Ah, revisionism

[sabotabby]

Now 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.

Comments

[corvus.livejournal.com]

What, you mean you're not WP? That's it, off the friends list!

[sabotabby]

OMG Y IS YR ICON A SWASTIKA U FASCIST!!!one!!!

[corvus.livejournal.com]

:( :( :( :(

Here, have a less fascist icon!

(which reminds me, now that I have six I totally need to bring back the Log Lady!)

[sabotabby]

Hey, and then I can bring back Albert!

[jaymoh.livejournal.com]

<3 Albert.

[groovitude.livejournal.com]

I made a compilation of the Log Lady introductions on the Twin Peaks DVD set. It's a little on the big side but one of these days I'm a-gonna put it on the internets.

[sabotabby]

Doitdoitdoit!

[groovitude.livejournal.com]

I'm certain Reagan never attended a communist party meeting.

[sabotabby]

Maybe to narc.

[groovitude.livejournal.com]

No, not even to narc. That was dangerous for an actor. Nancy Reagan must have, though, because her name ended up on the "red pages."

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Actually, (IIRC) I think that's how they met, he was Screen Actors Guild president and was helping her get off the blacklist because she had been falsely accuessed.

[cdaae.livejournal.com]

Ha, I doubt it about Reagan. He did start out as a liberal, though.

[sabotabby]

I know that. Then again, liberal = commie pinko to whoever made the film, so maybe that's what they were thinking.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

Woody is so h0tt because of his communistyness. Just last week I saw a car commercial with his Car song in it. Pity, they use all the dead guys' songs in car commercials (I'm thinking also of Nick Drake's Pink Moon). I wonder if they'll ever use Rebel Girl, in some fashion commercial for anorexics.

[sabotabby]

Certain people were very upset over the "Pink Moon" thing. Other people were very upset over Dylan, who doesn't even have the excuse of being dead. How tacky.

[roter-terror.livejournal.com]

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/06/documents/huac/reagan.html

[sabotabby]

Ugh. Just...ugh.

um, what???

[hopita.livejournal.com]

OK, now you MUST explain Billy Bragg's newfound role as a medium.

Re: um, what???

[sabotabby]

You'd have to see it, but basically, he was standing in front of a dark wall with some very dramatic lighting and narrating in an extremely British way. As in:

"SOME people think that Nora [Woody's mother, not his daughter, that is] threw a kerosene lamp at Clara and set her on fire. OTHER people think that Clara committed suicide. We'll never know for sure...."

It got old. He should stick to singing and making snide remarks about Bono.

[reverendgraham.livejournal.com]

Reagan was a New Deal Democrat, and definitely had a lot of progressive views back in the day, but I'm pretty sure he was never a communist. (Nonetheless, being a New Deal Democat definitely qualified one as a communist in certain circles.)

[sabotabby]

They didn't seem to be aiming for political accuracy.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

I think it's been documented that when Reagan was a New Dealer he did tag along with a commie friend to atleast one meeting

[sabotabby]

Really?

(I need an O RLY icon.)