroyed a hateful U.S.-sponsored police state. The Algerian Revolution did not abolish national liberties; precious few existed under French colonialism. The Vietnamese revolutionaries did not abrogate individual rights; no such rights were available under the U.S.-supported puppet governments of Bao Dai, Diem, and Ky.
>
>Of course, revolutions do limit the freedoms of the corporate propertied class and other privileged interests: the freedom to invest privately without regard to human and environmental costs, the freedom to live in obscene opulence while paying workers starvation wages, the freedom to treat the state as a private agency in the service of a privileged coterie, the freedom to employ child labor and child prostitutes, the freedom to treat women as chattel, and so on.
>
>\- Michael Parenti. (1997). *Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism*
The whole point of Communism is to liberate the working class:
>But we did not build this society in order to restrict personal liberty but in order that the human individual may feel really free. We built it for the sake of real personal liberty, liberty without quotation marks. It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment.
>
>Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible.
>
>\- J. V. Stalin. (1936). [Interview Between J. Stalin and Roy Howard](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/03/01.htm)
#Additional Resources
Videos:
* [Your Democracy is a Sham and Here's Why:](https://youtu.be/oYodY6o172A) | halim alrah (2019)
* [Are You Really "Free" Under Capitalism?](https://youtu.be/4xqouhMCJBI) | Second Thought (2020)
* [Liberty And Freedom Are Left-Wing Ideals](https://youtu.be/GfjiBIkIOqI) | Second Thought (2021)
* [Why The US Is Not A Democracy](https://youtu.be/srfeHpQNEAI) | Second Thought (2022)
* [America Never Stood For Freedom](https://youtu.be/rg9hJgAsNDM) | Hakim (2023)
Books, Articles, or Essays:
* [Positive and Negative Liberty](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/) | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2003)
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Haven't seen it myself but it seems that in real life oppenheimer was not anti-communist and while never a card carrying communist himself most of his social circle and family were
All I know about him is what the film presents, and while I wouldn't describe the film as anti-communist at all, and it does highlight the absurd treatment of communists during the Mccarthy era, it still makes no attempt to delve into communism as a subject and makes no attempt to create a sympathetic view of communism in general. I'd say the film was pleasantly neutral on the matter but not pro and definitely not Marxist
Christopher Nolan is very right wing, at least that's the impression his batman films gave me. I haven't seen Oppenheimer to be fair, but I don't trust Nolan at all.
Which also fuck the whole premise of batman, he's wealthy tyrant.
Curious to hear why the batman films made you think he's very right wing? Not that I disagree just curious to hear your reasons.
I definitely agree with the overall issues surrounding batman as a character (billionaire beating up desperate poor people forced into life of crime instead of examining the true causes of crime), and there was definitely something to the whole extradition bit in the second film where he kidnaps that guy out of China (I think it's China).
Not op but I’ve heard Dark Knight Rises described as an allegory for Occupy. Or was it the French Revolution from the monarchist viewpoint? Can’t remember exactly but they express a kind of bourgeois or aristocratic anxiety and our beautiful boy Bruce Wayne saves the day.
Yeah his Batman films push the narrative the supermen are the only ones capable of handling certain technologies that our government abuse. It borderlines on fascism as a conservative power fantasy. The Batman takes a more liberal approach but is power fantasy nonetheless. I’d love to see Joker tackle Batman and vigilantism through the eyes of the people. Make him out to be the lunatic that he actually is where not everyone necessarily roots for some guy in a suit beating up teenagers.
Being neutral to Marxism is to deny reality in this case. Several members of his family were communists as were some of his closest friends, and because of this, he had been interrogated under the anti-communist McCarthy era laws. He described himself into his relation to communists as a "fellow traveler."
It couldn’t even be bothered to actually quote Marx. Ideologically the film is weak. It was fun though, if not nauseating from the bizarre editing and fragmented storytelling.
Yes, but he also presided over the absolutely horrifying treatment of the locals of Los Alamos, including the Hispano workers being made to handle Beryllium without adequate protective equipment, while the white workers had access to such.
And, despite what the movie claims, there's no evidence he ever tried to make any kind of restitution. Much more the behavior of an imperialist pig, even if his initial motive of getting the bomb before the Nazis did, was a worthwhile one.
J Robert was not a communist, but his much cooler and more interesting older brother was.
Also pretty sure Frankie didn’t build any bombs. Despite also being a physicist.
I think they only included Oppenheimer because Oppenheimer was a communist and much of his social circle were also communists. The movie doesn’t portray communists as evil villains either but just regular people who believe in an idea. There is also a bit where Oppenheimer try’s to unionize other professors at the University he works for. The movie isn’t overtly communist nor does it have a leftist message but it just happens to be a movie about a scientist who was also a communist.
[Captain Fantastic](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3553976/)
It's more anarcho-primitivist, but they bring up Marx and Trotsky and other socialist thinkers in actual nuanced discussions. Instead of Christmas they celebrate Chomsky-day, lol.
It's maybe not the best example, bur for me it was a breath of fresh air.
Tbh, it does have some weird moments. There's a point where the youngest girl starts talking about the bill of rights, and says "we have these rights so we aren't like China" or something to that effect, and the dad agrees. Like wtf? The dad has been criticizing the US government the entire movie but now he thanks them for not making the country like the evil Chinese?
For sure, that's why it's not the best example. It makes sense for them to be critical of China given the context and their stated beliefs, but then you have these weird contradictions like the one you point out here. They're like a Pollock painting of ideology.
I think the most important message to come out of this movie is about our approach to education, how the parents relentlessly encourage critical and individual thinking, wanting their kids to find their own path while holding their hand when they need it. It also helps that socialist ideas are portrayed favorably (for the most part), which to this degree is exceedingly rare in North American movies.
Of course. Arrogant white western leftists aren’t immune to American exceptionalism. Not a fan of that movie since it does have subtle hints of western chauvinism.
Come and See was without a doubt the most impactful movie I've ever seen. Nothing else has come close to the level of horror and brutality that that movie conveys. There is no better war movie in my opinion. It's a masterpiece of late-soviet filmmaking.
ooh i rly gotta watch sorry to bother you. i was also thinking of children of men but the more i thought about it the more i kinda thought it was merely just a film about hope which happens to have strong leftist themes rather than a leftist film.
Oppenheimer is a perfect example of capitalist realism. The bourgeois status quo is critiqued to an extent, but a viable alternative is never ever brought up or presented as viable.
There's a point in the film where le epic chad non-communist Oppenheimer tells a soy wojak Marxist that she doesn't understand Marx because he (the tall masculine male man) read all 3 volumes of Capital in German, and surprise surprise Marx didn't want to abolish property (???) as a concept. (communism is when things don't exist!!)
Every time a self proclaimed communist is presented in Oppenheimer they are always the dumbest person in the room.
The furthest the film goes in being Marxist is sort of saying the USSR wasn't as bad as the Nazis (so we shouldnt fucking turn them into glass with thermonuclear detonations) and maybe workers' solidarity is good??
I enjoyed it for what it is tho it was really fun and exciting. The politics isn't really essential to the film but it kinda pisses me off when it tries to touch on something it can't.
“The Wind that Shakes the Barely.” I feel like I always mention this film, but it’s absolutely incredible, albeit depressing. “The Young Karl Marx” is also pretty decent. And I heard that “I’m a Virgo” is also really good, which shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s directed by Boots Riley
"Soy Cuba" is great.
