Maoists At The Movies!

Gender bureaucrat enemy of the people "Fairy Godmother" lives a life of dogmatism following the scripts in "Cinderella," "Snow White" and such books that she keeps in her library. Living off the exploited workers, and selling hocus-pocus to the people like many other unproductive sector flim-flam artists we can think of today, Fairy Godmother spreads her poisonous visions of the future everywhere and lords over even the king himself.

Seeking to appropriate the sexuality of the king's daughter for her son, Fairy Godmother does her best to spread speciesist propaganda against ogres, one of which already married the king's daughter, thus making her unavailable to the Fairy Godmother's son. The evil speciesist propaganda finds fertile grounds in the king's mind and most of the people of the kingdom.

Highly class conscious characters including Pinocchio watching television immediately see through the pigdom's entertainment media, get off the couch and rush to help their compatriots locked up while filmed for a cop show. Once out of prison, our heroes rely on a toiling baker to launch on all-out assault on the bastion of reaction, the castle taken over by Fairy Godmother's plotting.

Using the past to serve the present as Mao instructed artists, the directors of "Shrek 2" rattle off cultural references like machine-gun fire. Making Godzilla sounds and tearing down Starbucks on the way to the castle, our heroes arrive in time to do battle with the Fairy Godmother. Borrowing a move from another movie, the king dives to absorb the attack from the Fairy Godmother and he ends up turning into a frog. By running the king-to-frog cultural reference in reverse and making a Godzilla type character a hero, the directors of "Shrek 2" show just how upside down and backwards our culture is.

Voices of Hollywood actors considered sexy go into "Shrek 2"---Antonio Bandera for example--but the rich and beautiful people do not appear in the film, which is an animation. The film explores the subjective notion of "cuteness" and ends up throwing the whole notion to the wind, much to the chagrin of the gender aristocracy and gender bureacracy everywhere. Even the cute, fluffy white dog died when Shrek dove into the concert pit, punk-style.

We only hope that there is a "Shrek 3," in which the newly-weds rampage through the rest of the society and culture. Otherwise the message will be that society has to be attacked just for the love of two people. Misguided people may watch this movie instead of doing something about the carnage in Iraq and when it comes their turn, they may lash out in violence "in the name of love." That's why there needs to be a "Shrek 3" in which the united workers of all species liberate themselves. We'd also point out to viewers that our heroes never killed anyone just for "love." Good riddance to the Fairy Godmother: she had it coming for a lot of reasons.

The film stands as proof that Stalin was preparing his
people for German attack--contrary to the lies of
Trotskyists and Liberal historians trying to
distort history and take away from Stalin's
achievements. We recommend this film to the
public.

What we said in our review of the earlier
installments of "Lord of the Rings" mostly applies
to the last installment as well, so we will just
add a few notes. "Lord of the Rings III" won 11
Oscars in February 2004 thus equalling the
previous record for one movie, but from our point
of view, it was an epic effort on behalf of a
fairly ugly idea.

Perhaps 500 years ago, when ideas of monarchy
dominated, it would be progressive to show a king
ruining his kingdom with a bearded wizard showing
up to set things straight. Too bad a wizard can't
just show up and set things straight in the White
House. Encouraging such notions only promotes
political passivity and that's our main beef with
the "Lord of the Rings" hocus-pocus.

Yet, "LR3" even waters down the message on how
kings have to be critically evaluated, by picking
on someone who is merely a caretaker standing in
for the real king's line. Perhaps in some ancient
time it would be a necessary compromise to engage
the audience unable to see why they should
evaluate the jobs their kings are doing. Today the
message that a real man has to show up and set off
a war against the legions of evil is mostly
reactionary--especially in imperialist countries
like the united $tates.

We can also contrast this with Sergei Eisenstein's
movies about kingdoms hundreds of years ago. With
the Germans shortly to invade the USSR in 1941,
Eisenstein created a film titled "Alex
ander Nevsky" about a time hundreds of years
earlier when the Russian people defeated Germanic
invaders. Hurray for Eisenstein and the Soviet
film companies.

In contrast, the effect of "LRIII" is militarist
and criminal. As in the earlier installments, we
have one elaborate excuse for scenes of gore. Most
of the military opponents are dead bodies brought
back to life, and so we learn that there is no
reason not to make a war. The opponents are deemed
unworthy of life to begin with. These are
dangerous ideas to be floating around in a country
already rampaging around the globe from
Afghanistan and Iraq to Haiti.

