Land and Freedom
Tags: flashback

Plot synopsis:
The film's narrative unfolds in a long flashback. David Carr has died at an old age and his granddaughter discovers old letters, newspapers and other documents in his room: what we see in the film is what he had lived.
Carr, a young unemployed worker and member of the Communist Party, leaves Liverpool and travels to Spain to join the International Brigades. He crosses the Spanish border in Catalonia and coincidentally ends up enlisted in a POUM militia commanded by Lawrence, in the Aragon front. In this company, as in all POUM militias, men and women – such as the young and enthusiastic Maite – fight together. In the following weeks and months he becomes friends with other foreign volunteers, like the French Bernard and the Irish Coogan, and the latter's girlfriend Blanca - with whom David Carr later falls in love - also a member of POUM, and also the ideologue of his group.
After being wounded and recovering in a hospital in Barcelona, he finally joins – in accordance with his original plan and against the opinion of Blanca – the government-backed International Brigades, and he encounters the Stalinist propaganda and repression against POUM members and anarchists; he then returns to his old company, only to see them rounded up by a government unit requiring their surrender: in a brief clash Blanca is killed. After her funeral he returns to Great Britain with a red neckerchief full of Spanish earth.
Finally the film comes back to the present, and we see Carr's funeral, in which his granddaughter throws the Spanish earth into his grave after speaking lines from "The Day Is Coming", a poem by William Morris.
Join in the battle wherein no man can fail,For whoso fadeth and dieth, yet his deed shall still prevail.
Afterwards she performs a raised fist salute, honouring his beliefs.

Review: Add to that outside involvement, principally from Mussolini and Stalin, the vacillation of Britain and France and, of course, the omnipresence of Hitler, and anyone might wonder where to start.Loach and Allen take their approach through the eyes of an unemployed Liverpudlian, David Carr (admirably played by Ian Hart) who, as a card-carrying member of the Communist Party, answers the call to fight for the Republic.
In particular, the debate amongst the militia about collectivisation after they have taken a small town takes no sides, but simply allows a number of valid arguments to be exposed within the context of the shifting sands of the war.There is still ample material for the industry to go on to make more films on this important period in history.
Land and Freedom is Ken Loach and Jim Allen's tribute to the ordinary volunteers that risked their lives for a better world in the fight against fascism.
All these sentiments drive the story of the film.The movie pins the defeat of idealism represented in the Civil War on Stalin's perfidy.
I also love this film.It's a wonderful, intense, realistic and insightful look at the Spanish Civil War with the highly naturalistic cinematography and committed performances characteristic of Loach.The reviews and debate concentrate on the action in Spain, which, for me, is only half the story that Loach is telling.
Someone who knew them would sometimes say "he was torpedoed four times" or "he was two years in Spain fighting Franco" and that would be that.So I am delighted that David Carr, played by the incomparable Ian Hart, and this movie is such a fabulous testament to all of them.
This is the authentic texture of twentieth century history in perfect context, portrayed through the lens of one man's experience.And there is hardly anything else like it on film.A true masterpiece of the art which deserves a much bigger reputation and a place in the British Movie Pantheon alongside the very best..
The director made an outstanding job representing this glorious and terrible part of the Civil War. It's a movie with a low budget, a good historical representation and a great job from the actors.
This movie is about a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, played brilliantly by Ian Hart (who is also in "Michael Collins", another favorite of mine) who goes to Spain in 1936 to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He is persuaded to join the Partido Obrero de Unificacion Marxista, or POUM.
"Land and Freedom" also shows the May days in Barcelona, when 500 people were killed in a mini civil war within the forces of the anti-fascist Republic.
I would like to say that, although when discussing the Spanish Civil War one will always find their bias, Mr. Loach certainly shows his.
This film is a very good film, but as I said with regards to "Michael Collins", another film Ian Hart is in, one would be better seeing this film, then reading extensively on the subject of the Spanish Civil War to get the full picture..
