|
(Feb 10, 2006) An epic film of the transition from colonialism to neocolonialism, Burn! is also Marlon Brando's most political film. The film presents an analysis of Black revolutionary struggle that is part Marx and part Franz Fanon, as it maps the historic cycles of White colonialist oppression and Black insurgency. At the same time, this 1969 Gillo Pontecorvo classic is a political statement against the Vietnam War. Perhaps that is why United Artists withdrew it from exhibition soon after it opened. Burn! is a political allegory set in a fictional sugar cane-producing Caribbean Island named Queimada. Marlon Brando is Sir William Walker, the 19th-century English equivalent of a CIA operative who has been sent by the British government to fan the flames of an insurrection of the Black slaves. Simultaneously he is to whisper encouraging words to members of the mixed-race urban classes, so when the Portuguese are routed, they will be ready to seize the reins of power. This is not real power, of course, because it is British wealth to which this puppet regime will be permanently indebted. The rebellion transformed Queimada from a colony into a neo-colony nominally independent politically but economically dependent on its new British masters. And, it also transformed slaves into wage slaves, now paid for their labor but little better off than before. Within a decade there is a new rebellion, and Walker is called back this time to put it down. As Walker muses, "Sometimes a single decade can reveal the contradictions of an entire epoch." The counter-insurgency directed by this 19th-century CIA precursor leads to scorched earth scenes reminiscent of Vietnam. Today's viewer might well ask whether history is repeating itself once again. Burn! brings history alive, see it and discuss it. Burn! screening and discussion Sponsored by the Center for Global Justice Thursday, February 16, 3pm Sala Quetzal, Biblioteca Pública 50 pesos information: 150-0025
Immigration reform or repression? |