The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in The Spanish Civil War (review)

The Good Fight: The Abraham Lincoln Brigade in The Spanish Civil War Produced and directed by Noel Buckner, Mary Dore and Sam Sills. Narrated by Studs Türkei. Project historian David Paskin. 1984, color and black & white, 98 min. Distributed by First Run Features: classroom rental $175. The Good Fight, financed in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, is a sympathetic portrayal of the Americans who volunteered to assist the Spanish government during the civil war of 1936-1939, a military rebellion aided by the fascist governments of Italy and Germany. The film focuses primarily on the testimony and experiences of the men who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a component of the International Brigades of some 40,000 volunteers from all over the world. The film also includes interviews with women who served in the Loyalist medical corps. Like many historical documentaries being made today, this one combines archival film, photographs, and sound recordings organized around interviews with persons who lived through the events protrayed. The archival materials are well selected, high-quality reproductions. The "witnesses" are informative, articulate and engaging, and convey the viewpoints of men and women (including Black Americans) who were involved in the war. The presentation overall is lucid and the filmmakers' intent couldn't be clearer. The film is in the final analysis an unabashed tribute to the volunteers. The readers of this journal will want to know the documentary's pedagogical value. Perhaps the best place to begin is by describing what one should not expect to find in this film. First, it is not a general history of the Spanish Civil War like To Die In Madrid, Frederic Rossif's moving documentary chronology. Second, it is not a history of the internecine political struggles between the Republican Government, dominated by a socialist/communist coalition, and the revolutionary left and the anarchists. Third, it is not a history of the machinations by the Soviet Union which aided the Loyalist side at the expense of the immediate social revolution. The New York Times' (April 15, 69 1984) critique of ?he Good Fight dwells on Russia's apparent forei gn pol i cy obje cti ves ? ? ai di ng the Loyal ist side without discussing the fi Im i tsel f . Like it or not., _____ The Good Fight , is def i ? a tel y about a chapter in the history of Ame ri can fore ign pol icy, for it looms large in the backgr ound of al 1 th e di s c u s s i ? ? s about neutrality, aid, and trav el r e s t r i c ti on s . But unfo rtunatel y it is here that the fi lmm aker s do ? ots hare the h s i t o r i a ? ' s interest. The words of t he ? eteran vol unte ers are valuable as points of view, but th ey h ardi y begi ? to d e s c r i b e much less explain the dynamics of Amer i e an ? ol i c y toward the war or its participants. Roo seve It, Hu 11, and the Cong ress settled on a policy of ne utra 1 i ty t hat hel ? ed to gu arantee a fascist victory. Several f ac tors ? rêve ? ted Rooseve 1 t from having a free hand: oppo siti on to hi s dome stic pro grams and the uncertainty that it c ause d in f o rei gn a f f a i r s ; isolationism; and traditi onal ties to B ri ta in and F ranee whose policies failed to chai 1 enge Germ ana nd I tal i an agression until it was mu ch t 001 at e to pre vent a w ori d war . A di scu i ss i on of these im port ant is sues wou Id help to create a context for this film i ? th e cías sroo m. Viewing the fimi on its own me ri ts , st uden ts w ill gain knowledge in several area s: t he mot i vat ions and...