This was a waste of 75 minutes of my life. The acting was atrocious and the plot was ridiculous. It revolves around an evil lesbian who gets rich married men to have sex with her, and then blackmails them for money. One of the victims is a candidate for DA, which is causing problems in his relationship with his wife. Another is a plastic surgeon, also married, and the evil lesbian happens to seduce this guys wife too! Meanwhile, the evil lesbian's girlfriend doesn't really like her sleeping around. It ends in a happy ending where all is forgiven. The women get naked a lot too, mostly in situations that stretch reality. bad bad bad.
Reviews
18 Reviews
Spider-Man
(2002)
Falls short in analysis, but gives important political message
22 October 2002
Overall, the latest Spiderman movie falls short for entertainment value; it is far from action packed, with a plot and dialog that are best described as trite. But the saving grace of the movie is the political message at the end (which this review will be giving away).
Spiderman is the story of an ordinary boy, Peter Parker, who was bit by a spider on a high school class trip. In narrating the beginning of the movie, he says that his life story revolves around a beautiful woman. That is an unfortunate characterization of the life of someone who ends up devoting himself to fighting evil. But in the end the best political message is wrapped up in this romantic subplot.
Of course, the spectacular evil Spiderman fights is the super-villain kind, but most of his time is spent fighting the ordinary evil of people hurting other people. Essentially, on an individual scale, Spiderman is fighting for a better world. But he is targeting crime on a small scale: individual robberies and violence. Spiderman lacks any kind of systematic analysis of the causes of evil that he is fighting, and as one man running around New York City putting out fires (sometimes literally), he can't really expect to make any progress towards ending all the violence that he is trying to prevent. His time would be better spent fighting the causes of crime (for instance poverty) and fighting the biggest murderers and thieves in the world: the imperialists.
MIM appreciates the message that ordinary people can become heroes because of their circumstances (though we're not waiting for our heroes to develop superpowers). Rather than looking to individuals we take a more scientific analysis of the world and argue that it is the people who make history. Extraordinary leaders come from ordinary people who rise to the occasion of their material conditions.
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.
Peter Parker said, "With great power comes great responsibility." This is what MIM refers to as the "leadership principle." The great power Parker refers to is his spider-power; the power we refer to is state power (or proto-state power when referring to leadership positions in our party). Leaders in the bourgeois government and economy are not held responsible for the 14 million children every year who die of malnutrition worldwide they are not even held accountable for the few score middle-class Amerikans who died because of the shoddy workmanship on their SUVs and tires. Bourgeois leaders need not be particularly intelligent, courageous or devoted to the common good -- they simply need daddy's money and a few friends in the right places. On the contrary, MIM would restrict leadership positions in the dictatorship of the proletariat to the most dedicated, with a proven track record of struggle and results. Furthermore, these leaders would understand that if they made a mistake that cost other people their lives, they could be held accountable with their own life.
Spiderman is the story of an ordinary boy, Peter Parker, who was bit by a spider on a high school class trip. In narrating the beginning of the movie, he says that his life story revolves around a beautiful woman. That is an unfortunate characterization of the life of someone who ends up devoting himself to fighting evil. But in the end the best political message is wrapped up in this romantic subplot.
Of course, the spectacular evil Spiderman fights is the super-villain kind, but most of his time is spent fighting the ordinary evil of people hurting other people. Essentially, on an individual scale, Spiderman is fighting for a better world. But he is targeting crime on a small scale: individual robberies and violence. Spiderman lacks any kind of systematic analysis of the causes of evil that he is fighting, and as one man running around New York City putting out fires (sometimes literally), he can't really expect to make any progress towards ending all the violence that he is trying to prevent. His time would be better spent fighting the causes of crime (for instance poverty) and fighting the biggest murderers and thieves in the world: the imperialists.
MIM appreciates the message that ordinary people can become heroes because of their circumstances (though we're not waiting for our heroes to develop superpowers). Rather than looking to individuals we take a more scientific analysis of the world and argue that it is the people who make history. Extraordinary leaders come from ordinary people who rise to the occasion of their material conditions.
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.
Peter Parker said, "With great power comes great responsibility." This is what MIM refers to as the "leadership principle." The great power Parker refers to is his spider-power; the power we refer to is state power (or proto-state power when referring to leadership positions in our party). Leaders in the bourgeois government and economy are not held responsible for the 14 million children every year who die of malnutrition worldwide they are not even held accountable for the few score middle-class Amerikans who died because of the shoddy workmanship on their SUVs and tires. Bourgeois leaders need not be particularly intelligent, courageous or devoted to the common good -- they simply need daddy's money and a few friends in the right places. On the contrary, MIM would restrict leadership positions in the dictatorship of the proletariat to the most dedicated, with a proven track record of struggle and results. Furthermore, these leaders would understand that if they made a mistake that cost other people their lives, they could be held accountable with their own life.