Here they are shown more accurately as organized and committed to the nitty-gritty basics of the revolution of everyday life.British director Ken Loach made a film that finally attempts an anarchist's view of anarchists in Spain during the civil war against the fascists.
The picture begins in recent times when a granddaughter looking for papers aware her grandfather fought in Spanish War Civil (1936-1939) that is the subject matter of the movie.
The film originated an intense discussion in Spain about its principal theme , the Spanish Civil War .
Though set in Spain during the time of the civil war of 1936-39, Loach's film belongs more to the genre of anti-Stalinist cinema than it does to films about Spain.
And the climactic moment in the film is when he rips up his Communist Party membership card.The crimes of the Stalinists are portrayed throughout the film -- they deny decent, modern weapons to those sections of the front which they do not control; they actively engage in repression against the POUM and the anarchists in Barcelona; in the pages of the British Daily Worker which we briefly see on the screen, we are shown the daily barrage of lies they spread (such as Trotsky's 'support' for Franco fascism).Anyone who sees this film as simply a black-and-white, good vs evil portrayal of heroic young people aiding the brave Spaniards in their battle for freedom is missing what is, I believe, its main point.
A film like "The Way We Were" shows the American Communist Party only during those moments when its positions would today be considered palatable (supporting the Spanish republic, backing Roosevelt and the US war effort in World War II, and later calling for nuclear disarmament).It doesn't show the time of the Moscow Trials, nor the real role played by the Soviet Union and its agents in Spain, nor the Communist Party's opposition to fighting Hitler and the Nazis in 1939-41, nor the post-war period when the Party did what it could to encourage nuclear proliferation by passing on atomic secrets to Stalin.Land and Freedom does try to show one of the Comintern's uglier moments, to its credit.A film like this was made possible by the fact that Loach comes out of the British far left, and the British far left has long been dominated not by Stalinists but by their Marxist opponents -- primarily the Trotskyists of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP).
Whatever disagreements I or others may have with the SWP (and they are many), at least they rejected Stalinism.What we need are more films like this showing the real role played by Communist Parties all during the history of the Soviet regime.
For example a film set in any European country during the period between September 1939 and June 1941 (the time of the Hitler-Stalin pact) which honestly portrays Communist parties as allies of the Nazis (even in occupied countries like Norway and France) would be welcome..
Well, the lad does not actually get wounded in the throat during the course of the movie, but otherwise this is the biography of Eric Blair (George Orwell), as described in his book "Homage to Catalonia".In spite of the single source cribbing, I did like this film in general since films about Spain in English, other than Canadian ones with Donald Sutherland as Dr. Norman Bethune, are few and far between.It was wonderful to see a priest being shot in this film -- I don't mean it that way!
-- since anti-clericalism was an important element both in the Spanish Civil War and in the French Revolution although it rarely seems to be mentioned much in the English-speaking world.
At the other end of the political scale, the poor treatment of priests in Spain was a motivating force for Fascists in France to join the Charlemagne division of the Waffen SS to defend the cause of Christianity, or so The Sorrow and the Pity attests.The Spanish war was about liberation from autocracy amidst a blizzard of competing, doctrinaire, left political philosophies.
That was a really exciting time to be politically active, and there is a great scene of grassroots socialism in action at a town meeting.The film has a rough-hewn, half-finished look characteristic of Ken Loach, but don't let that put you off.
Land and Freedom is one of the few non-Spanish feature films about the Spanish Civil War. This is a shame, but at least this one film almost makes up for the paucity of cinematic treatments of this event and period.The story bears some superficial resemblance to George Orwell's experiences, as detailed in Homage to Catalonia -- a British leftist joins the POUM militia and gets mixed up in the events of May, 1937 and the suppression of the party.
Nationally, with the organization of the International Brigades and Soviet support for the republic, they were the good guys.From David Carr's and Blanca's perspective, however, the national level was not important, so there really is a great deal of honesty in this film..
