Land and Freedom Movie Review 1995

Earnestly talky drama focusing on idealist Liverpudlian communist David Carr (Hart), who heads to Spain in 1937 to fight against Franco's fascists. What David learns is that the Republican forces, made up of independent militia, are bitterly divided, with much infighting and betrayal from the Stalinist forces within David's own party. He falls for socialist Blanca (Pastor) and learns how terrifying and haphazard war can be (with timeout for ideological discussions). Sympathetic characters and sweeping action help to compensate for the political polemics.

Distribution

USA Home Entertainment, 1 W. Forest, Englewood, NJ 07631-4004, Phone: (201)871-1000, URL: http://www.polygram-us.com

Available on VHS
Running time 109 minutes.
Originally from British, Spanish, German.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Barcelona, Politics, Spain, Spanish Civil War, The Meaning of Life, Communists & Communism

Screenplay

Jim Allen

Cast

Ian Hart, Rosana Pastor, Iciar Bollain, Tom Gilroy, Frederic Pierrot, Marc Martinez, Angela Clarke, David Allen

Cinematography

Barry Ackroyd

Director

Ken Loach

Music

George Fenton

Producer

Rebecca O'Brien, Parallax Pictures, Messidor Films, Road Movies, Dritte Produktionen, Gramercy Pictures

Awards

Cesar 1996: Foreign Film.