Movies:
Seeing Red
- Rating:
- Genre: History
- Movie Type: Biography, Social History
- Themes: Political Unrest
- Director: James Klein
- Main Cast: Bill Bailey, Dorothy Healey, Pete Seeger
- Release Year: 1983
- Country: US
- Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
About 400 known and unknown American communists were interviewed during this five-year documentary project, and the results culled down to an intriguing 100 minutes of screen time. As secretaries, factory workers, farmers, and intellectuals discuss the past, their insights provide both humor and pathos, but most of all, the interviewees emerge as human beings whose main interest has remained in lowering the gap between the haves and have nots. The documentary notes that as a result of leftist agitation, the United States adopted programs like Social Security and unemployment insurance faster than otherwise -- programs that were once labeled communist by American conservatives. Committed to defending human and civil rights, the 1,000,000-member American Communist Party lost more than half of its members when Stalin's inhuman purges were made public. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these interviews, which also included people like Pete Seeger, is the change in attitudes during the 1960s and '70s and the fact that some members of the Communist Party refused to be interviewed because they were afraid of repercussions if their affiliation were made public. These repercussions had taken many forms in the past, including the loss of jobs as in the McCarthy era. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie GuideReview
As with many documentaries, Seeing Red is likely to provoke enormously varying reactions among viewers, based in this instance largely upon their political leanings. Although the political bent of its filmmakers cannot be known (although assumptions can be made), the personal sympathies of James Klein and Julie Reichert clearly lie with their subjects. In other words, whether the creators agree with their subjects’ decision to support (or to continue to support) Communism, Klein and Reichert admire their courage and commitment, and respond on an emotional level to the difficulties (and often tragedies) that befell many as a result of these beliefs – all of which makes for many touching and revealing moments. For example, there’s a terribly affecting sequence in which a former Communist Party member is dismissing and denigrating his youthful involvement with the cause. When, a few moments later, he reads a letter written to his wife while involved with the Party, he is filled with emotion remembering the passion that filled and left a mark on his life during that tumultuous period. This and similar tender, evocative moments are contrasted with tales of horror and with ironic use of footage involving both propaganda and “witch hunts” that produce a chilling effect. Although the film doesn’t go far enough into some areas that it might have – such as the Hitler-Stalin pact or the Stalin purges – it’s still a powerful and haunting documentary. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie GuideCast
- Bill Bailey
- Dorothy Healey
- Pete Seeger
Ronald Reagan; Richard M. Nixon; Hubert Humphrey; J. Edgar Hoover