Ken Loach's Land and Freedom is the great movie dealt with class struggle since 1900(Bernardo Bertolucci).
This is an interesting little film starring Ian Hart as an Englishman, David Carr, from Liverpool who goes to Spain to fight on the socialist/communist side during the Spanish Civil War.You know it's a Ken Loach film right from the start when you see the typical bleak urban landscapes of modern Britain  council tower blocks, ugly roads and traffic  as David Carr dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital leaving behind a vast collection of letters, photographs, newspaper cuttings and mementoes from his time in the conflict fifty years before.Every seemingly old, boring person may have led a fascinating and remarkable life; his grand-daughter trawls through this personal time-capsule and the generation gap is no more.The depiction of the civil war itself is beautifully and painstakingly recreated with authentic uniforms (or lack of), rustic farmhouses serving as HQs and plenty of bandit/partisan-style shoot-outs, presumably the essential nature of the conflict in its early stages (before the International Brigades took over).
I would like to see Land and Freedom based on the life of George Orwell and perhaps a greater, less idealistic political exploration of the circumstances and events of the Spanish Civil War. Orwell is the man..
He tells a small and personal story David Carr, a card carrying communist from working class Liverpool, who travels to Spain to fight for land and freedom.Everywhere you can see the restrictions of budget in this movie, but the story unfolds on a highly personal level without becoming melodramatic (Hemmingway tries too hard in For Whom the Bell Tolls to make the story personal enough).Here we see socialism in action, appearing successful until the left destroys itself.This is not the definitive Spanish civil war movie and no movie could be because the left has been blaming each other for the failure.
This is a great movie for everyone who have some time in their lives believed in the ideal of socialism, although a bit biased towards the Trotskyist view (I think Loach is affiliated with the SWP)..
The fight for freedom in the Spanish Civil War 1936, through the eyes of a young man from Liverpool, England.
Religion and conservatism are about maintaining control.This movie is based on Orwells Homage to Catalonia and his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. Read this book if u want an indepth view of what went on.
How 'bout neither?A combination English/foreign film, with subtitles mixed in liberally, this is the story of the common peoples' fight against Franco's fascist regime in Spain.
Loach shows how big he can be as director, he give us a very complete film, quite historic, funny, but above all, a story of just people trying to live a normal life in abnormal circumstances.
The film shows a very good casting playing great characters, Ian Hart and Rosana Pastor (as Blanca) are both in their best works.
His and Ken Loach's Marxist, Trotskyist, and anti-Stalinist orientations are evidently present in the film, although it is arguably the theme of Stalinist repression of anti-franquist communist and anarchist militias in Spain during the Civil War, to be mainly portrayed.
The story develops through flashbacks, and it recounts of a David Carr, a British unemployed member of the Communist Party from Liverpool, who decides to go and fight the cause of the anti-franquist movement in the Spanish Civil War. The narration takes place through some letters Carr wrote, newspaper clippings, and other documents he collected, found and read by his granddaughter, right after his death.
which has to start from and stay with the bottom, base and column of the society.thanks to Ken Loach for this evocative movie about the Spanish civil war and its militias.don't understand the limitation that comments have to be at least 10 lines long.
then i will recommend interesting literature for those who want to know more about the militias and the anarchistic-syndicalist movement before and during the Spanish civil war:"the short summer of anarchy" by Hans Magnus Enzensberger published by Suhrkamp publishing.
Ken Loach's 'Land and Freedom' borrows heavily from Orwell's 'Homage to Catalonia' in telling us the story of the Spannish civil war.
The film is all at once a realist drama, a political thriller and a war movie; Ken Loach's trademark vérité style dogging every cut; composition; transition and individual scene resulting in a near breathless film-watching experience of conflict, both of an internal and external sort, tribulation and strife.
