See title. My partner loves Xmas, and is a leftist. Just seeing if there's anything good out there we can throw on some night. If this question has been asked before, let me know and I'll delete. Thanks!
It's a Wonderful Life basically got Frank Capra on Hoover's naughty list:
On May 26, 1947, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a memo stating, "With regard to the picture 'It's a Wonderful Life', [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists. [In] addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters."[56] Film historian Andrew Sarris points out as "curious" that "the censors never noticed that the villainous Mr. Potter gets away with robbery without being caught or punished in any way"
Hollywood was pretty solidly anti-capitalist in the 40s. Every businessman is written like Old Man Potter.
Offtopic but they fucking blacklisted Aaron Copland who was a great composer and vaguely left wing and ruined his life and now the Fanfare the Common Man is basically synonymous with the US Navy.
It's A Wonderful Life has been my favorite Christmas movie since before I was even explicitly a communist so this tracks
It's a lovely film. A little schmaltzy, but you'll still be smiling at the end.
We do the Muppets and Blackadder Xmas Carol movies each year, those will definitely be watched closer to the 25th.
Hell yeah there is, and it's really good! It's on Prime I think, it should be listed as Season 0 I think since it's a prequel story for the BA universe actually.
Explicitly leftist shit is usually boring. Eyes Wide Shut is fun for the Epstein brained stuff but my girlfriend hated it. Bad Santa is fuckin great too and could be seen as vaguely leftist.
Right on, just checking what was out there. EWS might be not great since she has some past trauma, but Bad Santa is one I haven't seen that could be put on the list, thanks!
Haven't watched that one since it first came out, good call!
The Irony of Fate (Ирония судьбы) is a Soviet classic for New Year's Eve. It's great cinema, beloved by ex-communist countries to this day. Not Christmas-y like westoids would understand it, but better than most you're going to find.
The Irony of Fate
Seems it is on youtube.
https://youtu.be/lVpmZnRIMKs
nightmare before christmas is about the war on christmas
obligatory: not explicitly leftist, but Tokyo Godfathers for anime stuff
maybe not explicitly but die hard 2 I think is fairly leftist. The bad guys are basically Oliver North and Batista.
two of my guilty pleasures are Diehard 1 & 2, can't stand Bruce Willis and his cop character, but they are damn good action movie. Diehard 1, I cheer for Hans and his boys.
aside from how the US military and reactionary terrorists are allied together in service to a cocaine exporting anti-communist/right-wing dictator....
and the airport cops are two Italian brothers who are incompetent blowhards.
fuckin' great Xmas movie.
christmas with the kranks is the starship troopers of christmas movies
You're genuinely right about this part, I really love how the movie is not only that, but an unintentional starship troopers
There should be a movie about the Christmas Elves unionizing.
They start out by making all the classic mistakes - asking nicely, a handful of firebrands trying to go off without support and getting canned, unionizing the elves and reindeer separately - and slowly learn to do it right. They unionize, strike, sabotage, engage in solidarity strikes across the entire operation, and Dudley the Third String Reindeer writes to the Teamsters to get their new union brought in. Finally they get Santa to leave in frustration. But oh no! None of them can drive a sleigh, and a small child cries when the presents are delivered by an elf, not Santa. Will they have to go back to their old boss after all? When it looks like all is lost, they get a surprise letter telling them to go to the Teamsters headquarters immediately. The president of the union introduces them to Stanley Clausewitz, a fat man with a huge white beard, who's been driving a delivery truck for 40 years and competes in sleigh driving races for fun. Christmas is saved by inter-union solidarity! They form a co-op and we fade to credits, to the sound of a cover of Solidarity Forever with obligatory sleigh bells added.
Hard disagree. Watched it last year, and my read on it is that's it's made by and for suburban conservatives who think that they're country at heart.
Edit: Remembering another thought I had at the time - pre-Christian figures like Krampus are typically regarded as demons by Christians, but white supremacist Christians seem to have a soft spot for old European gods. Sure, they acknowledge Krampus at a demon, but they still give him a wink because he's their demon.
That's what I'm talking about - they're not on both sides of the culture war. It's suburban conservatives thinking that they're just as conservative as their rural relatives and that their two conservatisms are the same.
The one with the Parks & Rec guy in it from a few years ago? If so, I remember that one was alright, and then get pretty fucking epic at the end.
Tangerine isn't explicitly leftist, but the focus of the film is the underclass/lumpen, and while flawed, all of these characters are portrayed with agency and dignity. It is a Christmas movie though. And it's a dope movie.