Saving Private Ryan
(1998)
Maoist Movie Review
9 December 2001
In today's context, where the Amerikan military has launched a succession of wars of aggression and is gearing up for more, this objectively contributes to reactionary militarism even though it is billed as anti-war. Focus on individuals obscures the fact of war as the highest form of class struggle -- and the fact that Amerika was on the right side in this one.
The Birdcage
(1996)
Maoist Movie Review
9 December 2001
As criticism of the religious right, a fun parody of hypocrisy among the Amerikan family values fascists. Not revolutionary, preaching greater tolerance for different lifestyles and begging the religious right to accept queens into their families so that everyone can live happily ever after. Still, it's progressive for mainstream Amerika to see queens portrayed as real people, but the struggle to gain acceptance in imperialist society is reactionary. Queens in Amerika are oppressed as outsiders to the dominant hetero-patriarchal culture. But they can also be rich and even raise children, while the majority of queers on the planet face survival issues before sexual liberation. Progressive queers in Amerika must ally themselves with the international proletariat fighting to overthrow the patriarchy, not attempt to win acceptance from the oppressors.
Rumble in the Bronx
(1995)
Chan's Hollywood sellout
18 April 2001
Hong Kong actor and director Jackie Chan edited "Rumble in the Bronx" for an Amerikan audience, and it shows. "Rumble" caters to Hollywood's vapid and reactionary standards. Some of his earlier films--like Drunken Master II--were marked by political themes of revolutionary anti-imperialist nationalism. Sometimes accurate renditions of historical struggles, these films were also significant for the strong non-romantic roles played by women. But this is pure Amerikan tripe: gratuitous sex, violence, racial stereotyping and a politically meaningless plot. Jackie Chan is an excellent martial artist and a great entertainer. Too bad he has now sold his skills to the disgusting bourgeois Hollywood movie industry.
Patriot Games
(1992)
CIA family man against terrorists - typical jingoist plot
18 April 2001
My least favorite movie of 1992's summer. A former CIA agent kills a member of a (supposedly Maoist) splinter group of the Irish Republican Army. In this ficticious portrayal the IRA and its supposed splinter group are both clearly off the deep end. The killing spurs an irrational revenge plot of the group, and a chance to glorify the perfect family-man CIA agent played by Harrison Ford. In the post-Cold War, one of the leading spy movies about personal vendettas and family, as if imperialism didn't need murderous agents of the old school anymore.
The Truman Show
(1998)
Truman Show attacks media but upholds imperialism
17 April 2001
The Truman Show, starring Jim Carey, satirically documents the life of Truman Burbank, a man raised from boyhood by his corporate adoptive parent in a fictitious Hollywood, continuously-televised world where actors work to convince him of the legitimacy of his life and surroundings. The film correctly exposes the artificial nature of the media, and the decadence and delusion of the Amerikan populace. But it incorrectly portrays people blindly led by the media and ignores the possibility of an objective reality. The film incorrectly boils the world down to a simple dichotomy of the creator and the created, ignoring the ways people can be bought-off by those in power and thereby dictate, or remain complacent to, the actions of the oppressor.
The Truman Show has been running 24 hours a day, for Truman's entire life (30 years), and has no separate commercials. Instead, product advertisements are included as part of Truman's interactions with people. Truman senses the artificiality of his human interactions (why do the people walking down his street come around and around again if he doesn't move?) and begins to rebel against his life by attempting to escape and committing violent attacks. In order to prevent such incidents, the "creator" of the TV show writes experiences into the script that would prevent Truman's escape, like making Truman fear oceans by staging his father's death at sea and then having actors continuously blame him for the father's death. This method of psychological warfare is accurate as far as how imperialists have worked to suppress the oppressed desire for revolt. The oppressor takes away the land and resources of the oppressed and justifies it with religious or biodeterminist examples of racial superiority. In both cases, material interests are the principal motivation for oppression. However much Truman's life is artificial and alienating, it is not at all materially comparable to the lives of the international proletariat. His meaningless life is nevertheless free of violence and provides all the necessities and commodities of a bourgeois existence -- when his "wife" flips out and quits the show, the producers even provide a new love interest to improve ratings. Yet, loosely interpreted, the film tries to make Truman's life a parable on the emptiness of Amerikan life as subject to media hype, and ultimately the constructions of the capitalist class. While Amerikan in the movie do little more then stare at the Truman Show, they also rejoice when he finally escapes the set.
