Review of Cradle Will Rock (1999) by Fraser M — 06 Jun 2010

This is an aggressively left wing movie which succeeds in capturing a time when many artists were outright Communists, art had not yet be co-opted by Capitalism, and revolution was in the air. Not everything works, but the film succeeds with a superb ensemble cast and great character moments for everyone involved.

Even the characters the filmmakers do not like are given depth and not simply relegated to being two-bit villains. The artists are not heroes either. One of the film's points is that many artists are whores.

However, on the intellectual end of things I was troubled by two aspects. One is the use of Shakespeare's Richard III to defend an artist's right of expression, when Shakespeare wrote Richard III that way because he served a Tudor queen.

Hardly a paradigm of free speech. This could have been explored within the subtext of the left's ambivalence towards government. Throughout the film the characters hate Capitalism, but they are wary of the government.

It seems to me that this ambivalence about government is what undermines many on the left, while conservatives as of late are unabashed in rallying around big business. I wish this could have been included, but it is already a big film.