Scene from Battle of Algiers
How is POP Struggle depicted in film?
- Movies have provided a wonderful venue for POP Struggle over time. The places, people and actions within these products are legendary at this point. Indeed, looking at some of the films below you will see that they are some of the most popular movies in history. As with all products, I do not claim that state-dissident interactions are the whole story or even sometimes a major part of them. Rather, I claim that contentious politics is part of the story.
Star Wars as an example
Princess Leia (revolutionary) tries to find Obi Wan (former Jedi and now persecuted community) to help in fighting the overly-repressive Empire but he is busy watching Luke Skywalker (son of Darth Vader - former member of now persecuted community turned rebel turned government enforcer) who has to recruit Han Solo and Chewbacca (con-beings and hustlers turned rebels) as well as a bunch of others. This is just for a few of the films of the series.
Talk about a story. First there is legitimate democracy, then it gets subverted, then there is a coup and large-scale massacre of the Jedi (politicide), then there is an establishment of an autocracy, an Empire, a sustained insurgency (Princess Leia's group), they have a little success (blowing up the death star), the Empire "Strikes Back", Luke gets some training on how to harness "the Force" from the one and only Jedi-trainier Yoda, the rebels hook up with some furry creates and then kick some Empire butt. Classic repression and dissent told over 9 films, dozens of comics, cartoons, video games and with more to come. Obviously my retelling is chronological to the series not in the order that we saw them.
The Star Wars example (relying upon the films) is especially important from the POP Struggle perspective because it is a perfect example of not only the back and forth between governments and challengers but also the complexity when challengers become the government and when the government or (in the case of the Jedi) government agents become challengers. The back and forth is quite something:
I would like to say that you could not make this stuff up but George Lucas did an amazing job doing just that.
Talk about a story. First there is legitimate democracy, then it gets subverted, then there is a coup and large-scale massacre of the Jedi (politicide), then there is an establishment of an autocracy, an Empire, a sustained insurgency (Princess Leia's group), they have a little success (blowing up the death star), the Empire "Strikes Back", Luke gets some training on how to harness "the Force" from the one and only Jedi-trainier Yoda, the rebels hook up with some furry creates and then kick some Empire butt. Classic repression and dissent told over 9 films, dozens of comics, cartoons, video games and with more to come. Obviously my retelling is chronological to the series not in the order that we saw them.
The Star Wars example (relying upon the films) is especially important from the POP Struggle perspective because it is a perfect example of not only the back and forth between governments and challengers but also the complexity when challengers become the government and when the government or (in the case of the Jedi) government agents become challengers. The back and forth is quite something:
- Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope (Box office $797,900,000) - Rebel's Backlash (Lightside of the Force as Luke, Leia and Obi Wan are Rebels)
- Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back ($534,171,960) - Government Strikes Back (Darkside of the Force runs the government)
- Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi ($572,700,000) - Rebel's Backlash (Lightside of the Force)
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace ($1,007,044,677) - Government Strikes Back (Lightside of the Force)
- Star Wars, Episode II: Attack of the Clones ($656,695,615) - Government Strikes Back (Lightside of the Force)
- Star Wars, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith ($848,998,877) - Rebel's Backlash (Darkside of the Force)
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars ($68,161,554) - ?
I would like to say that you could not make this stuff up but George Lucas did an amazing job doing just that.
Partial list of relevant films:
- 1984
- American History X
- Amistad
- Antz
- Apocalypto
- Arlington Road
- Bananas
- Ben Hur
- Betrayed
- Billy Jack
- Born Losers
- The Trial of Billy Jack
- Billy Jack goes to Washington
- Billy Jack’s Moral Revolution [in production]
- Blade
- 1
- 2
- 3
- Blade Runner
- Blood Diamond
- Braveheart
- Brazil
- Bread and Roses
- Bullworth
- Christ films
- Jésus devant Pilate (Alice Guy, 1898)
- From the Manger to the Cross (Kalem Company, 1912)
- The King of Kings (Cecil B. Demille, 1927)
- King of Kings (Nicholas Ray, 1961)
- Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964)
- The Greatest Story Ever Told (George Stevens, 1965)
- Son of Man (Gareth Davies, 1969)
- Jesus Christ Superstar (Norman Jewison, 1973)
- Godspell (David Greene, 1973)
- Jesus of Nazareth (Franco Zeffirelli, 1977)
- Monty Python's Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)
- Jesus (John Krish & Peter Sykes, 1979)
- The Day Christ Died (James Cellan Jones, 1980)
- The Last Temptation of Christ (Martin Scorsese, 1988)
- Jesus of Montreal (Denys Arcand, 1989)
- Matthew (Visual Bible, Regardt van den Bergh, 1996)
- The Book of Life (Hal Hartley, 1998)
- Jesus (Roger Young, 1999)
- The Miracle Maker (Derek W. Hayes & Stanislav Sokolov, 2000)
- The Gospel of John (Philip Saville, 2003)
- The Passion of the Christ (Mel Gibson, 2004)
- Son of Man (Mark Dornford-May, 2006)
- Color of the Cross (Jean-Claude La Marre, 2006)
- The Nativity Story (Catherine Hardwicke, 2006)
- The Conversation
- Cry Freedom
- Dances with Wolves
- The Dancer Upstairs
- The Dictator
- District 9
- Do the Right Thing?
- Drop Squad
- Elizabeth
- Enemy of the State
- Everything is Illuminated
- Fearless
- Fight Club
- Fist of Legend
- Four Days in September
- The Front
- Gataga
- Good Night and Good Luck
- The Great Dictator
- Happy Feet
- Hero
- Holocaust Films
- Europa, Europa
- Schindler’s List
- Life if Beautiful
- Swing Kids
- Uprising
- Hoot
- Hotel Rwanda
- The Hunger Games
- In the Name of the Father
- Kautokeino-opprøret in Norwegian or, The Kautokeino Rebellion in English
- The Last of the Mohicans
- The Last King of Scotland
- The Lives of Others
- Logan’s Run
- Lumumba
- Mad Max
- Original
- The Road Warrior
- Beyond the Thunderdome
- Malcolm X
- Matrix
- Original
- Reloaded
- Revolutions
- Men with Guns
- Michael Collins
- A Mighty Heart
- The Milagro Beanfield War
- Missing
- Mississippi Burning
- Munich
- Mutiny on the Bounty
- The Official Story
- Osama
- The Passion
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- 1
- 2
- 3
- The Planet of the Apes
- Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
- Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
- Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
- Rabbit-Proof Fence
- Riddick
- Original
- The Chronicles of Riddick
- The Road to Guantanamo
- Rob Roy
- Romero
- Rosewood
- Running on Empty
- Salvador
- Sankofa
- The Siege
- Star Wars
- The Phantom Menace (1999)
- Attack of the Clones (2002)
- Revenge of the Sith (2005)
- A New Hope (1977)
- The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
- Return of the Jedi (1983)
- Steal This Movie
- Tai Chi Master
- The Tin Drum
- The Three Musketeers
- The Trotsky
- Thunderheart
- The Wind and the Lion
- The Wind that Shakes the Barley
- X-Men
- Original
- X-Men 2: X-Men United
- The War Within
- West Beirut
- The Year of Living Dangerously
Links:
- 7 movies that changed political attitudes and beliefs (citing my work with Darren Davis)
- The best political films ever
- Political films on wikipedia
- Political Film Society Award for Human Rights
- Political Film Society Award for Peace
