Film

Excerpts from a discussion among Solidarity readers about the using the phrase "The Witch Is Dead" about Thatcher's death. I'll admit to laughing when I first saw "The Witch is Dead". But then I spoke to a comrade pointed out all the language being used to describe her was sexist, and she felt there would not be as much hatred if Thatcher had been male. While I disagreed with the latter I did feel completely ignorant to the use of language, especially when I chaired our trades council and a number of people were laughing and using the terms "witch" and "bitch". While that was going I saw some...

Four years ago, the stars of the successful BBC comedy series Gavin and Stacey made the mistake of starring in an abysmal comedy known as Lesbian Vampire Killers. The movie was quickly forgotten, but I was reminded of it recently when I saw the latest — and last — film by acclaimed American director Steven Soderbergh, Side Effects. Soderbergh’s film could easily have been given a similar title, even though it was not in any sense a comedy. But the theme of homicidal lesbians is central to the plot, and the film absolutely reeks of homophobia. Not everyone will have seen it that way, of course...

I’m interested by Eric Lee’s idea that Quentin Tarantino’s takes on Nazism and American slavery (Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained) promote the idea of self-emancipation, unlike Steven Spielberg’s (Schindler’s List and Lincoln). But I don’t agree that “the reality is that it wasn’t Black slaves who brought down slavery” but “a mostly (though not entirely) white army led by a white man”. Of course I am not denying the role of the US army in the US Civil War. Nonetheless, American slaves played a central role, perhaps the central role, in their own emancipation. Just before the Civil War...

Tim Thomas previews Ken Loach’s new documentary, The Spirit of ’45. Ken Loach’s documentary, to be released in March, is probably not going to be seen at your local cinema. You are more likely to be offered Sylvester Stallone in Bullet to the Head (two stars and totally worthless). Spirit of ’45 should be shown in every cinema in the land but it won’t be; you can maybe catch it on Film Four. You might guess the reason why! The production team (Sixteen Films) are letting groups book it for public film showings. Getting this film shown depends on you. It is a film about the General Election of...

“The emancipation of the working class must be the act of the workers themselves” – that's a phrase which will be familiar to most Marxists and originates in the Rules of the International Workingmen's Association which Marx drafted. A century later, Max Shachtman wrote that “When speaking of socialism and socialist revolution we seek 'no condescending saviours' as our great battle hymn, the International, so ably says. We do not believe that well-wishing reforms – and there are well-wishing reformers – will solve the problems of society, let alone bring socialism. … We believe that task...

The idea of “male gaze” flows from a psychoanalytical/philosophical theory brought into wider use by Jacques Lacan, but it is a huge subject and difficult to summarise. According to this theory, and to put it at its most crude, the “gaze” is the relationship between the subject’s desire to look and the knowledge that one can also be viewed. The idea is that in our desire to look, we realise we can be looked upon. Then we lose some of our ability to govern our own behaviour; this process is tied into the idea of ego. We change our behaviour in accordance with who we wish to be. Gaze theory...

What does it mean to be a feminist heroine in the 21st century? What does it mean to be a feminist? What does it mean to be a woman? These were the rather big questions that were going around my brain as I sat watching “Breaking Dawn: Part Two”, the last instalment of the Twilight Saga. According to some, “Twilight” is a story of female empowerment. In this last film, the heroine Bella Swan becomes a vampire, can fight to the death, and is stronger and faster than many of the men that surround her. Is this what it takes to be a feminist heroine? Who knows. There are certainly elements of the...

Quentin Tarantino’s last film, Inglorious Basterds, walked a precarious line. Set in World War Two Europe, it dealt with very serious matters — the genocide of the Jews — but in Tarantino’s inimitable way: at least as much about movies as about history, very violent, very funny. It could have been a distasteful monstrosity. But to my mind it was a brilliant tour de force, with a delirious and unexpected climax that in fact was very thought-provoking. Django Unchained sets out to pull off the same trick but this time about slavery in America. Does it succeed? Django (Jamie Foxx) is a black...

Sixto Rodriguez is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter from Detroit. His life story is incredible. A construction worker who drifted around the city’s working-class districts writing about poverty, alienation, drug abuse, and class struggle, he was discovered by Detroit-based music producers in the late 60s who hailed his songwriting talent as comparable to that of Bob Dylan’s. When his two albums, released in 1970 and 1971, flopped in America, he went back to construction work and relative anonymity, going on to gain a degree in philosophy and stand as a candidate in local government...

Some of us have been waiting patiently for four years, but now the newest Batman franchise has come to an end. Despite the other major blockbusters of 2012 (The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man), The Dark Knight Rises still drew major crowds and induced great excitement and expectation. Tom Hardy’s Bane from this latest instalment was actually more terrifying than Heath Ledger’s chilling Joker, purely through his eerie semi-calm and less overtly crazy and wild behaviour. He was a harder villain to outsmart because he had so many safeguards and tricks and structure to his plans. It was an...