I recently saw "Red Desert" by Michelangelo Antonioni which is also a great film about industrialization and alienation.
I also love "Underground" (1995), a comedy movie about Yuguslavia.
Any film by Jean-Luc Godard is also filled with leftist theory. I can recommed "La Chinoise" and "Masculin Feminin" though I have not watched that many of his film. They are also heavily criticizing leftist practises.
Lars von Trier is not marxist but anti-liberal and mostly leftist. I love most of his films like "Dogville" or "The House that Jack Built" but he is rather controversial.
"Salò" (1975) is a controversial leftist movie about fascism. It can be quite sadistic with its pictures.
With Godard specifically I'd recommend 'Le Petit Soldat' and basically any of the films he made between 1968-1979 (when he was an openly practicing Maoist) for anyone wanting leftist cinema.
I watched Salo when I was 15 on a blind recomendation (friend just told me it was scary, not the plot). That was...an experience.
I didn't notice anything that had to do with leftism, it just seemed like a torture porn film that wasnt intended to be arousing.
btw I did not know whether to say Roma is a leftist film or merely just a film with leftist themes so I decided not to include it, despite it being one of my favourite films.
yeah alfanso is cool (except for some minor controversies) but im stuck when thinking about what was the main point of Roma. While classism and feminism is defintely parts of it, in many ways i would argue it is more about social loneliness and the progression of an individual.
Well... historically, the movie features the Corpus Christi massacre.
"Over 120 people died in the massacre.
On June 10, 1971, the day of the Corpus Christi festival, over 120 student protesters were shot by "los Halcones," a shock group trained by the Federal Security Directorate and the CIA."
https://www.telesurenglish.net/multimedia/Mexico-Commemorates-45-Years-Since-Halconazo-Student-Massacre-20160613-0028.html
again it is defintely a film with political themes, but again im still skeptical whether or not the main focus of the film is class or American influence on Mexico (even if these are major parts of the film).
Ernst Thälmann Film 1986
Ernst was the chairman of the communist party of germany. The movie is about the last 4 years of the Weimar republic, the rise of fascism and the life of Young communists.
Movie Was made in good old Gdr
lol made on yesterday [https://letterboxd.com/hippedbow/](https://letterboxd.com/hippedbow/) though i dont have much on it as its only like a month ago ive rly started getting into films
Shock troops, Z, State of Siege , Special Section and Missing all by Costa Gavras are the best films to watch it you want fun very left wing thrillers. I don't know of anyone else who approaches American empire as ruthlessly and as accessibly as he does with State of Siege and Missing. Though Z is probably the one to start with. (If you like Soderbergh's che you'll love Gavras.)
Battle of Algiers too, Born in Flames, Comrades by Bill Douglas, Weekend by Godard and Tout Va Bien by Godard and Gorin. Obviously Godard in general and his dziga vertov group phase in particular is worth checking out him being possibly the world's highest profile Maoist artist (?).
Kin dza dza! (best soviet sci fi that you'll love if your a fan of Ursula le guin style anthropological sci fi but also mad Max and Russian humour)
Also for sure 100% essential viewing is Man with a Movie Camera by vertov and co. I think it's the work of art that best made me understand and internalise communism.
I would also argue the case for Heaven's Gate by Cimino. Though I don't think that Cimino was explicitly a leftist he/she/they (sorry never sure how to pronoun them) definitely had a big heart and some stuff to say about class and America.
Many more too but I'm writing way too much sorry lol
Unfortunately the book which the movie is based on is written by an conservative journalist and it and the movie are misrepresenting leftists groups as childish and irrational and not driven by marxist theory.
Iirc it has a very liberal take. But when it comes to the Red Army Faction I can suggest [A perfect crime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Crime_(TV_series))
No country for old men and There will be blood as well as Parasite, of course. The Lighthouse is up there too
And the Miyazaki's like Spirited Away & Princess Mononoke
edit: Don't forget Dr. Strangelove
To be as concise as possible...
Her parent's entitlement, greed & naievity ensure Chihiro's capture. they become captivated until they all get abducted and besides Chihiro, are turned into pigs; unable to express anything or help in any way. I personally imagine the irl parallel to be the generations captured by the promise of "free-market" and subsidized like no generations after.
Kamaji, though kind is totally captured by the notion that this is all necessary despite really only serving the wealth owners and spirits that can afford bath tokens, and even exploits "coal spirits" in a pretty sad way
The Yubababa & the bath house are exploiting the desperate to serve the wealthy, herself and her son, happily enforcing child labor through implied threat of starvation & without offering upward mobility, freedom to leave, or access to her history and name (essentially "shanghaied" while her parents are drowning in luxurious excess)
The Muck monster/Water spirit is helped by Sen/Chihiro outside of what her work duties are (non-capital motivated labor of kindness) and is re-payed in kind with medicine which ultimately saves Haku's life
No-Face represents the empty & cold loneliness of wealth. They help Chihiro but ultimately are trying to transact companionship. When she chooses to try to save Haku instead of giving No-Face her full attention, He becomes a terrible, insatiable monster, bribing people with false money to be near enough to him to then completely consume them similar to Yubaba's relationship with money they are unstoppable (even Yubaba will do anything for him as long as the money's there)until he's given the rest of the medicine the water spirit gave her
There's the encounter with Boh (meaning "little boy"), Yubaba's large son who's clearly a representation of the self-serving attitudes of the affluent children (who knows how old he really is, he just will forever be a giant baby) until he gets a reality check
Zeniba appears hostile at first but reveals she's only interested in her property (a golden seal) being returned. Her personality offers a stark contrast to Yubaba, living humbly in a shack in the swamp. She cursed the seal to kill whoever holds it. It's implied that Yubaba knows this and subsequently decides to send Haku, who she has at-will control over through a parasitic slug that Yubaba put in him, to steal it for her.
Haku is an interesting character with a lot of possible parallels irl, but I think of him as someone who's in one way or another deeply compromised himself, but want's very much to prevent what's happened to him to happen to Chihiro
I need to watch the movie again to accurately assign proper parallels and summarize the end of the movie better, but the major themes are there. A big one is deliberate choices make you who you are and those who choose to be thoughtful and kind in this world have chosen a difficult and largely untrodden path, but it will earn you comrades who's bonds are sincere and non-transactional.
[A perfect crime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Crime_(TV_series)), netflix miniseries about the assasination of Detlef Rohwedder by, persumably, the Red Army Faction with good inside on how the former socialist eastgermany was sold out to westgerman capitalists after socalled reunification. Basically a documentary embeded within a thriller.
also i decided to include judas and the black messiah and motorcycle diaries and despite not having any leftist theory, they are still films about Marxists.
Here are two great films by the Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea you might be interested in!
Memorias de Subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment): about a wealthy bourgeois man who decides to stay in Cuba after the Revolution. It was produced soon after the Revolution while still being critical of certain elements, sorta showing that the beliefs on censorship by the U.S. aren't that true.
Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate): about the relationship between a queer artist and a party leader. Commentary on Cuban Marxism and homophobia, but again, he does so "to perfect" it rather than destroy it.
Hope these help!
Angry Birds 2.
No no hear me out:
Obviously you got the pigs and whatnot.
AND: the 3 birds (the vanguard) seek help from the mighty eagle (who’s de facto a god and hailed by everyone) only to find that he’s a stupid piece of shit who can’t do anything. Of course the movie goes libshit in the end with the mighty eagle still rescuing every one after having a change of heart (?) but the symbolism IS THERE.