Every time Truman questions his white picket fenced, paper-pushing Amerikan lifestyle, an actor comes along to tell him to stop chasing stars and accept his lot in life. Most Amerikans have unproductive and meaningless jobs, too, but the film fails to question why few viewers questioned the psychological torture that Truman experienced. Instead, like real Amerika, the characters used their sympathy for the oppressed (Truman) to feel better about the meaningless, but materially rewarding lives and jobs they have.
In the same way, very few Amerikans have or do question the information that the media feeds them. When the media says "terrorist" or "military target," it doesn't matter to most in the Amerikan populace if either one is fighting for national freedom against imperialism or the other is composed of unarmed civilians. The fact is that imperialist actions and media have served the material interests of bought-off Amerika. For there to be successful propaganda, there needs to be a populace willing to accept the message. MIM doesn't buy into the idea that people are stupid pawns of the "big guys." People have the ability to make everyday decisions regarding the oppression of themselves and others. Available to all is the choice to work to overthrow imperialism, but that choice is a lot less attractive to decadent Amerika. In the end, Truman chooses the uncertainty of the violent and deceptive "real world" over a continued existence within the equally deceptive but safe life on the Truman Show. The decision is presented as the ultimate answer to alienation. Individual choice to subjectively define reality is framed as the greatest subversion to the controlled interactions in Amerikan society. Although individual ability to experience life without the fear of repression is a good ideal for the future, this model for ending oppression is not in the interests of the international proletariat. Instead it pretends that each individual can escape from group power relations that exist innately within an unequal world. MIM says that Amerikans wishing to end oppression for good have to commit class, nation and gender suicide in order to unite with the international proletariat against oppression. Escaping within the myth of supreme individuality only ignores the fact that people benefit and are oppressed as groups.
The Truman Show brings the role of the media to light, but insists on upholding imperialist ideals, especially the one that says most people are basically stupid and weak -- though they like individual heroes who stand up for themselves without challenging the system. But the film, like most of Hollywood, is not attacking, or even mentioning, the destructive forces of U$ imperialism. The only lip-service given to progressive organizing is when the "Free Truman Movement" is said to be rallying against Truman's oppression (and that's a single-issue movement around liberating one person...).
Fighting imperialist media is about creating an independent media aimed at fighting the principle oppressive force in the world, U$ imperialism. Individual stories can be inspirational, but if we made the movie, it would have also featured a real revolutionary movement against the imperialist power structure and its media, not just the noble story of one man who decides not to play along anymore.
The Truman Show has been running 24 hours a day, for Truman's entire life (30 years), and has no separate commercials. Instead, product advertisements are included as part of Truman's interactions with people. Truman senses the artificiality of his human interactions (why do the people walking down his street come around and around again if he doesn't move?) and begins to rebel against his life by attempting to escape and committing violent attacks. In order to prevent such incidents, the "creator" of the TV show writes experiences into the script that would prevent Truman's escape, like making Truman fear oceans by staging his father's death at sea and then having actors continuously blame him for the father's death. This method of psychological warfare is accurate as far as how imperialists have worked to suppress the oppressed desire for revolt. The oppressor takes away the land and resources of the oppressed and justifies it with religious or biodeterminist examples of racial superiority. In both cases, material interests are the principal motivation for oppression. However much Truman's life is artificial and alienating, it is not at all materially comparable to the lives of the international proletariat. His meaningless life is nevertheless free of violence and provides all the necessities and commodities of a bourgeois existence -- when his "wife" flips out and quits the show, the producers even provide a new love interest to improve ratings. Yet, loosely interpreted, the film tries to make Truman's life a parable on the emptiness of Amerikan life as subject to media hype, and ultimately the constructions of the capitalist class. While Amerikan in the movie do little more then stare at the Truman Show, they also rejoice when he finally escapes the set.
Every time Truman questions his white picket fenced, paper-pushing Amerikan lifestyle, an actor comes along to tell him to stop chasing stars and accept his lot in life. Most Amerikans have unproductive and meaningless jobs, too, but the film fails to question why few viewers questioned the psychological torture that Truman experienced. Instead, like real Amerika, the characters used their sympathy for the oppressed (Truman) to feel better about the meaningless, but materially rewarding lives and jobs they have.
