Under Appreciated Films of History II

In my ongoing quest to bring under appreciated films to light, I've decided to highlight a film that is not as interesting for its merits as a film, but for the way that it can be used to view the era and culture in which it was made. Said film is the 1965 movie The East Is Red, which is actually more of a recording of a stage musical—or “song and dance epic” as they describe it—with a few shots in the beginning of the surrounding city and a large crowd of people coming in to watch the play.

Because the opening of the film consists of shots of Beijing before focusing on the large crowd entering the theater to watch the performance of The East Is Red, technically the plot is about a large crowd of people coming to watch the song and dance epic, and then loving it. It is an unusual mix between stage and film, where it is a film, but the stage is diegetic. The plot of the musical itself is a party-approved retelling of the history of the revolution, from the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and nationalist army, the Kuomintang, against Western imperialism, to the CCP’s victory over the Kuomintang, uniting the Chinese mainland under communist rule. The film may be blatant propaganda, but it is pre-cultural revolution propaganda, and it exhibits a grandiose spectacle well-deserving of its self-proclaimed title of “song and dance epic.”

Besides this, there isn’t much to say about the film as a film. There aren’t any standout performances, because the entire thing is a cast of so many people, and any main characters, like Mao Zedong or the leader of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-Shek, are never shown, only mentioned by one of the two narrators. As such, the dancers on stage don’t serve as physical characters, but rather the physical embodiment of one of the factions in the story, whether they be the Westerners at the beginning, the CCP, the Kuomintang, the Japanese army, or the “liberated” people of Tibet at the end of the film. What’s more important about this film, and why I wanted to share it, is how this film reflects the CCP and China at the time of its making.

The revolution had been over for only a short period by this time, and Mao held a lot of power, the cultural revolution, and its imprisonment and execution of several real and perceived enemies of Mao being just on the horizon. This film represents the official party account of the history of the party, and they have already severely altered it, most egregiously by having Tibetan singers sing in their native tongue about how grateful they are to Mao for liberating them. But if that was the film's only purpose, then why show the shots of Beijing and the mass of people entering the theater? This film isn’t just trying to show what’s on stage, literally and figuratively. The song and dance epic is a lavish production, the city looks urban and wealthy, and the people look happy and cultured. The film attempts to show that China under the CCP is prospering like never before. It posits that the traitorous Kuomintang can flee to Taiwan for now, because the CCP has liberated China and has finally created a prospering nation state out of it. Not only that, but that Tibet would do well to stay in the CCP’s hands so that they can receive the same modernization. It’s an insidious piece of propaganda that hides a second message behind the spectacle and over the top attitude of its primary message. I encourage you to give this film a watch, if only for the amazing song and dance aspect, but I urge you to keep an eye on the propaganda of the film, and see what messages it’s trying to tell you, both overtly and beneath its surface. Then maybe you can take those same techniques with you to the next film you watch.