Politics and film - Homecoming and V for Vendetta

I don't know if it has always been the case and I've only just become aware of it, or if there are just more political films than before out there. We've had Munich, which was superb and probably Speilberg's best work yet; there was Goodnight and Good Luck which is also a very important film; there is Syriana which I really want to see at some point.

And then there are political genre films. Romero has always been the master of this with his Dead films: Night could be about the horrors of Vietnam and the death of the 60's and the birth of civil rights; Dawn which is about mindless consumerism; Day (which is my personal favourite) which talks about knowledge versus power and is very nihilistic and pessimistic about human nature; and finally Land which is about class struggle. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm a huge fan of his work.

In the last couple of days I've seen two new and rather special political genre films that don't treat their audiences as stupid and I feel have important things to say about the world we live in and what our responsibilities as citizens should be.

When discussing the Masters of Horror series, John Landis apparently said "Given this opportunity to make a one hour film with no censorship and complete control of the material I made something silly and fun. Joe Dante went and made something important"

Joe Dante made the wonderful Gremlins films both of which showed off his subversive and silly sense of humour. He uses this talent to devastating effect in Homecoming, his entry into the Masters of Horror series. Set in the US under a republican government (who's president is never named) involved in a war in Iraq and suffering large loss of life in the unpopular conflict. The main protagonists are a presidential spin doctor and a conservative author who bears a striking resemblance to one of the most hateful people on the planet, Ann Coulter. Why that woman is even listened to by people makes my blood boil but that's probably for another time. In the episode, the administration is heading towards an election when the bodies of the soldiers killed in the war start to come back to life. It soon becomes apparent that they are coming back because they have something to say and they want to say it in the best way we have to say our piece in a democracy, by voting. Of course they are not voting for the person who sent them to die under false pretenses.

This is not a subtle piece but it is a cry of frustration from the heart and manages to be superbly entertaining at the same time. Issues of war, respect for those that die in war, using death for political gain, religion, they all get touched on. The humour is pitch black but on the nose. One of my favourite scenes is just after the dead first start coming back, a religious leader in on television saying how it is god blessing America and her brave soldiers. When it becomes apparent that they are voting democrat, he is seen again on the same show saying that it Satan punishing America.

This is highly recommended and got given a special mention by the Jury at the festival for it's important message.

The second film I saw over the weekend that I was really impressed with was V for Vendetta. Now, I love the comic but had been hopeful that the film would be OK and would not ruin the story too much. Well they didn't. It's not a perfect film but it's still very entertaining and important. The best line is easily "People should not be afraid of their governments, government should be afraid of the people". People much better qualified than me have written about the film, here is one of the best reviews. For a US studio to release a film that says what this one does, that shows how a 'terrorist' is born and how the definition of that word depends on how you look at things. To say that sometimes a violent action must take place, that a symbolic building must be destroyed. And for that film to be number one in the US on it's first weekend.... I don't know how it's doing on it's second week as people realise that it is not an action film but a lesson in civic responsibility.



I think I may want to talk about this subject some more at some point, but I need to think it over and see what I can come up with.