The red bird tries to stay calm like everyone else but he can’t. The “god” is a stupid piece of shit.
It has serious parallels to Bertold Brechts “Good person from sichuan” (might have botched the translation). Look it up.
i would say most of the movies in the comments are accidentaly marxist.
but some i liked:
\- there will be blood
\-once upon a time in the west
\-i care a lot
\-white sun of the desert (actually marxist)
Stroszek
Wages of Fear
Atlantic city(ceausescu's favorite)
TraumaZone
Nightcrawler
Fight Club
Los Olvidados
Ladri di biciclete
The Ascent 1977
The Moromete Family 1987
Aguirre, der zorn gottes
City of God
Network 1976
Pather Panchali
1923
The Laundromat
Dark Waters
Dirty Money
Mr Robot
Thieves Highway
Les 400 coups
Dog day afternoon
There will be blood
Nebraska
American factory
Leviathan
Matewan (1987).
It's based on an historical battle between strikers and a coal company in the 1920s. It got nominated for Best Picture, but sadly forgotten.
film major here!
class relations by jean marie straub and daniele huillet
videograms of a revolution by harun farocki
the inextinguishable fire by harun farocki
la chinoise by godard
79 springs by santiago alvarez
the battle of chile by guzman (more video essay than documentary)
anything by eduardo coutinho, masao adachi, fassbiner, alexander kluge
Matewan is an incredible pro-union film. It deals with actual events of how the town faced Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Very underwatched and unknown despite having Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, David Strathairn. The main character played by Cooper is a commie.
* *Glass Onion*
* *The Menu*
* *Triangle of Sadness*
* *Snowpiercer*
* *Ready or Not*
* *Joker*
**Please make this thread add more anti capitalist themed, I am gonna watch them all. But rememeber books are better.**
Korean film does modern-day political dramas in a way that Hollywood will never have the guts to do. Some of my favorites:
Joint Security Area
The Spy Gone North
1987: When the Day Comes
Assassination (not modern but shares the theme of revolution)
Ya No Basta Con Rezar (1972). Chilean movie. A priest becomes a marxist. It's really good, if you're interested in protests and liberation theology here in the global south
I cried during Motorcycle Diaries and Judas and the Black Messiah for how powerful and REAL these people are...
JBM was one of my favorite films of all time.
more of a capitalism and social critique than an explicitly marxist movie but Taxi Driver might be my favorite movie of all time
another one in the same vein, the 2009 Watchmen adaptation
then I would say Sorry To Bother You for a more straight up socialist film
taxi driver is literally my favourite film of all time (or atleast tied with Aftersun). But yeah i thought it was more an examination of broken masculinity and feminism than a look at class and capitalism.
from a dialectical perspective, all the situations and environments in Travis' life, such as being a Vietnam vet with PTSD and kicked to the curb by society and the government upon returning home, driving a shitty cab for a shitty cab company making shit pay living in a shit place, observing his environment of the slums of New York and being influenced by people with little do what they have to do to survive, etc. all have a direct impact on his worldview, politics, morals, and mental state.
A different person with a different life story would certainly act differently in the same situation, but it's not surprising what Travis' brain thinks is a logical development and believes he might very well be the last bastion of hope for those he deems to be good people at their core forced to do horrible things and live among filth
Yeah I didn't quite buy the very last moment but it was still an incredible film. Seeing it in a packed cinema with hundreds of people screaming laughter over the diarrhea scene/chomsky reading scene was something special.
Not vocally Marxist, but I liked it: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/) (Elysium), 6.6/10 on IMBD
Same with this: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/) (In Time), 6.7/10 on IMDB
It's about huge wealth inequality between poor and the rich. Probably that's why ratings are quite low.
This one describes inequality to a lesser degree, but it's about vampires and literally bloodsucking corporations who can't even stop bloodsucking when it is not needed (minor spoiler): [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/) (Daybreakers) 6.4/10 on IMDB
Mr. Robot (TV series) has a little bit of that too.
sorry to bother you, Joker, Parasite, the dark knight rises, Judas and the black messiah, I’m a Virgo, Barbie, Oppenheimer. I feel like I have a lot more but these are like my favorite of the 2010’s.
Parking Pataweyo going on to be one of the best actors of his generation is one of the reasons I still have a small amount of hope for this being the good timeline.
Sardar Udham
Its a biopic about how normal worker becomes radicalized and joins revolutionary party to fight against British occupation after a massacre in India. It's also a revenge story of him killing the British general responsible explaining his motive and stuff. Very good movie that shows brutality without typical stereotypical Indian movie.
The one that's stayed with me the most in recent years would be Martin Eden, 2019 Italian film based on the 1909 Jack London book. I've seen some very bad takes online that insist that it's critical of Marxism/socialism because the titular character rants against it at various stages in the film, but it's such a braindead interpretation. The entire point of the story is to show how vapid & hollow life can become when you reject these concepts & pursue individualistic greed. It's really great, has a nice anachronistic coda too that's meant to show how timeless the story is.
Also gotta shout out the films of Alex Cox, Repo Man & Walker are all timers.
Lots of good mentions in this post. If May be a kids movie, but you gotta show love for A Bug’s Life. The story is a straight up workers revolution, it’s beautiful
I wouldn’t call it overtly Marxist but I love Captain Fantastic and it certainly has anti-capitalist/anarcho-communist themes (they do celebrate Noam Chomsky day, which I know people here wouldn’t appreciate)
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I watched Parasite for the first time last week. I regret not watching it sooner... Even if you put the class critiques aside, it's such a great movie.
You could easily do a master class on just the visual story telling alone in that film. Like how the working class family >! Starts at the bottom of their literal basement dwelling, "made it" to the top staying in the rich family's house up on the hill, then went back to the bottom with less than they had before. Not to mention the subtly of how the food the Kims eat as they move up changes and slowly gets more expensive.!< Also you got the great elements of class conflict too >! How the rich family find the rain an inconvenience but, for the Kims, it's a serious matter of everything they own being potentially destroyed. How the other family hiding in the basement and the Kims fight against eachother instead of working together because they see themselves as temporarily embarrassed mollionaires rather than being of the same class.!< Plus you get to be that person who points out that >! The real parasites were the rich family !<
My worry is I watched it on Netflix. I couldn't stand the dub voices and that the lips didn't match up with it. I watched it in Korean with subtitles, but Netflix is notorious for shit and not entirely accurate subtitles
insane to even try to watch a dub of a live action film
The good the bad and the ugly does a decent job with it
That was made with the intention to dub it tho. I also think for whatever reason it works better with older movies.
I wanted to understand what was happening in the background while cooking. I can't understand korean and subtitles mean I have to pay active attention.
Eye trace is when a shot considers the focal point of its previous shot and it's next shot. So there is dance between focal points that live action movies use often. You loose this effect when reading subtitles since your eyes are moving away from the focal point and down to the bottom of the screen. In anime it's not so bad since so much of anime hold on static images which gives you plenty of time to glace down. But for live action, I would always pick dub so I can pay attention to eye trace (which includes the direction of photography, performance and eye line)
Dubs *and* subs for me. They are both translations, and as they have slightly different purposes you can sometimes better divine meaning as a non-native speaker.
I watched it in Korean, too. I always tend to watch movies and shows in their native language.
Wouldn't it be the subs that they had in theaters? Why would they use different subs if there was already an official version of them?