The issue of trust among the various species of
Middle Earth interests us, but "LR3" raises the
question in a rather simple way. Again and again
the question arises why each species should stand
with the other species to fight against evil when
there was lacking a prior history of common
struggle. "LRIII" comes out against such
speciesism (read nationalism) again and again and
shows it to be a lack of courage in the face of
evil. "LRIII" reduces the question of cross-
cultural cooperation to a question of the
gallantry of the men fighting. The lack of
development on this point is one reason that the
good does not outweigh the bad in "LR3."

Finally, the one thing we liked about "LR3" is
that it showed mere mortals boldly storming the
gates of hell. The mortals win thanks to a fight
within the squad of three sent on a special
mission to drop a ring in hell's fire. Had not one
greedy, schizoid power-seeking mortal jumped on
the hero of the story to steal the ring of power,
the mortals of Middle Earth would have failed in
defeating evil. So in essence, the mortals won in
spite of themselves--through a lucky break. So
much for the notion that it is futile to struggle
because of anarchist-nihilist notions that "power
corrupts." The message is to struggle in the face
of apparent doom. "Power corrupts," but there are
other things going on as well.

On this point of struggle in the face of apparent
doom, we find the "LR3" useful. Sometimes the
choice is between the impossible (communist
revolution and organizing people to be more
harmonious and peaceful) and certain death
(letting things slide as they are). With tens of
thousands of Orcs about to invade Middle Earth, to
say this or that military or political mission has
little chance of success becomes meaningless,
stupid and immoral. We have to choose the missions
with the greatest chance of success even if those
greatest chances are not that great.

In Mao's military writing he warns his comrades
again and again not to launch the guerrilla battle
without a 90% chance of winning. It would be
better to run than lose. He said so because he saw
again and again that it is possible to set up
battles against Japanese invaders and their
lackeys such that the enemy is outnumbered and
outgunned 10 to 1--despite the fact that the
Japanese and comprador armies far outnumbered the
communists at the beginning and had more money and
better technology. However, it would be important
to point out that if there were no battles
possible which would guarantee 90% success rate,
then Mao's statement would not apply. His battle
tactics coincided with a certain overall strategic
situation in which he believed he had time and
numbers on his side in the long run. He had
witnessed concretely the possibilities he wrote
about and so his battle tactics were not at all a
question of speculation or estimation or analysis
which people would disagree over. Had Mao been
placed in the Middle Earth military situation, he
would have adapted his military tactics. Like the
wise bearded wizard Gandalf, Mao would not have
sent a small band of men (including the caretaker
king's son) to face certain death at the hands of
more numerous and better defended enemies down by
the river.

Mao turned out to be right about China's overall
strategic situation and so his battle tactics were
able to produce the desired end. Today the problem
is that we have a lot of people who look away when
they think about nuclear war, environmental
destruction and black markets and legal markets in
weapons of mass destruction. In the backs of their
minds, many people know that imperialism is
producing doom, but they escape the horror of
politics and war, by among other things going to
movies like "LR3" or listening to heavy metal like
"Led Zeppelin" or just drinking a lot of whisky.

Today, the planet faces certain death in the hands
of imperialism and the forces of evil have the
upper hand momentarily. It's time for the heroes
of the proletariat to step forward.

xpost

Ironically, it was the romantic plot that provided the most important
political message in the movie. When the woman Peter Parker was in love
with finally declared her love for him, he decided he could not be more
than friends with her. In order to devote his life to fighting evil in the
world he walked away from romance. This is the asexuality that MIM praises
as a superior romantic practice. It reflects a devotion to the people and
an understanding of responsibility to the people that supercedes romantic
cultural influence.

So would it make this review a spoiler if we just say up front that this
movie is awful and readers should plunk their change elsewhere? If you
don't care about history and you just want a compelling story, this is not
the film for you. If you don't care about history or a compelling story
but enjoy watching increasingly brutal rape scenes with a beautiful
landscape as backdrop, you just might enjoy Xiu Xiu. You may also be
enticed to learn that the film has been marketed as a "love story."

