I saw this movie when I was a young lad and I thought it was the greatest thing ever. Many scenes were so impactful that they stayed with me all throughout my life.
Well, I rewatched it and it can't be denied that this is an impactful movie from an artistic point of view. There are splendid scenes depicting violence, misery, and a sort of aggressive sexuality.
But it's a supremely simple movie, from a philosophical standpoint. The workers are hungry, they have an uprising, and violent and sexual things happen. It's like a very artistic exploitation movie.
Who is to blame for this? It's all very vague and not in a skillful or subtle way. It just felt like the director or writer didn't care. On the one hand, the workers work hard for little pay and come to suffer from hunger, but on the other hand many factories close because they are unprofitable and the poor have like a million chyldren. Can you really blame the rich here for this one?
Well, from the events of the movie, it's not clear the rich are to blame. So it's a balanced and realistic portrayal of both sides, right? Not exactly. The rich are quite rude and arrogant, so they still come off looking as villains.
Is the main character a communist rabble rouser? Well, at the beginning he's just a shy guy looking for work. By the end he somehow transforms into a revolutionary for no real reason.
Finally, the romance is hilarious. Near the end it's shoehorned in that there was a romance even though no such thing was built up throughout the movie except perhaps by the most subtle of mutual glances. I guess if you have two attractive young people in close proximity in a movie you have to assume they have to bang at some point?
The plot is compelling, it has many good gritty scenes of working poverty, and the music is excellent, but ultimately it's a simplistic movie that amounts to just stylized mob violence and rough sexuality.
Honourable Mentions: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1914). A novel in English apparently written by a working class person that explains and dramatises the hopeless situation of the working class in very capitalist early industrialised England. I've yet to see a movie that portrays these matters skillfully.
Well, I rewatched it and it can't be denied that this is an impactful movie from an artistic point of view. There are splendid scenes depicting violence, misery, and a sort of aggressive sexuality.
But it's a supremely simple movie, from a philosophical standpoint. The workers are hungry, they have an uprising, and violent and sexual things happen. It's like a very artistic exploitation movie.
Who is to blame for this? It's all very vague and not in a skillful or subtle way. It just felt like the director or writer didn't care. On the one hand, the workers work hard for little pay and come to suffer from hunger, but on the other hand many factories close because they are unprofitable and the poor have like a million chyldren. Can you really blame the rich here for this one?
Well, from the events of the movie, it's not clear the rich are to blame. So it's a balanced and realistic portrayal of both sides, right? Not exactly. The rich are quite rude and arrogant, so they still come off looking as villains.
Is the main character a communist rabble rouser? Well, at the beginning he's just a shy guy looking for work. By the end he somehow transforms into a revolutionary for no real reason.
Finally, the romance is hilarious. Near the end it's shoehorned in that there was a romance even though no such thing was built up throughout the movie except perhaps by the most subtle of mutual glances. I guess if you have two attractive young people in close proximity in a movie you have to assume they have to bang at some point?
The plot is compelling, it has many good gritty scenes of working poverty, and the music is excellent, but ultimately it's a simplistic movie that amounts to just stylized mob violence and rough sexuality.
Honourable Mentions: The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (1914). A novel in English apparently written by a working class person that explains and dramatises the hopeless situation of the working class in very capitalist early industrialised England. I've yet to see a movie that portrays these matters skillfully.