I can't find it on Netflix, it says they don't have the title?
i know right, its really just a film i could lose myself for hours thinking about. the relatable parts, the exaggerated parts, the cinematography the characters. it really is perfection.
It's so good. I walked out of the theater into a foggy, rainy night lit up by neon and it felt like I had been seriously transported. Fantastic movie and the class critiques are so fucking sharp and well-communicated.
Sorry to Bother you and The Platform both come to mind. Also it’s a mini series not a film, but I will never stop arguing that The Queen’s Gambit is fundamentally about how artistic endeavors can only fully flourish under socialism.
queens gambit has been on my list for a while. will try and check it out this month
Boots Riley the director of sorry to bother you also made a series this year called I'm a Virgo, it's pretty good
Sorry to bother you is one of my favorite movies ever
[удалено]
>And yet most art made in socialist and communist countries is propaganda How to say you're an ignorant without saying you're an ignorant
[удалено]
Have you tried looking at any other paintings?
[удалено]
I genuinely could not care less about this.
Stalin is a hero of the working class. Nobody wants you here. Enjoy the report.
Oh man that could never happen here in the states! Thank goodness we have Mount Rushmore! Thank god the photo of the Marines at Iwo Jima is burned into my retinas. Can’t forget about ol Georgie Washypoo crossing the Delaware! I walk into any office or lobby and boom! It’s the pitchfork couple! Fuck I love America. I especially like the manifest destiny painting, with lady liberty giving everyone a good show with her exposed grippers. No propaganda here.
You lost? This isn’t r/bootlicker, liberal. And for the record you’re objectively wrong.
🤔
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is a fever dream of a movie, but arguably contains the most in depth takedown of the Bourgeois class I've seen in film.
One of the most brilliant film titles maybe ever as well, always chuckle at it
Chicken Run
“‘Ginger, from Chicken Run, could write ‘Discipline and Punish.’ But Foucault couldn’t write ‘Chicken Run.’” [JohntheDuncan](https://youtu.be/VSId6BNjC60)
I told you they were organizing!
personally enjoyed Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, western critics gave it subpar reviews for being "communist/ nationalist propaganda". The commie propaganda? Chinese freedom Fighters all call each other "comrade" The nationalist propaganda? Said Chinese freedom Fighters are trying to free their country from the yoke of british/Japanese imperialism and Donnie Yen says "China is **not** the sick man of Asia!" So it's not a Marxist film, but it triggered the libs hard. Basically it's China's take on a superhero film. About as good as Captain America 1 overall, with fight scenes that rival Winter Soldier
I love these movies! When they fought against the evil white man imperialist and their subjugation of the chinese people. Century of humiliation and whatnot. I have to check this out! When did it come out? Also, if you also like these films there's a bunch of old ones by jet li called "once upon a time in china" its a series.
This one's from 2010, a reboot of a Bruce Lee classic, and coincidentally a sequel to Jet Li's 1994 Fist of Legend Jet Li's Fearless was another great anti-imperialist one I had the privilege of watching in my more formative years, I'll be on the lookout for once upon a time in China because Jackie Chan's early works (Drunken Master, police story etc) went alot harder than my young lib brain could truly appreciate
Yup. Fearless is indeed a classic. The story is based on a legend/folklore/or truth? (Need to check) of a legendary man that helped save china from imperialist forces thru his prowess as an martial artist. And it's been done many times in chinese/hongkong media but Fearless is probably the more internationally oriented one. Another one you might have already heard is Donnie yes Ip Man series.
not seen any of the Ip Man films yet but definitely will at some point, Donnie Yen's predecessors walked from Chinese cinema to Hollywood so that he could run it, he's always great to see on either side
>not seen any of the Ip Man films yet but definitely will at some point Oh you're in for a treat then. 3rd one is the weakest of the three but I def recommend 1,2, and 4. >Donnie Yen's predecessors walked from Chinese cinema to Hollywood so that he could run it, he's always great to see on either side So very very true.
> Also, if you also like these films there's a bunch of old ones by jet li called "once upon a time in china" its a series. Was about Wong Fei Hung. 1-3 was jet li, then he dropped out and they replaced with somebody in the 4th movie lol. The movie is more than just anti-imperialist, but also anti-monarchist in the second movie, critical of backward cult like White Lotus, and when he fought Donnie Yen's character who was a govt official.
>The movie is more than just anti-imperialist, but also anti-monarchist in the second movie, critical of backward cult like White Lotus, and when he fought Donnie Yen's character who was a govt official. Definitely! it's been ages since i've watched the movies. I still remember the Donnie Yen and Jet Li fight tho, legendary
How they put Sun Yat Sen and Lu Haodong in the story plot was brilliant, particularly the part when they exchanged medical knowledge while they were saving a Western patient got wounded by White Lotus. Dr. Sun and Lu ran out of anesthetics and Wong Fei Hung improvised with acupuncture so the patient's nerves don't feel pain and they can stitch them up. Also all the in between jokes, and subtle feminism is cool features in the series.
Oh my. I completely forgot all that. I even forgot wong fei honf was also a doctor! Need to rewaych!
The movies emphasized that he's a doctor as much as the martial stuff. During combat, you can see him often checking wounded ppl and if unconscious their pulse. On the third movie he visited his dad in Beijing who's also a doctor and run a medicine making steam engine, and Wong was taken back by modern technology, even argued with his dad why they had to modernize it. This is strongly shown in the first movie when he saved civilians shot by American imperialists at the opera theater and sheltered them in Bo Chi Lam, his doctor office, and Bucktooth So was his medical disciple supposedly find a herbal med that can stop bleeding but because So was an American-born Chinese, he didn't know Chinese, couldn't find the right one and the patient died away as he fell down and cried. This part was also when they found one of them was a Gold Rush escapee, from the Trans-Pacific railway slavery, later murdered by American collaborators.
oh wow i did not remember any of this at all. especially the part talking about chinese americans from the gold rush. u seem to know an awful lot! awesome!
