LAND AND FREEDOM Movie Review

1995 Ken Loach

Though Ken Loach is known as a filmmaker with strong leftist leanings, his take on the Spanish Civil War is neither polemic nor propaganda. It's actually much closer in structure, plot, and emotion to Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, which was produced two years later. Loach, however, is more interested in politics and the sacrifices that political beliefs demand. He and writer Jim Allen tell the story as flashback. An aging Dave Carr (Ian Hart) suffers a heart attack in his cluttered apartment. Cleaning up the place, his granddaughter Kim (Suzanne Maddox) comes across a suitcase filled with newspaper clippings, photos, and letters detailing his service in the Spanish Civil War.

As a dedicated young Liverpool Communist in 1936, Dave falls under the spell of a speaker who describes the dire situation that the newly elected Republican government faces in Spain. Fascist Gen. Franco is leading a military rebellion against the fledgling worker's paradise, and he has the assistance of the church and the country's elite. Without a second thought, Dave decides to volunteer and make his way across Europe to Spain. He discovers that the anti-Fascist forces are terribly disorganized, and though he had hoped to join an official Communist organization, he signs on with a small unit of the P.O.U.M. Militia (Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista (Party of Marxist Unification)) on the Aragon front.

In a letter back home, he enthusiastically describes it as “socialism in action,” a democratic organization that votes on every decision and treats women as men's equals, even allowing them to fight with the pitifully few rifles they manage to acquire. His enthusiasm has something to do with his attraction to comrade Blanca (Rosana Pastor), but not much. Dave is a believer. The first real action his militia sees is a house-to-house assault on a small village. Though it's not as intense or as noisy as similar scenes in Spielberg's film, the sequence is built around the same chaotic unpredictability. No one involved really understands what is happening and their halting progress is hard won.

After that initial engagement, Loach turns to his central points: What do victors do with victory? Can a military unit be a democracy? As the action dissolves into gassy political discussions, it has an unscripted, spontaneous feeling that comes in part from the dialogue and in part from the realistic “non-actor” performances Loach favors. The same scene argues finer points of collectivist doctrine that have been rendered moot by history, and so will try many viewers’ patience. It is necessary, though, as a preview of the larger conflicts that will erupt among Communists, anarchists, Trotskyites, and the other competing factions. All of that would be nothing more than posturing if the characters didn't ring true, and these do. The secondary figures are sketched lightly but David and Blanca are believably complex.

Loach deals with their situation honestly, and eventually comes to a realization that human values are more important than political values. He also comes to a solidly emotional graveside conclusion that's far less sentimental than the similar moment that ends Saving Private Ryan. This film manages, remarkably, to conclude with its ideology in tatters but its ideals intact.

Cast: Ian Hart (David Carr), Rosana Pastor (Blanca), Iciar Bollain (Maite), Tom Gilroy (Lawrence), Frederic Pierrot (Bernard), Marc Martinez (Vidal), Angela Clarke (Kitty), David Allen (On the Roof); Written by: Jim Allen; Cinematography by: Barry Ackroyd; Music by: George Fenton. Producer: Rebecca O'Brien, Parallax Pictures, Messidor Films, Road Movies, Dritte Produktionen; released by Gramercy Pictures. British, Spanish, German. Awards: Cesar Awards ‘96: Best Foreign Film; Nominations: British Academy Awards ‘95: Best Film. Running Time: 109 minutes. Format: VHS.