Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings
Tax the Rich
Tax the Rich
Movie Monday
As I look at the Occupy protests in the US, I really don't see much hope for the rise of economic progressive policies without an economic regime change. And that ain't goin' happen without a lot of violence. Just how do you rid the US of its oppressive capitalist system? A system which has been falsely but cleverly tied to our political system so that so, so many Americans believe that a blow to capitalism is a blow to representative government.
Occupy protests are not like the Vietnam War protests (which were also met with police brutality and government indifference) in that the VW protests were largely eliminated when the draft was ended; which basically removed the affluent college-aged student out of the killing equation which war always is. The poor became the military recruiting pool and the rich went on for advanced degrees - no blow to capitalism there.
Today however the Occupy protests are gnawing at the clay feet of capitalism. They dare to raise voices against banks and the financial markets. While capitalism will throw some of their sacred babies to the wolves in order to keep their status quo, I think they see the Occupy threat as a possible fatal body blow to their brand of capitalism, which it may be, and, to their dying breath, they won't let this happen.
Movies may show us that the little guy does win in the end (Meet John Doe); reality shows us differently.
Which is a long way to bring me to my movie pick: Even the Water and again, it's a foreign (Spanish) film. A film crew goes to Bolivia to make a realistic movie of Columbus' enslavement of the native population he found in the new world and they get caught in violent anti-government, anti-US protests when Bolivia sells water rights to American corporations and the corporations decree that the natives can no longer collect rain water. (This is based on a true event.) It's obvious that the film crew wants nothing to do with the protests but when their lead native actor becomes the lead native activist in the protests, they find they must protect him in order to protect their project.
We, the audience, get the Columbus inhumanity/corporation inhumanity comparison early on but it wasn't the message of the rich and powerful are bastards down through the centuries which hooked me. It was the fact that the "hero" who emerged from the film crew was your least likely candidate. Even the Water allows one character to verbalize progressive, humanitarian ideas but when the going gets tough (and it does get tough); he bails and the least likely person takes on the hero mantle.
Which, for me, makes this a realistic morality tale. It's not the crescendo music, Hollywood ending of the average-man hero walking forward into a bright future, arm around the woman he loves. It's a tale which tells me people can make changes if they are willing to endure perhaps savage hardships. It tells me that the least unlikely people will do the right thing sometimes. It gives me a faint hope, a very faint hope, that America can change.
But don't see this movie because I got some message of hope from it. See it because it's well-acted, realistic and adult. It's definitely worth a viewing.
As I look at the Occupy protests in the US, I really don't see much hope for the rise of economic progressive policies without an economic regime change. And that ain't goin' happen without a lot of violence. Just how do you rid the US of its oppressive capitalist system? A system which has been falsely but cleverly tied to our political system so that so, so many Americans believe that a blow to capitalism is a blow to representative government.
Occupy protests are not like the Vietnam War protests (which were also met with police brutality and government indifference) in that the VW protests were largely eliminated when the draft was ended; which basically removed the affluent college-aged student out of the killing equation which war always is. The poor became the military recruiting pool and the rich went on for advanced degrees - no blow to capitalism there.
Today however the Occupy protests are gnawing at the clay feet of capitalism. They dare to raise voices against banks and the financial markets. While capitalism will throw some of their sacred babies to the wolves in order to keep their status quo, I think they see the Occupy threat as a possible fatal body blow to their brand of capitalism, which it may be, and, to their dying breath, they won't let this happen.
Movies may show us that the little guy does win in the end (Meet John Doe); reality shows us differently.
Which is a long way to bring me to my movie pick: Even the Water and again, it's a foreign (Spanish) film. A film crew goes to Bolivia to make a realistic movie of Columbus' enslavement of the native population he found in the new world and they get caught in violent anti-government, anti-US protests when Bolivia sells water rights to American corporations and the corporations decree that the natives can no longer collect rain water. (This is based on a true event.) It's obvious that the film crew wants nothing to do with the protests but when their lead native actor becomes the lead native activist in the protests, they find they must protect him in order to protect their project.
We, the audience, get the Columbus inhumanity/corporation inhumanity comparison early on but it wasn't the message of the rich and powerful are bastards down through the centuries which hooked me. It was the fact that the "hero" who emerged from the film crew was your least likely candidate. Even the Water allows one character to verbalize progressive, humanitarian ideas but when the going gets tough (and it does get tough); he bails and the least likely person takes on the hero mantle.
Which, for me, makes this a realistic morality tale. It's not the crescendo music, Hollywood ending of the average-man hero walking forward into a bright future, arm around the woman he loves. It's a tale which tells me people can make changes if they are willing to endure perhaps savage hardships. It tells me that the least unlikely people will do the right thing sometimes. It gives me a faint hope, a very faint hope, that America can change.
But don't see this movie because I got some message of hope from it. See it because it's well-acted, realistic and adult. It's definitely worth a viewing.
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