Set during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR), Xiu Xiu is
the fictional story (based on a novel) of a young student from Chengdu who
is sent to the countryside. Chen's directorial debut opens with text
describing the purpose of sending educated youth to the countryside. The
description is correct: it cites contradictions between rural and urban
Chinese, and the fact that the success of this exchange in resolving the
contradictions would be evidence of the successes of socialism.
Unfortunately the rest of the film ignores politics in favor of the
individual drama of Xiu Xiu's life away from her home and family.

"Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl" is a parade of young students obsessed with
romance in Chengdu, lecherous party officials in the countryside, simple
long-suffering country folk, and Xiu Xiu herself -- the perfectly passive
womyn. Some young students during the GPCR may have been obsessed with
romance, but this does not make it a relevant commentary on their work in
the GPCR. Some party officials may have used their positions to get sex, a
work about the Cultural Revolution should present at minimum the fact that
this movement was launched to oppose the use of party membership to gain
privilege.

Peasants formed the backbone of the Chinese revolution and Mao taught that
their work in agriculture was the basis of the Chinese economy; without
agriculture no Chinese would eat. Similarly, Mao and his party recognized
that "women hold up half of heaven," and made bringing wimmin into
political leadership positions and the professions a priority. Chen's
disingenuous ignorance of the two basic facets of the revolution is in
a way her film's only redeeming feature. Xiu Xiu's urbanity is almost
farcical. We never see her work in her time in the countryside. We never
see her prepare a meal; although, we do see her pestering her peasant
companion Lao Jin to prepare meals for her. We see her sulk until Lao Jin
rides ten li to bring her fresh water to bathe in, and then watch her piss
and moan when there is no water to drink in their tent.

MIM has written that "Mao opposed Western-style education because of its
use in creating and justifying the existence of self-interested classes
that don't necessarily serve the public." Such education helped to form
the contradictions between city and countryside, and between mental and
manual labor. While Xiu Xiu exemplifies these countradictions, the film
reduces them to a matter of interpersonal tension.

Note: For accurate information on the Cultural Revolution, order a copy of
What is the Maoist Internationalist Movement? available from MIM for $2.
We also distribue these books and others on the GPCR: E.L. Wheelwright &
Bruce McFarlane's The Chinese Road to Socialism: Economics of the Cultural
Revolution; History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Jean Daubier;
and Turning Point in China by William Hinton.

Communists do not support pig repression, much less the pig-wanna- be, labor-aristocrat vigilantes who think themselves heroes when they are gunning down the Third World proletariat at the Mexico-united $tates border, or the self-styled "community" pigs who "police" Asian, Black and Latino youth street organizations. If the bourgeoisie want to sic their thugs on each other, MIM would not get in the middle of this fight, but it does not support pig repression in the abstract when Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) has his knee-jerk reaction every time he hears a police siren. If Spider-Man had any (spider-) "sense" at all, he would fight the police repression under which gold miners work in Azania and China to produce the gold coins stored in the vault of the bank that is robbed in the movie.

As is, the ridiculous fantasy scenario depicted in "Spider-Man 2" will not be a consideration when the dictatorship of the proletariat has to take a sober look at nuclear energy's possible net contribution to people's lifespans and standard of living, when nuclear scientists are accountable to the proletariat, and not to capitalists or to a revisionist new bourgeoisie.

"At the beginning of the movie, we see the ragged Riddick being chased by mercenaries. He likens himself to a hunted animal, and he also lives like one. Although Riddick, thinking himself special shit, remarks that he is just "passing through" the prison, his lumpen status is also obvious when he unites with the leader of the Crematoria prisoners. When the leader of the prisoners distinguishes between "inmates" and "convicts," we should hear "lumpen proletariat" and "petty bourgeoisie," and understand that Riddick is among the lumpen group despite his false, subjectivist opinion of himself. "

The main message is a pseudo-environmentalist, preserve
nature theme. One of the main characters is an ineffective Earth
First! activist. The environmentalist message is confusing because the
island of dinosaurs was created by humans. With little justification
given for the importance of preserving the dinosaur island, the
environmentalism is mystical. Human-made resources may be worth
preserving because of their value for life, but this is not the case
with human-made dinosaurs causing death and destruction of humans.

