Harlan County, USA is such a good movie. Its fine and cool to be like, "I'm a marxist-leninist-communist" in our little rooms in front of our little screens, but watching a room full of miner's wives cheer when another gets up and says "We have nothing to lose but our chains!" while participating in self-organized worker's councils, it really made me reconsider what it means to be communist.

Also, Norma Rae, a movie about labor organizing starring Sally Fields is the only movie I've encountered that isn't on Amazon to stream. I can stream the 4k remaster of Cannibal Holocaust, I can rent the 1988 revisionist Tank film The Beast. But not a good movie with a famous actress, that would be communism to sell that ig

I just listened to an episode of "The Movies that Made Me" (I think with Paul Schrader?) where they contend that major studios don't care quite that much about the messaging in these films. I think selling a movie about labor unions would have been hard for the last forty years due to American culture's (increased antipathy?) towards unions in general. It feels like that sentiment is finally getting pushed back, and I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see more indies based on organizers like those in Buffalo. See Salt.

I heard some podcast a while back where they interviewed a movie writer, who said he pitched some kind of sequel to Death Wish but when the guy's wife dies of treatable cancer he goes and kills health insurance executives, instead of muggers or whatever.

He said the producers were like "yeah, that would probably sell but we don't really want to sort of put that idea in people's heads, you know?"