Land and Freedom (1995)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Ken Loach

Writer:

Jim Allen (screenplay)

Release Date:

22 March 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Spring 1936, a young unemployed communist, David, leaves his hometown Liverpool to join the fight against fascism in Spain...

Plot Keywords:

Spanish Civil War | Anarchy | Anti Clericalism | Civil War | Political

Awards:

8 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Ian Hart	...	David Carr
Rosana Pastor	...	Blanca
Icíar Bollaín	...	Maite (as Iciar Bollain)
Tom Gilroy	...	Lawrence
Marc Martínez	...	Juan Vidal (as Marc Martinez)
Frédéric Pierrot	...	Bernard Goujon (as Frederic Pierrot)
Andrés Aladren	...	Militia member (as Andres Aladren)
Sergi Calleja	...	Militia member
Raffaele Cantatore	...	Militia member
Pascal Demolon	...	Militia member
Paul Laverty	...	Militia member
Josep Magem	...	Militia member
Eoin McCarthy	...	Connor
Jürgen Müller	...	Militia member
Víctor Roca	...	Militia member (as Roca)

Also Known As:

Terra e libertà (Italy)
Tierra y libertad (Spain)

Runtime:

109 min | Spain:104 min

Country:

UK | Spain | Germany | Italy

Language:

English | Spanish | Catalan

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | South Korea:15 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK

Company:

BIM

Quotes:

David: Revolutions are contagious.

Movie Connections:

Edited from Caudillo (1977)

Soundtrack:

A Las Barricades

Anarchist View of Anarchism in Spain

Anarchists have remained almost invisible in mass media films. Worse, when they have appeared, it is generally some bourgeois stereotype of anarchists as violent or some socialist stereotype of anarchists as infantile. Here they are shown more accurately as organized and committed to the nitty-gritty basics of the revolution of everyday life.

British director Ken Loach made a film that finally attempts an anarchist's view of anarchists in Spain during the civil war against the fascists. The victors write history, so as losers of that war, their history has for too long remained untold. But this 1995 film, "Land & Freedom" shows what they were fighting for and what they were fighting against. One of the best aspects here is that the film also shows how the communists aggressively destroyed the anarchists more than their supposed common enemy. This I take as a lesson for today's left:

The melancholy hopelessness of our own 21st century is a consequence of that tragic defeat by the fascists -- largely because the Left fragmented and was brutally dominated by Leninist dictators. Historical progress is now merely spinning its wheels in futility, recycling every old thing again as a farce. The only solution is land and freedom.

P.S. Another sympathetic film based on these events is "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943) based on the Hemingway novel, starring Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman. This one is less politically aware however, so it focuses more on the romance. See info at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0035896/combined