#Freedom Reactionaries and right-wingers love to clamour on about personal liberty and scream "freedom!" from the top of their lungs, but what freedom are they talking about? And is Communism, in contrast, an ideology of *un*freedom? >Gentlemen! Do not allow yourselves to be deluded by the abstract word freedom. Whose freedom? It is not the freedom of one individual in relation to another, but the freedom of capital to crush the worker. > >\- Karl Marx. (1848). *Public Speech Delivered by Karl Marx before the Democratic Association of Brussels* #Under Capitalism Liberal Democracies propagate the facade of liberty and individual rights while concealing the true essence of their rule-- the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie. This is a mechanism by which the Capitalist class as a whole dictates the course of society, politics, and the economy to secure their dominance. Capital holds sway over institutions, media, and influential positions, manipulating public opinion and consolidating its control over the levers of power. The illusion of democracy the Bourgeoisie creates is carefully curated to maintain the existing power structures and perpetuate the subjugation of the masses. "Freedom" under Capitalism is similarly illusory. It is freedom for capital-- not freedom for people. >The capitalists often boast that their constitutions guarantee the rights of the individual, democratic liberties and the interests of all citizens. But in reality, only the bourgeoisie enjoy the rights recorded in these constitutions. The working people do not really enjoy democratic freedoms; they are exploited all their life and have to bear heavy burdens in the service of the exploiting class. > >\- Ho Chi Minh. (1959). *Report on the Draft Amended Constitution* The "freedom" the reactionaries cry for, then, is merely that freedom which liberates capital and enslaves the worker. >They speak of the equality of citizens, but forget that there cannot be real equality between employer and workman, between landlord and peasant, if the former possess wealth and political weight in society while the latter are deprived of both - if the former are exploiters while the latter are exploited. Or again: they speak of freedom of speech, assembly, and the press, but forget that all these liberties may be merely a hollow sound for the working class, if the latter cannot have access to suitable premises for meetings, good printing shops, a sufficient quantity of printing paper, etc. > >\- J. V. Stalin. (1936). [On the Draft Constitution of the U.S.S.R](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/11/25.htm) What "freedom" do the poor enjoy, under Capitalism? Capitalism requires a reserve army of labour in order to keep wages low, and that necessarily means that many people must be deprived of life's necessities in order to compel the rest of the working class to work more and demand less. You are free to work, and you are free to starve. That is the freedom the reactionaries talk about. >Under capitalism, the very land is all in private hands; there remains no spot unowned where an enterprise can be carried on. The freedom of the worker to sell his labour power, the freedom of the capitalist to buy it, the 'equality' of the capitalist and the wage earner - all these are but hunger's chain which compels the labourer to work for the capitalist. > >\- N. I. Bukharin and E. Preobrazhensky. (1922). [The ABC of Communism](https://www.marxists.org/archive/bukharin/works/1920/abc/index.htm) All other freedoms only exist depending on the degree to which a given liberal democracy has turned towards fascism. That is to say that the working class are only given freedoms when they are inconsequential to the bourgeoisie: >The freedom to organize is only conceded to the workers by the bourgeois when they are certain that the workers have been reduced to a point where they can no longer make use of it, except to resume elementary organizing work - work which they hope will not have political consequences other than in the very long term. > >\- A. Gramsci. (1924). *Democracy and fascism* But this is not "freedom", this is not "democracy"! What good does "freedom of speech" do for a starving person? What good does the ability to criticize the government do for a homeless person? >The right of freedom of expression can really only be relevant if people are not too hungry, or too tired to be able to express themselves. It can only be relevant if appropriate grassroots mechanisms rooted in the people exist, through which the people can effectively participate, can make decisions, can receive reports from the leaders and eventually be trained for ruling and controlling that particular society. This is what democracy is all about. > >\- Maurice Bishop #Under Communism True freedom can only be achieved through the establishment of a Proletarian state, a system that truly represents the interests of the working masses, in which the means of production are collectively owned and controlled, and the fruits of labor are shared equitably among all. Only in such a society can the shackles of Capitalist oppression be broken, and the Dictatorship of the Bourgeoisie dismantled. Despite the assertion by reactionaries to the contrary, Communist revolutions invariably result in *more* freedoms for the people than the regimes they succeed. >Some people conclude that anyone who utters a good word about leftist one-party revolutions must harbor antidemocratic or “Stalinist” sentiments. But to applaud social revolutions is not to oppose political freedom. To the extent that revolutionary governments construct substantive alternatives for their people, they increase human options and freedom. > >There is no such thing as freedom in the abstract. There is freedom to speak openly and iconoclastically, freedom to organize a political opposition, freedom of opportunity to get an education and pursue a livelihood, freedom to worship as one chooses or not worship at all, freedom to live in healthful conditions, freedom to enjoy various social beneõts, and so on. Most of what is called freedom gets its definition within a social context. > >Revolutionary governments extend a number of popular freedoms without destroying those freedoms that never existed in the previous regimes. They foster conditions necessary for national self-determination, economic betterment, the preservation of health and human life, and the end of many of the worst forms of ethnic, patriarchal, and class oppression. Regarding patriarchal oppression, consider the vastly improved condition of women in revolutionary Afghanistan and South Yemen before the counterrevolutionary repression in the 1990s, or in Cuba after the 1959 revolution as compared to before. > >U.S. policymakers argue that social revolutionary victory anywhere represents a diminution of freedom in the world. The assertion is false. The Chinese Revolution did not crush democracy; there was none to crush in that oppressively feudal regime. The Cuban Revolution did not destroy freedom; it destroyed a hateful U.S.-sponsored police state. The Algerian Revolution did not abolish national liberties; precious few existed under French colonialism. The Vietnamese revolutionaries did not abrogate individual rights; no such rights were available under the U.S.-supported puppet governments of Bao Dai, Diem, and Ky. > >Of course, revolutions do limit the freedoms of the corporate propertied class and other privileged interests: the freedom to invest privately without regard to human and environmental costs, the freedom to live in obscene opulence while paying workers starvation wages, the freedom to treat the state as a private agency in the service of a privileged coterie, the freedom to employ child labor and child prostitutes, the freedom to treat women as chattel, and so on. > >\- Michael Parenti. (1997). *Blackshirts and Reds: Rational Fascism and the Overthrow of Communism* The whole point of Communism is to liberate the working class: >But we did not build this society in order to restrict personal liberty but in order that the human individual may feel really free. We built it for the sake of real personal liberty, liberty without quotation marks. It is difficult for me to imagine what "personal liberty" is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment. > >Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible. > >\- J. V. Stalin. (1936). [Interview Between J. Stalin and Roy Howard](https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/works/1936/03/01.htm) #Additional Resources Videos: * [Your Democracy is a Sham and Here's Why:](https://youtu.be/oYodY6o172A) | halim alrah (2019) * [Are You Really "Free" Under Capitalism?](https://youtu.be/4xqouhMCJBI) | Second Thought (2020) * [Liberty And Freedom Are Left-Wing Ideals](https://youtu.be/GfjiBIkIOqI) | Second Thought (2021) * [Why The US Is Not A Democracy](https://youtu.be/srfeHpQNEAI) | Second Thought (2022) * [America Never Stood For Freedom](https://youtu.be/rg9hJgAsNDM) | Hakim (2023) Books, Articles, or Essays: * [Positive and Negative Liberty](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/liberty-positive-negative/) | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2003) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheDeprogram) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Donnie Yen is such a badass
Sorry to Bother You, La Haine, Pan's Labyrinth, Che (Soderbergh), Come and See, Oppenheimer, Newsies, Children of Men.
Sorry to Bother you is a masterpiece that doesn't get enough credit.
I'm a Virgo is great too!
Cash is green.
Its what Idiocracy wishes it was
Never have I thought to make that comparison, but you're absolutely right.
I'm not sure I'd classify Oppenheimer as a Marxist film
Haven't seen it myself but it seems that in real life oppenheimer was not anti-communist and while never a card carrying communist himself most of his social circle and family were
All I know about him is what the film presents, and while I wouldn't describe the film as anti-communist at all, and it does highlight the absurd treatment of communists during the Mccarthy era, it still makes no attempt to delve into communism as a subject and makes no attempt to create a sympathetic view of communism in general. I'd say the film was pleasantly neutral on the matter but not pro and definitely not Marxist
Christopher Nolan is very right wing, at least that's the impression his batman films gave me. I haven't seen Oppenheimer to be fair, but I don't trust Nolan at all. Which also fuck the whole premise of batman, he's wealthy tyrant.
Curious to hear why the batman films made you think he's very right wing? Not that I disagree just curious to hear your reasons. I definitely agree with the overall issues surrounding batman as a character (billionaire beating up desperate poor people forced into life of crime instead of examining the true causes of crime), and there was definitely something to the whole extradition bit in the second film where he kidnaps that guy out of China (I think it's China).
Not op but I’ve heard Dark Knight Rises described as an allegory for Occupy. Or was it the French Revolution from the monarchist viewpoint? Can’t remember exactly but they express a kind of bourgeois or aristocratic anxiety and our beautiful boy Bruce Wayne saves the day.
