Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Land and Freedom is a film of Ken Loach about the Spanish Civil war. It is certainly a war film, with lots of battle scenes, but nevertheless quite distinct from the stereotype battlefield spectacle. This is partly due to the director Loach, who has neither the urge nor the financial means to produce a large-scale report on battle-fields. However the main reason is the civil war itself, since the republic (the good guys) was defended by a peoples army, and not a professional one. In fact we witness the experiences of a militia, consisting of normal grown-up citizens, not the juvenile cannon fodder, that is crowding the average WW2 or Vietnam movie. When in Land and Freedom the militia attacks the trenches of the fascist troops, it is not a furious storm but a wearisome advancement, evidently by people whose physical conditions could have been better. The firing with their rifles seems unaimed and chaotic. At first I thought this was a display of bad acting, but in fact it is just the opposite. For the militia was composed of volunteers with little or no military training or background. Loach says in an interview, that the film is a critique on the stance of the republicans during the war. The resistance started as a collaboration between anarchist, Bolshevist and social-democrat groups, but soon the ideological differences started to cause growing frictions. Not surprisingly the Bolshevists were once again hoping to replicate the October revolution and seize power during the conflict. On the other hand the anarchists and syndicalists rejected any form of organization, and fully relied on the innate peoples will. Loach made this debate into the essential thread of the film. The story is like this: it is 1936. The British Communist Party recruits volunteers for international reserves of the republican army. David, who is a member of the BCP and out of work, travels to Spain and joins a militia of the POUM (apparently a Trotzkyist-anarchist fraction in the Spanish government). The militia consists of Spaniards (including two women), Frenchmen, Britons, an American, a German etc. They stay together for more than a year, and are remarkably spared the grief of casualties. At that time, and even during WWII, warfare did not yet have the professional intensity of the battlefields in Irak or Afghanistan. They are just killing time in their trenches. Even when a village is stormed, that is occupied by fascist troops, the enemy is already on the run. The number of fallen comrades in this action equals just one, and there is plenty of time for grief and a decent burial. Subsequently the militia joins the villagers in a debate about socialization of the agricultural land! Really, that are the syndicalists for you, they seem almost like Taliban. In the mean time, the government in Madrid realizes that this kind of defense will not win the war. (it could have ended in a long-lasting partisan guerrilla, but apparently in his later years Franco was able to mobilize sufficient social support). They try to put anarchist fractions like the POUM on a sidetrack, and eventually the anarchist militia are disarmed. Of course during this operation the Bolshevists resort to the well-known Stalinist methods of terror, including tortures. David has developed a (physical) liking for the anarchist Blanca, and tears apart his booklet of membership of the BCP (with stamps indicating your monthly payments, those good old days). Typical of the spirit in the militia is one of the final scenes, where they once more storm a fascist trench. Here the fighting gets tough, and the militia leader calls his superior by phone in order to complain about the uncomfortable conditions. Several militia members want a debate in order to consider a withdrawal. Later, when a superior officer actually orders the militia leader to withdraw, the leader wants to start a debate (in the middle of a fight, over the phone!) about the inconsistency of the orders! I find this scene particularly brilliant, reflecting the films subtlety and sarcasm. By the way, although modern warfare delegates much more responsibilities to the troops in the fields, obedience still remains a paramount requirement. Eventually Blanca is shot dead, and David returns home as a disillusioned man. What a mess! Nevertheless, the film confirms that the fascist troops are still the Hoesseins, and the republicans are still the Blairs. People interested in the Spanish Civil war should also see the documentary "The Spanish Earth" of director Joris Ivens and the excellent war film (if you fancy them) "Fünf Patronenhülsen" of director Frank Beyer (which includes the heart-rending Busch song "Die Jarama Front"!).

Fascism versus Communism? Gosh, what a choice. How 'bout neither?A combination English/foreign film, with subtitles mixed in liberally, this is the story of the common peoples' fight against Franco's fascist regime in Spain. The "people" consider themselves Communists and that ideology is portrayed positively, of course, an antidote of sorts against Fascism. Frankly, neither system has shown itself to be a good one for the "common man," so promoting Communism, as it's done here, was not attractive to me.What was attractive was to see this on a widescreen VHS because it's nicely filmed. However, the story begins to lag halfway trough as long ideological arguments are espoused over and over. That, and a boring romance, led this to make me lose interest before it was over.

Land and Freedom is one of the few non-Spanish feature films about the Spanish Civil War. This is a shame, but at least this one film almost makes up for the paucity of cinematic treatments of this event and period.The story bears some superficial resemblance to George Orwell's experiences, as detailed in Homage to Catalonia -- a British leftist joins the POUM militia and gets mixed up in the events of May, 1937 and the suppression of the party. But Loach fleshes the story out with some wonderful characters and a rare, truly moving wartime love story.The film is shot in a cinema-verite style that really emphasizes the grit, the horror and heroism of the characters' resistance to fascism. The leads, Ian Hart and Rosana Pastor give wonderful performances. Pastor's portrayal of a woman motivated by idealism, economic need and more than a bit of world-weariness, is incandescent. Yes, she often spout slogans, but that's how people often speak in those situations.Marc Martinez and Eoin McCarthy are excellent as the militia section commander and the experienced Irish volunteer, respectively.My one real quibble is that, perhaps by necessity, Loach compressed the really complex issues surrounding the May Days and the suppression of the POUM. The Communist Party were the bad guys, but things were much more complicated than that at the national level in Spain. Nationally, with the organization of the International Brigades and Soviet support for the republic, they were the good guys.From David Carr's and Blanca's perspective, however, the national level was not important, so there really is a great deal of honesty in this film.

The Spanish civil war is one of the most pivotal events in the history of Socialism and communism. Prior to the Spanish civil war communism was supported by many of the great intellectuals of the time. This changed afterwards, with many people such as George Orwell and Albert Camus becoming anti-communists and others like Simone De Bevoir and Jean Paul Satre going into denial about the problems in front of their face.So how can a movie maker deal with something so weighty and momentous, and also highly confused. He tells a small and personal story David Carr, a card carrying communist from working class Liverpool, who travels to Spain to fight for land and freedom.Everywhere you can see the restrictions of budget in this movie, but the story unfolds on a highly personal level without becoming melodramatic (Hemmingway tries too hard in For Whom the Bell Tolls to make the story personal enough).Here we see socialism in action, appearing successful until the left destroys itself.This is not the definitive Spanish civil war movie and no movie could be because the left has been blaming each other for the failure. The communists blame the anarchists, the anarchists blame the socialists, the socialists blame the stalinists and this movie does take a side.When the movie is over, think read and learn more before you pass judgment.