This fast-paced mix of French costume drama, Western, horror and Hong Kong
martial arts flick met many of the expectations we had for ITAL Crouching Tiger
Hidden Dragon. END We had hoped the latter would emphasize the progressive
aspects of martial arts films: Sympathy with the oppressed, self-sacrifice in
the struggle to right wrongs, a recognition of the need for armed struggle, etc.
While 'Crouching Tiger' was technically impressive and its fight scenes great
fun, the motivation for the fights was individualistic and metaphorical. The
violence in 'Brotherhood' on the other hand is not rooted in ideas about honor,
rather the hard-nosed reality that reactionary classes seek to cling to power by
even the most horrific means. And although it's not quite at ITAL Crouching
Tiger's END technical level, ITAL Brotherhood END has a nice look and some
decent fight scenes.

ITAL Brotherhood END also scores points for giving wimmin fighting roles -- and
not apologizing for those wimmin who fight on the wrong side. One of the
protagonists pays a heavy price for hesitating to strike a womyn -- perhaps out
of feudal/pseudo-feminist chivalry, desire, or a mistaken assessment of her
allegiance. Several plot twists like this illustrate the importance of the
principle 'know your enemy.'

And for viewers who think that the clerico-fascist scheme in ITAL Brotherhood
END is pure fantasy, we suggest you check out the real life events behind the
movie ITAL Z END or the ITAL tad tad END (literally, 'chop chop') sect in the
Philippines. As we said in our review of ITAL Tales from the HOOD, END "What
could make for better horror than the real-life monsters created by imperialism,
capitalism and patriarchy?"

Thereby revolutionizing the proletariat's consciousness!

I loved that movie (although it was a little long). It wasn't a werewolf movie! It was French Revolution set martial arts epic with a shambling Henson created wolf-thing-y! And no one has made a better one IMO!

"Aguirre: The Wrath of God"
1972
95 minutes

This is a German film about Spanish explorers and conquerors in Latin America--
Peru and the rivers of the Amazon Basin. It comes with some German mythology
relevant to Hitler's fall, but mostly it could serve as an example of the perils
of any white colonialism of the last 500 years.

When one considers the high percentage of explorers who died in travel on their
sea-ships and when one considers how difficult it was to live in America after
living in Europe, it does seem that initial settlers and explorers do have to be
regarded as insane or close to it. Much credit has gone to Klaus Kinski for
playing the part of a ruthless explorer.

The explorers pursue gold and control of land, but they fall out amongst
themselves, kill each other and suffer more deaths at the hands of cannibals and
other indigenous peoples. At the time, it was an effective indigenous tactic to
give the whites what they wanted--a path to gold--because once the whites set
out to find the gold they became blinded. They fought amongst themselves and
attempted to handle nature in an overly hasty manner. To kill a few dozen
explorers through a combination of their greed and ignorance was thus easy.

Today the advances of the humyn species have spread far and wide. There is no
need for cannibalism or settlers. It is even more difficult to sympathize with
settlers today than those of the past who killed so many indigenous people.

The average white persyn should watch this film in fascination. The fascination
will arise because the oppressor nation population of the imperialist countries
will still feel considerable sympathy for these Spanish Conquistadors. Here is
what Roger Ebert had to say: "What Herzog sees in the story, I think, is what he
finds in many of his films: Men haunted by a vision of great achievement, who
commit the sin of pride by daring to reach for it, and are crushed by an
implacable universe."

For the average white of the imperialist era, it will be a combination of things
pointing to failure, and will thus be interesting to the white persyn of the
imperialist era from within his or her own twisted ideology. To the
environmentalist or indigenous sovereignty activist, the end met by the
expedition was richly deserved from the beginning.

Even one of the oppressed First Nation people in the film who says he was once a
prince before the Spaniards arrived says that he feels pity for the Spanish and
the bitter end about to befall them. The voice of pity goes to the white wimmin
who seem dragged along for the ride. We can say the same of the slaves who also
met their deaths.

Today, it is difficult for the proletarian to watch this without thinking: "when
will these evil conquerors and explorers meet their just ends?" It is clear that
the white men of the expedition have no good motivations; yet somehow the humyn
species has progressed since the days of the Conquistadors. Despite the
intentions of cannibals and gold-crazed explorers, the humyn species has chalked
up some achievements since the time of the Conquistadors.

The sort of hard-driving characters we see in "Blades of Glory" give the world a sense of how it is that the bourgeoisie can have a peculiar interest in northern Korea.

That...that was the ice skating film with Will Ferrell and the guy from Napoleon Dynamite, right?