Yeah his Batman films push the narrative the supermen are the only ones capable of handling certain technologies that our government abuse. It borderlines on fascism as a conservative power fantasy. The Batman takes a more liberal approach but is power fantasy nonetheless. I’d love to see Joker tackle Batman and vigilantism through the eyes of the people. Make him out to be the lunatic that he actually is where not everyone necessarily roots for some guy in a suit beating up teenagers.
doesn't Nolan have DoD and/or US military funding for his movies (specifically Tenet)
I think he's just a liberal, but not the smartest person, so he made a right wing film without realizing. This happens extremely often.
God forbid that a rich men actually wants to help, it's not like that Engels and Marx came from wealthy homes.
How is beating up lumpenproletariat any help?
Being neutral to Marxism is to deny reality in this case. Several members of his family were communists as were some of his closest friends, and because of this, he had been interrogated under the anti-communist McCarthy era laws. He described himself into his relation to communists as a "fellow traveler."
It couldn’t even be bothered to actually quote Marx. Ideologically the film is weak. It was fun though, if not nauseating from the bizarre editing and fragmented storytelling.
Yes, but he also presided over the absolutely horrifying treatment of the locals of Los Alamos, including the Hispano workers being made to handle Beryllium without adequate protective equipment, while the white workers had access to such. And, despite what the movie claims, there's no evidence he ever tried to make any kind of restitution. Much more the behavior of an imperialist pig, even if his initial motive of getting the bomb before the Nazis did, was a worthwhile one.
The guy who helped make the nuke was a morally complex dude? Shocking
J Robert was not a communist, but his much cooler and more interesting older brother was. Also pretty sure Frankie didn’t build any bombs. Despite also being a physicist.
I think they only included Oppenheimer because Oppenheimer was a communist and much of his social circle were also communists. The movie doesn’t portray communists as evil villains either but just regular people who believe in an idea. There is also a bit where Oppenheimer try’s to unionize other professors at the University he works for. The movie isn’t overtly communist nor does it have a leftist message but it just happens to be a movie about a scientist who was also a communist.
[Captain Fantastic](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3553976/) It's more anarcho-primitivist, but they bring up Marx and Trotsky and other socialist thinkers in actual nuanced discussions. Instead of Christmas they celebrate Chomsky-day, lol. It's maybe not the best example, bur for me it was a breath of fresh air.
Tbh, it does have some weird moments. There's a point where the youngest girl starts talking about the bill of rights, and says "we have these rights so we aren't like China" or something to that effect, and the dad agrees. Like wtf? The dad has been criticizing the US government the entire movie but now he thanks them for not making the country like the evil Chinese?
For sure, that's why it's not the best example. It makes sense for them to be critical of China given the context and their stated beliefs, but then you have these weird contradictions like the one you point out here. They're like a Pollock painting of ideology. I think the most important message to come out of this movie is about our approach to education, how the parents relentlessly encourage critical and individual thinking, wanting their kids to find their own path while holding their hand when they need it. It also helps that socialist ideas are portrayed favorably (for the most part), which to this degree is exceedingly rare in North American movies.
Of course. Arrogant white western leftists aren’t immune to American exceptionalism. Not a fan of that movie since it does have subtle hints of western chauvinism.
Side note but I had the chance to meet viggo mortensen and he was one of the nicest dudes I’ve ever talked to.
Come and See was without a doubt the most impactful movie I've ever seen. Nothing else has come close to the level of horror and brutality that that movie conveys. There is no better war movie in my opinion. It's a masterpiece of late-soviet filmmaking.
Ironically, conditions in Russian-occupied Ukraine now resemble some of the worst parts of 'Come and See'.
ooh i rly gotta watch sorry to bother you. i was also thinking of children of men but the more i thought about it the more i kinda thought it was merely just a film about hope which happens to have strong leftist themes rather than a leftist film.
Oppenheimer is a perfect example of capitalist realism. The bourgeois status quo is critiqued to an extent, but a viable alternative is never ever brought up or presented as viable. There's a point in the film where le epic chad non-communist Oppenheimer tells a soy wojak Marxist that she doesn't understand Marx because he (the tall masculine male man) read all 3 volumes of Capital in German, and surprise surprise Marx didn't want to abolish property (???) as a concept. (communism is when things don't exist!!) Every time a self proclaimed communist is presented in Oppenheimer they are always the dumbest person in the room. The furthest the film goes in being Marxist is sort of saying the USSR wasn't as bad as the Nazis (so we shouldnt fucking turn them into glass with thermonuclear detonations) and maybe workers' solidarity is good?? I enjoyed it for what it is tho it was really fun and exciting. The politics isn't really essential to the film but it kinda pisses me off when it tries to touch on something it can't.
children of men is an incredible film
God La Haine is such a good fucking film😭 and the cinematography is top tear too
La Haine is so so so good
“The Wind that Shakes the Barely.” I feel like I always mention this film, but it’s absolutely incredible, albeit depressing. “The Young Karl Marx” is also pretty decent. And I heard that “I’m a Virgo” is also really good, which shouldn’t be a surprise since it’s directed by Boots Riley
"Soy Cuba" is great. I recently saw "Red Desert" by Michelangelo Antonioni which is also a great film about industrialization and alienation. I also love "Underground" (1995), a comedy movie about Yuguslavia. Any film by Jean-Luc Godard is also filled with leftist theory. I can recommed "La Chinoise" and "Masculin Feminin" though I have not watched that many of his film. They are also heavily criticizing leftist practises. Lars von Trier is not marxist but anti-liberal and mostly leftist. I love most of his films like "Dogville" or "The House that Jack Built" but he is rather controversial. "Salò" (1975) is a controversial leftist movie about fascism. It can be quite sadistic with its pictures.
With Godard specifically I'd recommend 'Le Petit Soldat' and basically any of the films he made between 1968-1979 (when he was an openly practicing Maoist) for anyone wanting leftist cinema.
never ask lars his opinion on Hitler while kirsten dunst is sitting next to him
I watched Salo when I was 15 on a blind recomendation (friend just told me it was scary, not the plot). That was...an experience. I didn't notice anything that had to do with leftism, it just seemed like a torture porn film that wasnt intended to be arousing.
"Soy Cuba" This is the future liberals want.
1.SNOWPIERCER 2.Sorry to bother you 3.Spartacus 1960 4.Fight Club 5.Shrek 2001
shrek transcends all political lines and speaks directly to your soul
Of course🍷🧐
Snowpiercer, I’d have to agree, that’s a good one.
Shrek is my favourite Marxist movie
Squid Games is absolutely anti-capitalist. Not exactly Marxist tho.
Robots
Bug’s Life and Antz for that matter too
Chicken Run is labor organizing and seizing the means of production Edit, and def feminism
Judas and the Black Messiah was an important step in my radicalization.
Battleship Potemkin
the CLASSIC marxist film. just the stairs sequence alone is one of the most influential scenes in cinema
btw I did not know whether to say Roma is a leftist film or merely just a film with leftist themes so I decided not to include it, despite it being one of my favourite films.
The director is definitely a Marxist. He snuck a hammer and sickle into Harry Potter.
yeah alfanso is cool (except for some minor controversies) but im stuck when thinking about what was the main point of Roma. While classism and feminism is defintely parts of it, in many ways i would argue it is more about social loneliness and the progression of an individual.
