Top of my list is "Zulu," directed by Cy Endfield, blacklisted.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058777/
You have to be careful what copy you watch. There's one version where they cut out everything but the action scenes. A criminal botch.
Joanna
----- Original Message ----- Once upon a time Hollywood films were written by reds like the Hollywood 10. After the blacklist that was less true, but a lot of them kept on under pseudonyms. They gave us, among other things, film noir, a bleak view of the American Century refracted through German Expressionism. But since they were mostly CPUSA reds, they wouldn't have been inclined to portray their favorite revolution accurately, inspirationally or at all, even if they had been give a chance to. During WWII they gave us a certain amount of Stalinist drivel like Mission to Moscow, which the studios allowed when we were briefly allied with the USSR against Hitler. Now Reds is just a bad movie, way too long, never got all the way through it. But has a good soundtrack by Sondheim and one great love song, Goodbye for Now, although I don't think they play the lyrics in the film.
Sent from my iPad
On Aug 31, 2012, at 1:48 PM, c b <cb31450 at gmail.com> wrote:
> 123hop
>
> I agree that "Reds" was Hollywood crap. I mean, they couldn't even do
> "Grapes of Wrath" -- so, how "Reds"?
>
> ^^^^
> CB: I'm thinking Hollywood would be better at portraying a Harvard
> graduate from a well off family in Oregon, and early twentieth century
> Greenwich village intellectuals , and their adventures in Mexico rev.,
> union struggles and the Russian rev. based on Reeds "Ten Days" than
> working class farm workers . Reed was tailor made for Hollywood.
>
> The Red Army chorus singing revolutionary songs is kind of stirring
> for internationalists ( weep, weep)
>
> ^^^^^^^
>
> But Reed's "Ten Days that Shook the World" is a great (and short) read.
>
> ^^^^
> CB: The Lenin Locomotive.
>
> ^^^^^
>
> For films about the revolution, see Eisenstein's stuff.
>
> Also, the two great WWII movies (of many great Russian WWII movies),
> see "The Cranes Are Flying" and "Ballad of a Soldier." They capture
> some of the spirit and faith of the revo.
>
> Magnificent film making.
>
> Joanna
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