Review of Mockery (1927) by Greg W — 19 Jul 2014

"The revolution is on the stairs!" It's not uncritical of the ruling classes, aristocratic or bourgeois/capitalist. Though, strangely (being a Hollywood film), it's rather more critical of the latter than the former.

And it views revolution/revolutionaries as crime/criminals. It downplays/ignores economic causes in favor of psychological motives/characterizations/stereotypes/prejudices. It falsely portrays the peasant (and the poorest peasant at that) as getting won over to the aristocratic/whiteguard side, rewriting history as reactionary wish-fulfillment.

A mockery, then, especially of the proletarian and peasant side, the revolutionary side, of the Russian Civil War.