Land and Freedom

As many of you probably know we are soon to be treated with a major feature film on the SCW. The film was previewed at Cannes and BBC2 showed a hour long documentary about the making of the film.

The film is directed by Ken Loach of 'Kes' fame, and tells the story of a Liverpool lad fighting in the POUM militia from the early stages of the war to the infighting between the communists and the anarchists in May 1937. Similarities to the Orwell story "Homage to Catalonia" may be less than coincidental.

The story is told by means of flashback as a young girl reads the letters of her recently dead grandfather. However the film is 90% drama capturing the flavour of the war with the uniforms, weapons, characters, and set piece battles being nothing less than superb.

Jaime De Miguel from Madrid also tells me that another film called "Libertarians" - which tells the story of female militia unit serving with the Durutti column - is due for release in the near future. I suspect this may be the novel "un million de muertos" by Jose Maria Gironella in film version.

Related

Land and Freedom: A Film Summary

Espoir "Days of Hope" Man's Hope

73 minutes black & white

This is a French film made in 1939 by academy cinema directed and written by Andre Malraux. (SEE BIBLIOGRAPHY REVIEW ELSEWHERE)

The film attempts to recreate an event involving surviving combatants probably including the film maker himself. The film is basically a propaganda film from the left's viewpoint.

The drama involves a militia unit attempting to hold a bridge at Linas to prevent the Nationalist's advance on Saragosa. The Republican airforce is also trying to destroy a Nationalist airfield.

The film contains a lot of action footage using original I-15's, Potez 540's, French 75mm m1897, Hotchkiss MMG and various soft skins. One interesting part of the film involves a militia unit ramming a 75mm field gun head on (WARGAMERS TAKE NOTE).

The film also covers many of the issues faced by the left such as the shortage of weapons and the questionable reliability of troops. However the film is not on video and the only viewing source I know of is at the National film archive in London.

Do readers know of any other fictional films on the SCW (except "For Whom the Bells Toll")?

Nigel Casson tells me of "Behold a Pale Horse" 1964 starring Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn, and Omar Sheriff about a Spanish guerrilla in exile in France who returns to Spain in 1959 to kill a brutal Civil Guard chief. The film has good action shots but places emphasis on the morale issues of death and destiny using the messages in the novel from which it was taken "Killing a Mouse On Sunday" by Emeric Pressburger.

More Reviews

Carros de Combate Trubia 1925-1939 (book)
Fighting Americans (two books)
Libertarias (film)
Models and Flags
Spanish Civil War (video)
Legion Condor (book)
Andre Malreux (book)
Two Films (films)
Video and Book Reviews