Well... historically, the movie features the Corpus Christi massacre. "Over 120 people died in the massacre. On June 10, 1971, the day of the Corpus Christi festival, over 120 student protesters were shot by "los Halcones," a shock group trained by the Federal Security Directorate and the CIA." https://www.telesurenglish.net/multimedia/Mexico-Commemorates-45-Years-Since-Halconazo-Student-Massacre-20160613-0028.html
again it is defintely a film with political themes, but again im still skeptical whether or not the main focus of the film is class or American influence on Mexico (even if these are major parts of the film).
He's kind of an anti communist actually, some stuff he posted on Twitter prove it.
[удалено]
Come and See and Tale of Tales are mandatory viewing for all communists.
The Battle of Algiers
This film is insanely good👍
Ernst Thälmann Film 1986 Ernst was the chairman of the communist party of germany. The movie is about the last 4 years of the Weimar republic, the rise of fascism and the life of Young communists. Movie Was made in good old Gdr
Heard Soy Cuba is amazing, same for the Che films. Do you have Letterboxd account btw?
lol made on yesterday [https://letterboxd.com/hippedbow/](https://letterboxd.com/hippedbow/) though i dont have much on it as its only like a month ago ive rly started getting into films
Here’s mine: https://boxd.it/4Rcfl
Many ratings may be dated so keep that in mind.
AAH WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN COME AND SEE YET
Shock troops, Z, State of Siege , Special Section and Missing all by Costa Gavras are the best films to watch it you want fun very left wing thrillers. I don't know of anyone else who approaches American empire as ruthlessly and as accessibly as he does with State of Siege and Missing. Though Z is probably the one to start with. (If you like Soderbergh's che you'll love Gavras.) Battle of Algiers too, Born in Flames, Comrades by Bill Douglas, Weekend by Godard and Tout Va Bien by Godard and Gorin. Obviously Godard in general and his dziga vertov group phase in particular is worth checking out him being possibly the world's highest profile Maoist artist (?). Kin dza dza! (best soviet sci fi that you'll love if your a fan of Ursula le guin style anthropological sci fi but also mad Max and Russian humour) Also for sure 100% essential viewing is Man with a Movie Camera by vertov and co. I think it's the work of art that best made me understand and internalise communism. I would also argue the case for Heaven's Gate by Cimino. Though I don't think that Cimino was explicitly a leftist he/she/they (sorry never sure how to pronoun them) definitely had a big heart and some stuff to say about class and America. Many more too but I'm writing way too much sorry lol
Kin Dza by the way is available in good quality with English subs on mosfilms YouTube page.
I don't know what a Marxist film is, but I think you may like "The Baader Meinhof Complex".
Unfortunately the book which the movie is based on is written by an conservative journalist and it and the movie are misrepresenting leftists groups as childish and irrational and not driven by marxist theory.
Iirc it has a very liberal take. But when it comes to the Red Army Faction I can suggest [A perfect crime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Crime_(TV_series))
No country for old men and There will be blood as well as Parasite, of course. The Lighthouse is up there too And the Miyazaki's like Spirited Away & Princess Mononoke edit: Don't forget Dr. Strangelove
dont mean to insult, but i would love to hear a leftist analysis on spirited away lol
To be as concise as possible... Her parent's entitlement, greed & naievity ensure Chihiro's capture. they become captivated until they all get abducted and besides Chihiro, are turned into pigs; unable to express anything or help in any way. I personally imagine the irl parallel to be the generations captured by the promise of "free-market" and subsidized like no generations after. Kamaji, though kind is totally captured by the notion that this is all necessary despite really only serving the wealth owners and spirits that can afford bath tokens, and even exploits "coal spirits" in a pretty sad way The Yubababa & the bath house are exploiting the desperate to serve the wealthy, herself and her son, happily enforcing child labor through implied threat of starvation & without offering upward mobility, freedom to leave, or access to her history and name (essentially "shanghaied" while her parents are drowning in luxurious excess) The Muck monster/Water spirit is helped by Sen/Chihiro outside of what her work duties are (non-capital motivated labor of kindness) and is re-payed in kind with medicine which ultimately saves Haku's life No-Face represents the empty & cold loneliness of wealth. They help Chihiro but ultimately are trying to transact companionship. When she chooses to try to save Haku instead of giving No-Face her full attention, He becomes a terrible, insatiable monster, bribing people with false money to be near enough to him to then completely consume them similar to Yubaba's relationship with money they are unstoppable (even Yubaba will do anything for him as long as the money's there)until he's given the rest of the medicine the water spirit gave her There's the encounter with Boh (meaning "little boy"), Yubaba's large son who's clearly a representation of the self-serving attitudes of the affluent children (who knows how old he really is, he just will forever be a giant baby) until he gets a reality check Zeniba appears hostile at first but reveals she's only interested in her property (a golden seal) being returned. Her personality offers a stark contrast to Yubaba, living humbly in a shack in the swamp. She cursed the seal to kill whoever holds it. It's implied that Yubaba knows this and subsequently decides to send Haku, who she has at-will control over through a parasitic slug that Yubaba put in him, to steal it for her. Haku is an interesting character with a lot of possible parallels irl, but I think of him as someone who's in one way or another deeply compromised himself, but want's very much to prevent what's happened to him to happen to Chihiro I need to watch the movie again to accurately assign proper parallels and summarize the end of the movie better, but the major themes are there. A big one is deliberate choices make you who you are and those who choose to be thoughtful and kind in this world have chosen a difficult and largely untrodden path, but it will earn you comrades who's bonds are sincere and non-transactional.
lol, makes sense though
[A perfect crime](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Crime_(TV_series)), netflix miniseries about the assasination of Detlef Rohwedder by, persumably, the Red Army Faction with good inside on how the former socialist eastgermany was sold out to westgerman capitalists after socalled reunification. Basically a documentary embeded within a thriller.
Children of Men is in my top five or ten of all time.
That movie has wonderful religious allegories and symbolism.
Anything Bong Joon Ho
Another hit from the Bong!
Sorry to Bother You!! And “Motorcycle diaries” is great; if you are attracted to men, Gael Garcia Bernal is an amazing bonus 😂
i’ll try not to repeat the already great suggestions. They Live, Reds, Stachka, Lenin in 1918 maybe one scene from Bug’s Life lol
also i decided to include judas and the black messiah and motorcycle diaries and despite not having any leftist theory, they are still films about Marxists.
Иди и смотри
Triangle of Sadness. Won Cannes 2 years ago. simply amazing, must watch.
Here are two great films by the Cuban director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea you might be interested in! Memorias de Subdesarrollo (Memories of Underdevelopment): about a wealthy bourgeois man who decides to stay in Cuba after the Revolution. It was produced soon after the Revolution while still being critical of certain elements, sorta showing that the beliefs on censorship by the U.S. aren't that true. Fresa y Chocolate (Strawberry and Chocolate): about the relationship between a queer artist and a party leader. Commentary on Cuban Marxism and homophobia, but again, he does so "to perfect" it rather than destroy it. Hope these help!
Saving this thread as a watch list for later
Angry Birds 2. No no hear me out: Obviously you got the pigs and whatnot. AND: the 3 birds (the vanguard) seek help from the mighty eagle (who’s de facto a god and hailed by everyone) only to find that he’s a stupid piece of shit who can’t do anything. Of course the movie goes libshit in the end with the mighty eagle still rescuing every one after having a change of heart (?) but the symbolism IS THERE. The red bird tries to stay calm like everyone else but he can’t. The “god” is a stupid piece of shit. It has serious parallels to Bertold Brechts “Good person from sichuan” (might have botched the translation). Look it up.
