Review of Big Jim McLain (1952) by Christopher P — 30 Dec 2008

Nothing but a propaganda film promoting the agenda of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the time of McCarthyism. Now, I'm about as pro-America and anti-communist as a person can get, but even I found this film to be laughable, cheesy, and extremely heavy-handed with its political message, portraying communism as something like satanism (communism is bad, but it's not quite THAT bad), and casting the HUAC (often bad for America in its own way) in a downright heroic light.

Of course, having said all that, it's not fair to condemn this film without taking fully into account the time in which it was made. At the time of this movie's release, the Korean War was raging, America had lost its nuclear supremacy, Russia and China were being assholes, and all kinds of organizations within America itself (the ACLU, for instance) were hoping to see the White House painted red someday soon. All that doesn't change the fact that "Big Jim McLain" is a terrible movie, but it does help to put it into perspective somewhat.