I didn’t see much info about it prior to watching, went with some friends. A large part of the movie is about his possible communist affiliations, and his defaming. It wasn’t insanely anti-communist, but it definitely operated under the assumption communism equals bad. Anyone else have some thoughts on it?
It was WAY less anti-communist than I’m used to. I felt like it acknowledged the anti-communist bent of many characters and it distorted Marxism somewhat, but on the whole? I felt like I was watching the same movie liberals were watching, and that’s rare. The most anti-communist characters in the movie were political enemies of the protagonist and I feel like the sense of unease they invoked was intentional on the part of the director. It felt like Nolan understood that Franco and the white army were fascists, and that the audience was meant at times to be cheering for people who had held membership in the Communist party. It could have been way worse.
Yeah, I think communists in the movie were painted fairly favourably, and McCarthyism of the error was less so. I do feel like they intentionally left out Einstein’s socialist preference, but who’s to say