Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
by Deb Ellis;Denis Mueller
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Actor: Alice Walker, Daniel Berrigan, Howard Zinn, Matt Damon, Noam ChomskyDirector: Deb Ellis;Denis Mueller
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 78 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-05-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: FIRST RUN FEATURES
DVD Reviews of Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
DVD Review: An Elder Radical Statesman
Summary: 4 Stars
In a lifetime of leftist political work I have run into precious few professors or other intellectual workers who have been committed to a long term radical perspective on American society, much less a call for radical change. The subject of this documentary, Boston University's Professor Emeritus Howard Zinn is an exception. Although there has been for a long time a vast political gulf between the good professor and I in terms of how we see the organization of political change occurring we both share fundamentally the same radical critique of American imperialism.
This short documentary flushes out Professor Zinn's early New York City working class upbringing, his military service in World War II and his later reflections on his part in that experience that began to lead him to a more radical perspective. The film also details his political perspectives over a lifetime of activism beginning with the early civil rights movement down in the South in the 1950's and early 1960's, centrally around the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, which he wrote a book about). Much time is spent on Zinn's very visible role as an active oppositional voice in the central experience of my generation, Vietnam. Then onto the struggle in Central America in the 1980's in defense of the Sandinistas and others to the most recent fight against the war in Iraq started by President Bush and his coterie in 2003 and that continues to this day. Just listing the fights Zinn has participated in tells something about our society as well as about the tenacity of the professor. Additionally, Zinn's highly literate historical works are considered here, especially the very useful People's History of The United States (which deserves a separate review of its own that I will do later in this space) that is a bible of sorts for identifying a progressive alternative interpretation of the development of American capitalist society and is something of his crowning glory.
Howard Zinn is clearly the star of this documentary, as he should be (with cameos by wife and companion Roz and other academic leftists such a as Francis Fox Piven and Staughton Lynd). However, I got the distinct feeling while viewing the film that the way he was presented was as something of an old radical gadfly spurring everyone on to "keep up the good fight". And that is fine, as we certainly need those radical academic voices to spur on the youth. I also note that Zinn's influence seems to be far greater on my generation than on latter ones. That is hardly his fault. Each generation needs to come to a progressive social perspective in its own way. As a son of the very poorest layer of the working class from the generation after his I could relate to his upbringing but that compelling life story, as the current usage goes, might not be so to the Obama generation.
What is brother Zinn's "fault" is, however, except for than a very strong sense of personal witness on his part against the injustices of the world is that he has no idea about how one would effectively organize the resistance to the American state. That in the final analysis was the weakness of one of his heroines, Emma Goldman, and it is his as well. One hardly needs to be a Leninist, although that might help, to know that moral suasion is not enough to go up against the monsters that run this society. And win. We can fight that question out at another time. But let me go back to that first sentence of this paragraph about the strong sense of social justice and the need to bare the inequities of this society. For that, Professor Zinn, all honor to you.
DVD Review: Truly one of our nation's greatest patriots
Summary: 5 Stars
Patriotism, it seems to me, isn't a my-country-right-or-wrong sort of attitude. Instead, patriotism is a yearning for one's nation to live up to ideals of liberty, equality, and justice. This means that a patriot will both work hard to make sure that the ideals become reality and have the courage to speak truth to power when the ideals get sidetracked.
By this definition, Howard Zinn is one of this country's foremost patriots, and "You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train," part biography and part commentary, gives a good idea why. Growing up in a blue collar family, serving in World War II (where, he later discovered, he dropped some of the first napalm ever used in war), converted to pacifism by his war experiences, teaching at Spielman College, active in the civil rights movement (and fired from Spelman for his efforts), moving to Boston University, getting involved in the anti-war movement, writing his classic A People's History of the United States, and continuing today, in his mid-80s, to lecture and write and teach: these are some of the moments in his life covered in the film.
One of the more interesting themes throughout the film--one captured by the title--is Zinn's contention that historians are never neutral, despite their occasional claims of scholarly objectivity. One of the tasks of an historian is to help contemporaries see and learn from the dark spots of history--the often neglected resistance of "ordinary" people to the world's movers and shakers. In recording and passing on the underbelly of history, as it were, the historian can inspire as well as educate.
