Born In Flames (1983)
Picture: C-
Sound: C Extras: C Film: B-
Director Lizzie Borden has been celebrated as an in
comparable female (and feminist to enough of an extent) director, but is she
really innovative, just being bold or both?
Looking at her 1983 film Born In Flames, bold would be the more
operative word. The film imagines a
near future where a second “peaceful” socialist (and in effect, communist)
revolution is taking place in the U.S. where oppressed lesbians unite with other
women who are being held behind by “the system” in it all of its
institutionalized sexism and oppression as she sees it. That this is a Second Socialist
Cultural Revolution (the kind Right-wingers feared if Carter had been
re-elected?) shows that this is being done tongue-in-cheek to be humorous, so
it is not dead serious, but it is to the extents the issues are or are not that
become the tipping point. This might
not be apparent to some, however.
If you follow the dogma of the extreme, reactionary Right,
that brainwashing is bound to make the film seem dated outright when that is
not the point and Left of center ideology in general is made to be
cartoonish. That the film is satirical
could leave it open to that perversion, while just that these issues are being
discussed in a film that was made independently, had a low budget and took five
years to make can be attacked as not being some A-production as if most of
today’s A productions were not usually empty B-movies to begin with. That thinking comes from the same Right-wing
minds who wrote off any political protest as the participants celebrating some
kind of 1960s nostalgia when most of the participants were not even born at the
time!
The argument has been made that what the women are doing
here is the pre-Internet equivalent of Blogging, though there were plenty of
pirate radio outlets and political publications (even the 1970s Comix cycle)
that would be even closer to this than TV broadcasting. The consolidation of media (likely to
prevent this kind of alternate discourse) during the eras of Reagan and Bush
has made the film technically dated somewhat (i.e., here comes digital TV,
whereas this is analog) but that does not make the film overall that way. To see the women take over a station in the
more highly concentrated era of ownership would arguably have the same
effect. Knowing the Science Fiction and
political aspects of such films, I found it ideological predictable in certain
ways, but half the fun is supposed to be in getting there, which works if you
are in on the joke.
All that also makes it interesting and unintentionally
amusing. On one side, they take an old
analog pre-cable/pre-satellite TV station by force to broadcast what they
want. The idea is understandable, but
the means, execution and the ultimate futility of all that violent effort now
seem more in vein than ever, though this is enough of a comedy. V For Vendetta it is not, especially
since the Left are supposedly winning/won in the takeover. The film is still correct about not enough
of a safety net being available for women in trouble and the sexism and
misogyny are still with us, but have also not so cleverly transmuted into a
phony kind of sheep’s clothing.
At the time, this was shocking, but unlike other serious
radical works about the U.S. (like say, Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate
or Grandmaster Flash’s The Message) this one has not held as much
potency since it has humor and that should also make us question the Norman
Lear/Bud Yorkin cycle of political TV situation comedies like All In The
Family. Did they have an
unintentionally oversimplistic effect that nods approvingly to be too
complacent, a slacker and tune out?
This “Forest Gumping” your way through such political success is
dangerous, so the film to some extent can stand as a living time capsule about
why the Republican Reclamation was possible and why the Extreme Right has been
so successful, though the film has more to offer. When you allow yourself to be this flawed, off guard and even
arrogant of course, it could not be easier to be undermined, but the film is
not in the clouds as signified by its smart humor. To say otherwise is to punish the film’s joyous aspects,
especially interesting when it is the joy of such a diverse group of women.
Borden is more interested in the joy of its dark fantasy
than the reality of how this would be workable in real life, though it covers
that to some extent in ways that will make you think of such diverse films as
James Whale’s Bride Of Frankenstein (1935), Gillo Pontecorvo’s The
Battle Of Algiers (1965) and even John Carpenter’s later They Live
(1988), all of which reminds us of both its connection to politics, documentary
and the Science Fiction genre. I cannot
go into the film more without spoiling it or bringing up spoilers, but with
that said, I strongly recommend all serious film fans and thinking adults needs
to see it at least once as required viewing.
The 1.33 X 1 image is very muddy from a very old NTSC
analog video transfer, but the film would look better in real life, as shot in
16mm color reversal film. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is almost as many generations down, but has good audio for the
kind of production it is. The DVD
performance is a bit disappointing, but will pass. Extras include a DVD-ROM PDF interview with the director and
trailers for other First Run titles. On
one last point, the women definitely targets capitalism (especially as
practiced by the U.S.) as white male patriarchal, one and the same, without taking
other factors into account, which is a fallacy if taken too seriously. That is further expressed by the conclusion,
which I also will not spoil. Instead, I
will follow up this review with an interview with the director soon, so be on
the lookout for that. Catch the film
and all of Miss Borden’s work in the meantime.
- Nicholas Sheffo
