Ah, revisionism
Feb. 2nd, 2006 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyNow they sing out his praises on every distant shore
But so few remember what he was fightin' for
Oh why sing the songs and forget about the aim?
He wrote them for a reason, why not sing them for the same?
-- Phil Ochs, "Bound for Glory"
Has anyone else seen Woody Guthrie: This Machine Kills Fascists? I'm about halfway through watching it, as it's much longer than I thought it'd be. It's quite boring, too, considering its subject matter. (And as someone on Amazon pointed out, it contains shockingly little music.) Also, Billy Bragg is channeling Unsolved Mysteries for some reason.
The most annoying individual so far is Nora Lee Guthrie. Every scene she's in could be cut, and then it probably would have been a shorter and infinitely more informative movie. ("He wore plaid! He was grunge before there was grunge! Tee-hee." Shut up.)
But the worst is the lengths to which the movie goes in order to apologize for Woody's politics. We have historians saying, "Well, yes, he attended Communist Party meetings, but so did everyone back then, even Ronald Reagan." (Is this true? Confirm or deny.) "And besides, the American Communist Party was different and special! They didn't want to take over the government. They just wanted a voice." Uh. Huh.
Seriously, why make a movie about someone if his politics make you that uncomfortable? And why name it after his fascist-killing guitar? Why not just call it Woody Guthrie: A Sanitized Portrait of a Guy Who Was Really Liberal, Deep Down Inside?
By the way, when you Google "bound for glory lyrics" you get some really unpleasant results.
But so few remember what he was fightin' for
Oh why sing the songs and forget about the aim?
He wrote them for a reason, why not sing them for the same?
-- Phil Ochs, "Bound for Glory"
Has anyone else seen Woody Guthrie: This Machine Kills Fascists? I'm about halfway through watching it, as it's much longer than I thought it'd be. It's quite boring, too, considering its subject matter. (And as someone on Amazon pointed out, it contains shockingly little music.) Also, Billy Bragg is channeling Unsolved Mysteries for some reason.
The most annoying individual so far is Nora Lee Guthrie. Every scene she's in could be cut, and then it probably would have been a shorter and infinitely more informative movie. ("He wore plaid! He was grunge before there was grunge! Tee-hee." Shut up.)
But the worst is the lengths to which the movie goes in order to apologize for Woody's politics. We have historians saying, "Well, yes, he attended Communist Party meetings, but so did everyone back then, even Ronald Reagan." (Is this true? Confirm or deny.) "And besides, the American Communist Party was different and special! They didn't want to take over the government. They just wanted a voice." Uh. Huh.
Seriously, why make a movie about someone if his politics make you that uncomfortable? And why name it after his fascist-killing guitar? Why not just call it Woody Guthrie: A Sanitized Portrait of a Guy Who Was Really Liberal, Deep Down Inside?
By the way, when you Google "bound for glory lyrics" you get some really unpleasant results.
