Monday, October 28, 2019
David in TN’s Notes on the Communist Propaganda Film, Force of Evil (1948)
[Previously: “TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight and 10 a.m. ET is Abraham Polonsky’s Force of Evil (1948), Starring John Garfield, with Beatrice Pearson, Thomas Gomez, Roy Roberts and Marie Windsor, and Written by Polonsky and Ira Wolfert, Based on Wolfert’s Novel; Plus, Notes on This Gun For Hire (1942).”]
By David in TN
Monday, October 28, 2019 at 1:05:00 A.M. EDT
I watched Force of Evil (1948) by DVR tonight. I had seen it before. It tends to drag in places, not compelling. Eddie claimed in his intro the film was “subversive with a message.” Well, the message isn’t obvious.
In his outro, Eddie said the message was “capitalism leads to greed and money over everything.” Today’s Left is the greediest and most avaricious bunch in history.
And Big Business and corporations are the bulwark of the hard Left.
Eddie met Abraham Polonsky, says he “wasn't bitter.” Poor guy (sarcasm on). Polonsky “moved away from Stalinism but remained a Marxist his whole life.”
N.S.: I guess that means Polonsky was a good, genocidal Communist (pardon the redundancy), as opposed to the bad, genocidal Communists.
Correct. He hated Stalin but still loved Marxism. He must be OK then.
ReplyDeleteA few follow up comments if I may.
ReplyDeleteIt was always standard policy for a Communist to deny being what he was. In hearings, when asked "Are you a Communist?" The answer was always to take the Fifth. Never admit to anything.
No Communist would have ever said "I'm not a Stalinist," when Stalin was alive. The concept of being a Communist who was not a "Stalinist" only developed after 1956 and especially 1961.
Lee Harvey Oswald asked for John Abt, long-time lawyer for the Communist Party USA (Abt wasn't available that weekend) after shooting JFK. When interviewed in New Orleans during the summer of 1963, Oswald described himself: "I'm not a Communist. I'm a Marxist." Just like Abraham Polonsky. And every other Communist at the time.