The film is very much The Spanish Civil War, as well as those of whom fought in it, through the eyes of Loach; an event of which, like several other background incidents that have since plagued Loach's work, such as Ireland's Independence throughout The Wind That Shakes the Barley; The Navigators, and its covering of men suffering at the result of British Rail's privatisation, but also albeit fleetingly, Looking for Eric's monopolisation of Manchester United football club, is melded into what is first and foremost a character study feeding off an intense sense of realism.Ian Hart eventually comes to play that of David Carr, a young Liverpudlian man of whom we first see in the then-present of the mid-nineties alone and in a bad way as he alone occupies his tower block apartment having suffered a heart attack.
Amidst the photos; the collections of dirt kept back and the letters we, through the granddaughter, build an image of David's experiences abroad at an important time in his life.Principally, the film is one long flashback with brief darts back to the present also arriving as we witness Dave's exploits in tandem with that of his granddaughter's uncovering of the facts; her character most probably discovering as much about the Spanish Civil War as Loach's intended audience are.
Seemingly desiring a life away from what foundations he has, Carr accepts what proposals are outlined that day in the darkened, enclosed locale of the picture-house and it isn't long before he is riding a train in northern Spain to the front-line of what is The Spanish Civil war raging between Conservatives, and those of a more leftist-nature on the political spectrum, against the Fascist might of Franco and his followers.There is a beautifully placed scene very early on in Carr's venture out there, an exchange on board a train as he makes his way across and through the somewhat barren northern parts of the country depicting him barely able to even say the Spanish word for "Thank you".
With that scene Loach is saying that those people who are against the actions against the church are in fact that ones who don't get along with the opinion of the so called "deeply religious people of Spain".There are many more definite parts of the film against Stalinism but since I had a loud and heavy argument with a Stalinist about the Spanish Civil War I specially like this one..
the best film about spain civil war.
It's good to see him in a lead role.Land and Freedom is a gem, a film from 1995 that isn't well-received in America, but I do hope others view it and enjoy it.At times it can be tedious with the different languages and political views, as well as lengthy conversations, but the setting is in 1936, there are no Aliens or Predators around, so do concentrate, it's well worth it.Cheers.
This is a good representation of how foreigners came into Spain to fight against the regime of fascist dictator Francisco Franco, such as David does in the movie (and many United States citizens did through the Lincoln Brigade).
For the American side, see the documentary "The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in the Spanish Civil War." Of course, the NAZI's and Italian Fascists used the war as training for their invasion of Europe as they supported Franco's revolt.This is a romantic story of David (Ian Hart) who joins the fight on the side of freedom against the forces of Franco and the Catholic priests, who used women as shields and abused them in their service of the rich landowners.
He stays until the end even though he is disillusioned after the involvement of Stalin, which results in the breakup of the Republicans and, of course, the eventual loss of the war.Hart (Breakfast on Pluto, A Cock and Bull Story) was superb in his portrayal of the disillusioned freedom fighter and Rosana Pastor showed great promise as Blanca.Director Ken Loach (McLibel, 11'09''01 - September 11 ) was honored at Cannes for this film..
A powerful and moving study of the tragedy which was the Spanish Civil War. Ian Hart again proves that he is one of the most talented British actors of the moment with a strong performance in the central role.
I think this is the first film about the Spanish Civil War since For Whom The Bell Tolls.
POUM, whose tale is told in this film, were a small force on a front that barely moved throughout the war.That a Communist Party member should accidentally join POUM is no more likely than a Free Presbyterian accidentally taking Catholic communion.
Militia activity during the Spanish Civil War. Land and Freedom is a film of Ken Loach about the Spanish Civil war.
David, who is a member of the BCP and out of work, travels to Spain and joins a militia of the POUM (apparently a Trotzkyist-anarchist fraction in the Spanish government).
Vivid and moving film of Spanish Civil War, seen through eyes of young British volunteer.
The film is very serious and very political, and the Spanish Civil War was inextricably bound up with politics, both national and international.This is not an easy film to watch, because the subject is a painful one for the Loyalist supporter, as the original spirit of the working class people fighting fascism gives way to internal power struggles and hopeless division.