What comes through clearly is that Zinn is not only a remarkably smart and dedicated man. He's also a man of humor, compassion, and humility, as one suspects anyone who has achieved what he has must be.
The film is a loose adaptation of Zinn's autobiography of the same title. Watch the film, read the book, then move on to A People's History for a good primer on what it means to be patriotic.
DVD Review: The Original "Question Authority" Man
Summary: 5 Stars
I was fortunate to be able to see this film in the company of people who "get it," and within the context of a rare community that "gets it". Zinn's uncompromising challenge to a broken system of Might Makes A Mess is refreshing. Maybe that's because I am otherwise surrounded by people who scapegoat liberals, gays and flag burners (as if that's a big problem anywhere in the U.S.) to balance the moral deficit created by napalm, smart bombs and a government that turns out not to be impartial, after all. It's an uphill battle sometimes. You've heard the arguments, and the people who make them, about how war is good for the economy; brutality and torture are just a part of war; get the terrorists on their own turf before they get us on ours, etc., etc. ad nauseam.
That history repeats itself is discouraging enough, without realizing how mistakes get repeated, as well--re: G.W.B. (alias Whiskey Tango Foxtrot). I just heard on the news that Dick Cheney has declared himself no longer a member of the Executive Branch of government? He has assumed Presidency of the Senate, instead, to circumvent having to provide the Senate with intelligence? Try to figure that one out. In this age of diluted authority, evil intelligence seems to have possessed entire organizations, and individuals are no longer held responsible.
This film is as good a biography of Zinn as you can get. His early romance with wife Ros, and their blossoming partnership were touching. The irony of giving an anti-war speech at the very moment he was being voted for tenure at B.U. was comedic. Levity was sprinkled generously throughout the film. Never an obnoxious zealot, he is a warm-and-human hearted activist. His confrontation with former Boston U. President John Silber was delightfully "in your face".
Co-Director Deb Ellis was present in the hall where this documentary showed, and answered many questions afterward.
Some factoids revealed by Ellis during Q&A:
- Apparently, whether Zinn ever actually sang "America the Beautiful" to the North Vietnamese was questionable.
- Zinn put up a protective barrier between the producers and Ros, but they penetrated his defense by impressing how important it was that she be included in the film. Once that barrier came down, Ros supplied the directors with loads of photographs and ephemera.
- One of Howard's complaints, apparently, was that there "wasn't enough of me in it."
I actually have met at least one person in the documentary, and that was the gentleman who introduced Howard at a B.U. rally near the documentary's end. He happens to be conduct ACLU meetings for the area where I live. The man who brought the film to our little local theater showed up with a box of Howard Zinn-signed "A People's History of America" books, and of course I bought one for my activist niece. I hope she never loses her youthful idealism, the way Howard Zinn apparently has not.
One other anecdote, I watched the Zinn play "Marx in Soho" on the same stage that I saw this film. The cameo appearance of an actor who played that part in "You Can't Be Neutral" was nowhere near as Marx-like as the actor I saw (and interviewed, and had lunch with on the Saturday he came to town), a history professor by the name of Jerry Levy, of Marlboro College, Vermont.
DVD Review: A revolution in kindness.
Summary: 5 Stars
Sometimes I find the thoughts of Zinn's detractors to be at least as interesting as those of his admirers. Bernard Chapin's negative review was no exception. Chapin holds a world view that our militarists are constantly pushing in an attempt to rationalize their aggression; that is, "foul acts like murder, slavery, and wanton destruction are ubiquitous to humanity, and were committed by people all over the world since the beginning of time" (to quote Chapin's review of Pat Buchanan's "State of Emergency"). There is usually an element of truth to effective propaganda and, no doubt, the Nazis, Genghis Khan, Stalin, child abusers, rapists and others have resorted to similar rationalizations for their own "foul acts." Zinn, on the other hand,
resists the perception management efforts that make war easy. Instead, he's been a tireless advocate for the causes of peace and justice. He's been at the war protests, stood in the picket lines, lectured/written tirelessly, and he's supported groups like "Emergency" that sends doctors into war zones to try to stitch together the bodies torn apart by the "wanton destruction" of Western so-called Civilization.