In the same way, very few Amerikans have or do question the information that the media feeds them. When the media says "terrorist" or "military target," it doesn't matter to most in the Amerikan populace if either one is fighting for national freedom against imperialism or the other is composed of unarmed civilians. The fact is that imperialist actions and media have served the material interests of bought-off Amerika. For there to be successful propaganda, there needs to be a populace willing to accept the message. MIM doesn't buy into the idea that people are stupid pawns of the "big guys." People have the ability to make everyday decisions regarding the oppression of themselves and others. Available to all is the choice to work to overthrow imperialism, but that choice is a lot less attractive to decadent Amerika. In the end, Truman chooses the uncertainty of the violent and deceptive "real world" over a continued existence within the equally deceptive but safe life on the Truman Show. The decision is presented as the ultimate answer to alienation. Individual choice to subjectively define reality is framed as the greatest subversion to the controlled interactions in Amerikan society. Although individual ability to experience life without the fear of repression is a good ideal for the future, this model for ending oppression is not in the interests of the international proletariat. Instead it pretends that each individual can escape from group power relations that exist innately within an unequal world. MIM says that Amerikans wishing to end oppression for good have to commit class, nation and gender suicide in order to unite with the international proletariat against oppression. Escaping within the myth of supreme individuality only ignores the fact that people benefit and are oppressed as groups.
The Truman Show brings the role of the media to light, but insists on upholding imperialist ideals, especially the one that says most people are basically stupid and weak -- though they like individual heroes who stand up for themselves without challenging the system. But the film, like most of Hollywood, is not attacking, or even mentioning, the destructive forces of U$ imperialism. The only lip-service given to progressive organizing is when the "Free Truman Movement" is said to be rallying against Truman's oppression (and that's a single-issue movement around liberating one person...).
Fighting imperialist media is about creating an independent media aimed at fighting the principle oppressive force in the world, U$ imperialism. Individual stories can be inspirational, but if we made the movie, it would have also featured a real revolutionary movement against the imperialist power structure and its media, not just the noble story of one man who decides not to play along anymore.
Maoist Movie Review
25 March 2001
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.
The Matrix
(1999)
Matrix helps demonstrate materialism and dialectics
9 March 2001
A Hollywood film of tremendous value -- a great gift to the
revolutionary movement on par with that of Reds politically and done artistically as well as can be with
special effects. Humyn-beings both dead and alive are tended by machines in gigantic mechanical farms where they
are used as batteries for the various kinds of heat and
electricity that they produce. Not only does the script-
writer uphold materialism as the existence of an external
world independent of the subject (humyn mind), but also the
script-writer shows us how science will conquer and make
everything knowable including dreams. There are a few drawbacks to this film, but on the whole, MIM could not
have asked for more in a two and a half hour Hollywood
movie. We can use the movie to educate people about dialectics, modes of production, Lenin's book "Materialism
and Empirio-Criticism" and the drawbacks of anarchism and
individualism.
revolutionary movement on par with that of Reds politically and done artistically as well as can be with
special effects. Humyn-beings both dead and alive are tended by machines in gigantic mechanical farms where they
are used as batteries for the various kinds of heat and
electricity that they produce. Not only does the script-
writer uphold materialism as the existence of an external
world independent of the subject (humyn mind), but also the
script-writer shows us how science will conquer and make
everything knowable including dreams. There are a few drawbacks to this film, but on the whole, MIM could not
have asked for more in a two and a half hour Hollywood
movie. We can use the movie to educate people about dialectics, modes of production, Lenin's book "Materialism
and Empirio-Criticism" and the drawbacks of anarchism and
individualism.
Independence Day
(1996)
false inter-class unity against false aliens
9 March 2001
What should the international proletariat do when space aliens attacking earth with the intent of killing all humans? ID4, doesn't say, but once the principal contradiction shifts from imperialism-vs.-oppressed nations to Humanity-vs.-Space Aliens, a lot of old enemies work together against the new enemy. Of course, Hollywood makes the Amerikans the smart ones who have to lead the fight. After the aliens are defeated, the oppressed may have a revolutionary opportunity amid all the destruction. Still, MIM asks, "who wrote this?" For now, aliens are cultural creations, and therefore class creations. If this was a movie written with proletarian politics, advanced aliens would more likely be communists, not evil imperialists. Or in a different as yet unwritten revolutionary alien movie, the proletariat unites with the space aliens behind the bourgeoisie's back. Then, at the crucial moment, the bourgeoisie realize they have been outflanked by the combined forces of the space aliens and the proletariat. Then, the aliens and what's left of humanity peacefully coexist.