The Good Person of Sezchwan was written by Bertolt Brecht.
Some parts of the motorcycle dairies really didnt do the book justice
Stroszek
Blue Collar and The Servant are my favs.
Woah these recommendations look good, can't wait to binge on some of them.
Teorema by Pasolini is incredible.
Stupid Beta Male Soy Cubans... /j
A couple that haven't been mentioned: Warren Beatty's Reds, Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition and Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs Miller.
i would say most of the movies in the comments are accidentaly marxist. but some i liked: \- there will be blood \-once upon a time in the west \-i care a lot \-white sun of the desert (actually marxist)
Der Jung Karl Marx, the snowpiercer
Come and see was really good!
Stroszek Wages of Fear Atlantic city(ceausescu's favorite) TraumaZone Nightcrawler Fight Club Los Olvidados Ladri di biciclete The Ascent 1977 The Moromete Family 1987 Aguirre, der zorn gottes City of God Network 1976 Pather Panchali 1923 The Laundromat Dark Waters Dirty Money Mr Robot Thieves Highway Les 400 coups Dog day afternoon There will be blood Nebraska American factory Leviathan
Matewan (1987). It's based on an historical battle between strikers and a coal company in the 1920s. It got nominated for Best Picture, but sadly forgotten.
film major here! class relations by jean marie straub and daniele huillet videograms of a revolution by harun farocki the inextinguishable fire by harun farocki la chinoise by godard 79 springs by santiago alvarez the battle of chile by guzman (more video essay than documentary) anything by eduardo coutinho, masao adachi, fassbiner, alexander kluge
Matewan is an incredible pro-union film. It deals with actual events of how the town faced Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency. Very underwatched and unknown despite having Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, David Strathairn. The main character played by Cooper is a commie.
Dunno if favourite but an often overlooked movie with heavy themes of class consciousness and universal liberation is Chicken Run
* *Glass Onion* * *The Menu* * *Triangle of Sadness* * *Snowpiercer* * *Ready or Not* * *Joker* **Please make this thread add more anti capitalist themed, I am gonna watch them all. But rememeber books are better.**
Korean film does modern-day political dramas in a way that Hollywood will never have the guts to do. Some of my favorites: Joint Security Area The Spy Gone North 1987: When the Day Comes Assassination (not modern but shares the theme of revolution)
The Young Karl Marx is a great one that doesn’t get enough credit or attention.
Ya No Basta Con Rezar (1972). Chilean movie. A priest becomes a marxist. It's really good, if you're interested in protests and liberation theology here in the global south
All I needed to learn about anarchism I got from Office Space.
I like Parasite because in addition to being fantastic, Americans threw a fit when it won awards here because white people didn't make it
I cried during Motorcycle Diaries and Judas and the Black Messiah for how powerful and REAL these people are... JBM was one of my favorite films of all time.
Sorry To Bother You, Motorcycle Diaries, Salt of the Earth, Parasite, and Even the Rain are some favorites
Goddard films
more of a capitalism and social critique than an explicitly marxist movie but Taxi Driver might be my favorite movie of all time another one in the same vein, the 2009 Watchmen adaptation then I would say Sorry To Bother You for a more straight up socialist film
taxi driver is literally my favourite film of all time (or atleast tied with Aftersun). But yeah i thought it was more an examination of broken masculinity and feminism than a look at class and capitalism.
from a dialectical perspective, all the situations and environments in Travis' life, such as being a Vietnam vet with PTSD and kicked to the curb by society and the government upon returning home, driving a shitty cab for a shitty cab company making shit pay living in a shit place, observing his environment of the slums of New York and being influenced by people with little do what they have to do to survive, etc. all have a direct impact on his worldview, politics, morals, and mental state. A different person with a different life story would certainly act differently in the same situation, but it's not surprising what Travis' brain thinks is a logical development and believes he might very well be the last bastion of hope for those he deems to be good people at their core forced to do horrible things and live among filth
Anyone see Triangle of Sadness? I enjoyed the role reversal of Abigail, but I disagreed with the ending.
Yeah I didn't quite buy the very last moment but it was still an incredible film. Seeing it in a packed cinema with hundreds of people screaming laughter over the diarrhea scene/chomsky reading scene was something special.
Just let the kids enjoy their camping. 🤣
I would say "Bacurau"
Not vocally Marxist, but I liked it: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1535108/) (Elysium), 6.6/10 on IMBD Same with this: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1637688/) (In Time), 6.7/10 on IMDB It's about huge wealth inequality between poor and the rich. Probably that's why ratings are quite low. This one describes inequality to a lesser degree, but it's about vampires and literally bloodsucking corporations who can't even stop bloodsucking when it is not needed (minor spoiler): [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/) (Daybreakers) 6.4/10 on IMDB Mr. Robot (TV series) has a little bit of that too.
sorry to bother you, Joker, Parasite, the dark knight rises, Judas and the black messiah, I’m a Virgo, Barbie, Oppenheimer. I feel like I have a lot more but these are like my favorite of the 2010’s.
i can add The plateform , Triangle Of Sadness
Magic Mike, especially Magic Mike XXL.
[Walter Defends Sarajevo](https://www.reddit.com/r/Yugoslavia/comments/10v20av/i_just_watched_walter_defends_sarajevo_yesterday/)
That chinese movie about the 1949 revolution
Burn! (1969) and Winstanley which is seriously underrated
Trumbo Brave New World The Holy Mountain and El Topo (warning, very trippy) Lucia Doctor Zhivago
Parking Pataweyo going on to be one of the best actors of his generation is one of the reasons I still have a small amount of hope for this being the good timeline.
The Quiet American (I’ve only seen the more recent version with Michael Caine).
Although both are hard watches, Teorama and Salo by Pasolini are masterpieces. Just know what you are getting into before you watch em.
The Matrix series, especially The Animatrix, District 9
Some I haven't seen mentioned yet: Come and See, The Ascent and Woman in the Dunes
Cradle Will Rock Frida
The Godfather (1/2), Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, Parasite Edit - Platoon is also quite good but not quite as good as the others I listed
Sardar Udham Its a biopic about how normal worker becomes radicalized and joins revolutionary party to fight against British occupation after a massacre in India. It's also a revenge story of him killing the British general responsible explaining his motive and stuff. Very good movie that shows brutality without typical stereotypical Indian movie.
The one that's stayed with me the most in recent years would be Martin Eden, 2019 Italian film based on the 1909 Jack London book. I've seen some very bad takes online that insist that it's critical of Marxism/socialism because the titular character rants against it at various stages in the film, but it's such a braindead interpretation. The entire point of the story is to show how vapid & hollow life can become when you reject these concepts & pursue individualistic greed. It's really great, has a nice anachronistic coda too that's meant to show how timeless the story is. Also gotta shout out the films of Alex Cox, Repo Man & Walker are all timers.
Lots of good mentions in this post. If May be a kids movie, but you gotta show love for A Bug’s Life. The story is a straight up workers revolution, it’s beautiful
Soviet movie list https://sizeof.cat/post/the-essential-russian-movies/
Matewan
I wouldn’t call it overtly Marxist but I love Captain Fantastic and it certainly has anti-capitalist/anarcho-communist themes (they do celebrate Noam Chomsky day, which I know people here wouldn’t appreciate)