Zinn himself has directly participated in that destruction. As a World War II bombadeer, he was part of a raid that pioneered the use of napalm. It was an act for which many would have sought some psychologically comforting justification. Zinn instead chose to be honest about the inexcusable barbarity of burning civilians alive, and dedicated himself to resisting the efforts of our warlords. One of his many insights that undercut the narratives of our military establishment is this bit of good news that appears towards the end of the film, Zinn is quoted as saying, "To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness . . . And if we do act, in however small a way, we don't have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
It's this reminder, that wanton kindness is just as much a part of our nature as anything else, that is the most subversive message of Zinn's work. It also is the teaching of the Dalai Lama, our mothers, and other people very much worth listening to.
DVD Review: Fabricating History.
Summary: 1 Stars
Few leftist icons are looked upon more favorably than professor and activist Howard Zinn. Like many radical ideologues, he is the darling of students, the professorate, and the glitterati. Indeed, Hollywood star Matt Damon provided the narration for a hagiographic documentary about his life entitled, Howard Zinn -You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train.
"You can't be neutral" is a reference to Zinn's belief that all history is skewed by the mind that conveys it, and that the best historians must be "engaged" in political and societal matters. Therefore, it is non-remarkable when their discussion of events always manages to be harmonious with their worldview. Such a post-modernist outlook is quite popular today, but prevalence is not always an indication of value. Zinn informs viewers that no work is ever completely objective, which then allows him (and other activists) to avoid using research and citations which do not substantiate their pre-determined suppositions.
That no historical account is ever 100 percent objective cannot be doubted, but an automaton's level of clinical impartiality is neither possible nor expected. One commits a black-or-white fallacy by pretending that it is as nothing can ever be 100 percent objective or subjective. Good history doggedly attempts to be unbiased. When it abandons its detachment, any amount of distortion becomes acceptable; history gets alchemized into propaganda. Zinn minimizes his own lack of scholarship in The Peoples' History of the United States by claiming that it was not written with an academic audience in mind.
As a man, Zinn appears to be more celebrity than egghead. He isn't one to quibble over the nature of secondary or primary source materials, he'd rather illustrate his points by quoting lyrics from a Woody Guthrie song. No doubt that the directors of this film ascribe to their subject's view of fairness as not one of the individuals interviewed uttered a single negative syllable about Zinn. Uniformly leftist luminaries like Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Marian Wright Edelman, Daniel Ellsberg, and Tom Hayden spent their segments exalting the importance of his impact upon society.
Their depiction of Zinn's personality was most revealing and in keeping with the tendencies of leftists in general. According to his friends and associates, he possesses a "steely anger," and "an endless capacity for moral outrage" which is representative of the whole. Dr. John Ray's key psychological components of the leftist are discernible in Zinn as his need for fame, praise, power, and attention are quite pronounced.
At one point, Zinn's perceptions appear utterly astonishing. As a Jew in the Air Force who was sent to fight the Nazis during World War II, he found himself in a position of, what should have been, absolute moral clarity. If ever a person was placed into a position where war was morally just, this was it. However, his reminiscences are confined to indignation over his unit's bombing an enclave of German soldiers. He lamented the action as the men in the French village, "weren't doing anything to anybody"--except defending the boundaries of a genocide state.
Perhaps the best way to sum up Howard Zinn is through words he applied to Uncle Sam: "limited, opinionated and with special interests."
Description of Howard Zinn - You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
In these turbulent times, Howard Zinn is inspiring a new generation. This acclaimed film looks at the amazing life of the renowned historian, activist and author of the landmark book 'A People's History of the United States', an eye-opening history from the perspective of the disenfranchised.Following his early days as a shipyard labor organizer and bombardier in World War II, Zinn became an academic rebel and leader of civil disobedience in a time of institutionalized racism and war. His influential writings shine light on and bring voice to factory workers, immigrant laborers, African Americans, Native Americans and the working poor.
Featuring rare archival materials and interviews with Zinn and colleagues such as Noam Chomsky, YOU CAN'T BE NEUTRAL captures the essence of this extraordinary man who has been a catalyst for progressive change for more than 60 years. Narrated by Matt Damon; Featuring Music by Pearl Jam, Woody Guthrie & Billy Bragg.
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