Dead Man Walking
(1995)
Maoist Movie Review
9 March 2001
Much-praised for its liberal "balance," the movie is based on the book that tells the true story of a Louisiana nun who befriends a man on death row. The movie portrays the death penalty as arbitrary and unfair. Still, it does not come out against the death penalty, and the book is a stronger testament than the movie to Sister Helen Prejean's anti-death penalty activism. The movie supports the reactionary "victim's rights" movement and preaches taking "responsibility" for criminal acts. Maoists believe people need to take responsibility for their actions and struggle with self-criticism, but we know this is not accomplished through the imperialist death-penalty machine, even with the help of progressive nuns.
On Deadly Ground
(1994)
Maoist Internationalist Movement movie review
9 March 2001
Segal is a mercenary for an oil company paid to set fire to evidence of the company's negligence in maintaining its rigs. He turns against the company and decides to destroys its newest facility so that they will have to evacuate the First Nation land. A step forward since Segal doesn't just play a cop, but actually serves a progressive political purpose. Also shows Segal fighting reactionary white chauvinist labor aristocrat workers who benefit from the colonization of First Nations. A good movie for the relationship between capitalism and indigenous exploitation, and the importance of self-defense and martial arts, despite bad gender politics and focoist implications
Sneakers
(1992)
Maoist Movie Review
9 March 2001
Now that the Cold War is over, Amerika's surveillance capacities supposedly serve only to invade Amerikans' "privacy rights." One of this movie's catch-phrases is that there are "too many secrets." With Big Chill-like activist backgrounds, the hacker heros demonstrate the individualism of both the hacker world and the settler-left. The SNEAKERS collective shows that technology can be defeated by people if they are properly organized. After using their collective skills to steal a microchip for what they presume to be the NSA, they test the chip and find that "It's the codebreaker. No more secrets." The hacker's dream. They take money from the Republican Party and give it to liberal organizations. Whatever.
Wild at Heart
(1990)
Incorrect analysis of sexual power
9 March 2001
Director David Lynch's mix of violence and eroticism look critical but on closer examination they eroticize violence, to turn the audience on -- with a touch of titillating horror at itself -- at the sight of wimmin's sexuality being molded and dominated by violence. Wimmin are socialized to enjoy their subordination. What better an example of the twisted capitalist patriarchal construction of gender than a woman who, despite struggling against it, orgasms as she is raped? No matter how real, the bottom line is to glorify sexual power.
Children of the Revolution
(1996)
Bizarre revisionism
26 February 2001
Australian film creates the bizarre story of an Australian labor leader who sleeps with Stalin just before he dies and then raises his son. The movie relies on biological determinism and individual personality traits to create bourgeois criticisms of Stalin as an evil tyrant and leader of a personality cult.
The Paper
(1994)
Misses the mark
26 February 2001
Movie about a New York city tabloid misses the true story entirely. A story newspaper about two young Black men framed for the murder of some rich white guys. The hero is a news editor who doesn't want to run the bogus story because it will cause race riots. He makes great personal sacrifices for this, and in the end the story they get is just as much of a scoop anyway, so everyone is happy. The reality is the mainstream media who really want to be honest aren't made into heroes: they're broke.
The Crying Game
(1992)
Distorted view of IRA
26 February 2001
The real "secret" of this film portraying the struggles of the Irish Republican Army, is its reactionary picture of gender and national conflict -- despite pithy metaphors on the meaning of life and human "nature." By this theory, there are two kinds of people, oppressors and complicit dupes of oppressors, and both the IRA and the British army are hierarchies that have both kinds. The movie makes betraying the IRA the only humane decision for the hero. It is simply not in Fergus's "nature" to kill and be a revolutionary, so he bags his commitment to the IRA for love and sex. Dedicated IRA comrades are depicted as unthinking terrorist robots.
Batman Returns
(1992)
Batman just another cop!
26 February 2001
Batman, for all his shrouded mystery, is just a cop whose role is to protect the entrenched power structure--which not incidentally includes protecting Bruce Wayne's fortune from so-called "criminals" who might want to redistribute the wealth. When Catwoman Michelle Pfeiffer finds a woman being raped in a dark alley, she dispenses with the rapist, then looks contemptuously at the woman and says: "What were you waiting for? Batman to come along and rescue you?" Women need not appeal to cops and other men in power to rescue them from domestic violence and rape; they should seize power for themselves. And contrary to the Batman Returns message, power doesn't mean dressing up in a cat costume. It means joining a revolutionary party to overthrow the imperialist patriarchy.
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