#18

More rad movies available on DVD - part two

(See also issues 56, 58, and 59, and 64 for more rad DVDs)

by Dr. John Ruhland

The movies on this list are well suited to watching as a group to stimulate political discussions. You can find them at independent video stores. Many are also available at public libraries.

*highly recommended ** must see

**A VERY BRITISH COUP. When a progressive candidate wins the election for prime minister, the establishment struggles to regain control.

DECEMBER. Depicts little-known topic of WWII conscientious objectors.

ELECTION 2000. Don't forget the US coup of 2000!

*GRAND ILLUSION. Jean Renoir, 1937. An anti-war masterpiece.

HEARTS AND MINDS. Peter Davis, 1974. One of the best documentaries on the Vietnam War.

*HIDDEN AGENDA. Ken Loach, 1990. Story of British "security" forces' murder of American human rights lawyer investigating human rights abuses in Ireland. (note: there are two other movies available on DVD with the same name).

**HIDDEN WARS OF DESERT STORM. Audrey Brohy & Gerard Ungerman, 2000. A documentary.

*HIROSHIMA, MON AMOUR. 1959. Man and woman, scarred by war, begin to heal when they fall in love.

*THE HOUSE ON CARROLL STREET. Peter Yates, 1988. Strong young woman discovers anti-communist is smuggling Nazis into US.

**I AM CUBA (CUBA VA!). Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964. In four stories, we see people in situations that create revolutionaries.

IMAGE OF AN ASSASSINATION. Revisits JFK assassination.

INCIDENT AT OGLALA. Michael Apted. A Robert Redford Documentary on Leonard Peltier's frame-up.

*THE INHERITORS. Abusive landowner leaves his land to the people who worked it all their lives.

**ISHI, THE LAST YAHI. WGBH 1992. Extremely powerful Native American documentary which is noteworthy in that it is not condescending and does not treat Native Americans as extinct.

*IT ALL STARTS TODAY. Bertrand Tavernier, 1999. Inspiring film of a teacher who overcomes bureaucratic inertia through his love for children.

*IT HAPPENED HERE. Fictional story of what life was like in England under Nazi German occupation.

**IT'S RAINING ON SANTIAGO. Helvio Soto, 1974. Gripping history of the CIA masterminded coup in Chile led by fascist General Auguste Pinochet, in which Salvador Allende's popular socialist government was brutally overthrown.

IVAN THE TERRIBLE. A classic Eisenstein film.

**LIFE AND DEBT. Stephanie Black, 2001. Documentary of the effect of the International Monetary Fund on the economy of Jamaica.

*LUMUMBA. Raoul Peck, 2001. Re-creates primarily the murder of this revolutionary African leader, killed under CIA guidance.

MAN OF MARBLE (CZLOWIEK Z MARMURU). Andrej Wajda, 1976. The struggle of Polish workers against Stalinism.

MANUFACTURING CONSENT. Chomsky. Examines propaganda and why Americans think as we do.

*MATEWAN. John Sayles, 1987. Stars James Earl Jones. Battle of Bear Creek, early miners' strike.

**MEDIUM COOL. Haskell Wexler, 1969. Filming caught the radical protest at the 1968 Democratic Convention, as well as the spirit of 1960's activism.

*MEN WITH GUNS. John Sayles, 1998. A wealthy MD explores poverty and oppression of countries having US supported regimes.

MUMIA: A CASE FOR REASONABLE DOUBT. John Edginton, 1996. The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, a US political prisoner on death row.

**MUSIC BOX. Costa-Gavras, 1989. Lawyer defends her Hungarian Nazi father against accusations of war crimes.

*THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS. 1982. Flight of peasants at end of WWII.

NOAM CHOMSKY: DISTORTED REALITY.

THE OPIUM WAR. Xie Jin, 1997. British Imperialism in China.

**PRISONER OF THE MOUNTAINS. (Russian). Chechen villagers capture two Russian soldiers and hold them for prisoner exchange.

QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER. Simon Wincer, 1990. American takes a job in Australia, unaware that he is being hired to kill off Aborigines from a wealthy cattle baron's land.

*SERPICO. Sidney Lumet, 1973. True story of corruption of NYC police, although probably accurately representative of any large city's police force.

TITO AND ME. A boy grows up in Stalinist Yugoslavia.

*TRAFFIK. Alastair Reid, 1989. British miniseries that follows the intersecting lives of a gov't minister, his addicted daughter, police, opium farmer, and traffickers.

*TRAINING DAY. Antoine Fuqua, 2001. An update of SERPICO, with a few additional insights into some patterns of police corruption.

THE UGLY AMERICAN. George Englund, 1963. Marlon Brando stars in this film depicting American foreign politics.

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