Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Young Marx- the movie

I got to see the movie ' Young Marx' at the Goethe institute Chennai, recently. The screening was a part of the programs put together by the Institute to commemorate 200 years of Marx. This was a deeply moving movie and gave me a fair introduction to the life and works of the most celebrated Comrade. it is sad that i have done very little reading in the area of Marx and communism, so i did not want to miss the opportunity of watching this movie, hoping to get a fair idea of what this man's life and work was about, and this movie did treat me very regally to this subject.


the movie opens up with sequences of what a loving couple Marx and Jenny are. Marx is not afraid of voicing his ideas against the prominent personalities of the time and Jenny strongly supports his ravings and ideas. Marx and Engels' first meeting is very acrimonious, with Marx spewing aspersions at Engels for being a rich and a spoilt kid feeding upon the Slums for his scholarship. But very soon they become the friends and the best pals they would be for the rest of their life. 

Marx' continued struggle with poverty was a very painful feature of the movie. the continued alienation due to political alienation makes things very difficult. But Jenny's love ad Engel's friendship prove to be the best things to have happened to Marx in his struggle full life.

The contribution of Marx and Engels to the world history be seemed to be in defining the relation ship of the Labor with the Bourgeois in definitive terms as being absolute polars and one of clear confrontation.  They made it clear and soundly that the Labor had no option but to fight and win his rights, else he is only bound to be taken advantage of. The ideas till then were kind of Placatory and aimed at incremental consensus building. But Marx and Engels turned the tables and declared a war on inequality and exploitation. Thanks to this historic moment we have better conditions for Labor today.

Marx worked very hard on his writings. He wanted to put together a solid theory to frame the aspects of his struggle. The film closes with the historic declaration of the communist manifesto. It was fascinating to learn under what pressing circumstances Marx had put together the principals that would define centuries of struggle for labor rights across the world.

The movie also captures brilliantly Engels' dilemma of living off his father's wealth and fighting against the exploitation that the wealth earns. Engels' love story, in contrast to that of Marx, comes across as experimental and with shades sadness.

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