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Recommended Land And Freedom

Ken Loach, 1995

Star Review

Those familiar with George Orwell's ‘Homage to Catalonia’ will recognise the Internationalist spirit in which this engrossing Spanish Civil War movie was made. But much has changed in the decade since Ken Loach and screenwriter Jim Allen paid tribute to the ordinary Joes from around the world who took up arms against the Fascist forces threatening the fragile peace of Europe in the mid-1930s.

For starters, the collapse of Communism was still fresh in the minds of the audiences watching unemployed Scouse activist Ian Hart leave behind the Depression to pursue the romantic dream of sustaining a socialist state against the twin scourges of privilege and religion. So, there was still a nostalgic yearning among many left-wingers for the egalitarian Bolshevism that many feel was denied a chance of global revolutionary triumph by the murderous excesses of Stalinism. Moreover, Hart's avowal of anti-establishment rhetoric was also filmed during the 16th year of Conservative rule in Britain, when no one had yet become disenchanted with the shiny optimistic `things can only get better' credo of New Labour. Furthermore, the notion of the ‘just crusade’ was still viable before it came to be so vociferously questioned before the Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq.

Land and Freedom has itself now become a historical document and is
therefore probably more valuable now than on its original release. The passion and fierce intelligence of its dialectical debates stand in stark contrast to the current antipathy to most things political, while its sympathy for cross-border communalism clashes with the Euro scepticism and terrorist-inspired xenophobia that dominate the contemporary agenda. Its DVD release in the run-up to a General Election couldn't be better timed. But it also stands as one of Loach's most committed, contentious and courageous projects.

David Parkinson on 1st March 2005
View all 106 of David Parkinson's reviews

Film Description

Larger in scope than any previous Loach film and the Spanish Civil war sequences have an authenticity often lacking in popular entertainment movies. The subject may be historical, but there's not a hint of 'heritage'. Jim Allen's screenplay connects the political education of Ian Hart's Liverpudlian volunteer with that of his 1990s granddaughter.

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By Keith Teanby on 28th February 2000

Larger in scope than any previous Loach film. The Spanish Civil war sequences have an authenticity often lacking in popular entertainment movies. The subject may be hi... more >

 

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DVD Extras
  • Feature commentary by Ken Loach
  • Behind the scenes documentary
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Filmographies.
Film Details

Director

Ken Loach

Year

1995

Countries & Regions

European Film, Spanish Film, British Film

Cast

Ian Hart, Rosana Pastor, Tom Gilroy

Technical Details

Certificate

15

Length

109 mins

Publisher

Artificial Eye

Format

DVD Colour

Region

2

Aspect

Enhanced for widescreen TV

Cat No

ART123DVD

Main Language

ENGLISH

Subtitles

English

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Films by Ken Loach

 

Films starring
Ian Hart

 

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Tom Gilroy

 

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