Movies That Refute the Five Points of Classic Marxism in The Communist Manifesto

Is This What You Really Want?

Movies That Refute the Five Points of Classic Marxism in The Communist Manifesto

By Dr. Ted Baehr, Publisher

Once upon a time, before my life was transformed and made abundant by the process of grace, I went through a period of being a hardcore, card-carrying, attack-oriented leftist who led marches at NYU Law School and Dartmouth College, and who worked with the overtly communist National Lawyers Guild. These positions I held were reviled and disdained at that time by almost all of society, including the hippies. After I found the truth, beauty and love in Jesus Christ that set me free, I met others who labored dunder the misconception that Marxism was the solution to the world’s problems.

Today, the number of people who harbor that misconception has increased dramatically. I would point out to them that Marx said that five things were necessary to achieve the communist society, which is the dictatorship of the proletariat. These positions will be considered in the order of increasing difficulty, not in the order in The Communist Manifesto.

The first point is, to abolish private property. If one didn’t understand the laws of economics, one might think that this might be beneficial when one sees the very small number of people making an enormous amount of money. This Marxist solution can easily be refuted, but for now let’s assume abolishing property might be an option.

The second solution advocated by Marx in the “Communist Manifesto” is to abolish religion. Most people have been taught to disdain religion with erroneous arguments that it has caused horrible things. These teachings can easily be proved wrong, but let’s say to reform society, you abolish religion, except for the religion of Marxism.

The third would be to abolish the nation, which also included abolishing national distinctions, so that you establish an international communist soviet society. Needless to say, abolishing the nations inspired Stalin to kill nine million Ukrainians, Pol Pot to kill three million Cambodians, Mao to kill millions in China, and yet the goal is never reached.

These first three points can be argued and argued, and some will never arrive at a satisfactory point of agreement.

But even so, in my discussions that have led Marxists from the cruelty of a politics of abolition to the Good News of a more abundant life, the point that has turned many of them around is Marx’s vehement call for the abolition of the family. Marx, of course, was a serial adulterer and tyrannical domestic despot, whose offspring committed suicide or died from malnutrition. Since he wanted a profligate life, he saw the family in opposition to his ideal.

However, when I bring this up to people who love their family, as I did with a previous the Secretary of the Treasury in India, they say they don’t want to abolish their family, and they realize they aren’t Marxists.

The most powerful point for convincing people they don’t believe in Marxism is Marx’s call to abolish the individual. He goes on in the “Communist Manifesto” to apply this to women so they’re no longer wives but, when you read between the lines, they’re just organisms for satisfying Marx’s sexual urges. But, abolishing the individual means you no longer have an identity, an identity that would include the very essence of how you were created, your name, your size, your weight, your abilities, your personhood, your sex. Strip all that away, and you have a cruel non-entity, a person without personhood, a non-entity without a country.

The starkness of this should drive anyone away from communism. Marx came to steal your family, your property, your nationhood, your faith, and your identity, and when people didn’t want to be deprived of what they were and what they loved, the Marxist dictators annihilated them: some say up to 150 million of them.

Thus, Marxism came to steal, kill and destroy, just what the Bible says the Devil does, but Jesus came to set you free and give you a more abundant life, so you can be at peace with yourself, enjoy your family, love your neighbor, live in the faithful hope, and live long and prosper.

So, on this 100^th Anniversary of the Russian Revolution, those who are still attracted to the fool’s goal of communism, Marxism and all its offshoots should think carefully about what their consequences are and be reminded that there is Good News, that in opposition to this philosophy of destruction and abolition is a personal relationship with their Creator, who wants to give them the desires of their heart.

Below are some of the best movies that best refute the Five Points of Classic Marxism.

1. Affirming the Individual

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE:  Quality:  * * * * Acceptability:  +1 – 1962:  John Frankenheimer’s Cold War thriller about a Korean War prisoner of war who is brainwashed into becoming a coldly efficient assassin by his communist captors and his power-hungry, ruthless communist mother. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE clearly shows that communism is really just another brand of power-mad fascism. It also shows that you can’t totally erase the individual human spirit.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS:  Quality:  * * * * Acceptability:  +1 – 1956:  INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS remains one of the most suspenseful, exciting, and scary science fiction movies of all time. It tells the story of a small town in California where emotionless, amoral alien pods start taking over the people, one by one. So, even if communists succeed in obliterating the individual, such a life is not worth living.

2. Affirming Religious Liberty

FOR GREATER GLORY:  Quality:  * * * * Acceptability:  -1 – 2012:  FOR GREATER GLORY is a memorable movie about the resistance against the socialist president of Mexico in the 1920s who tried to shut down all the Christian churches forcibly, including shooting innocent people. Despite too many subplots, FOR GREATER GLORY is a very important, captivating movie extolling religious liberty, but caution is advised for some violence.

3. Affirming the Nation State

RED DAWN:  Quality:  * * * * Acceptability:  -1 – 1984:  From the safe, familiar environment of a classroom, we watch countless parachutes drop from the sky and into the heart of America. Oh, no:  invading Commies! Laugh if you want – many do – but Red Dawn has survived countless more acclaimed films because Father Time has always been our most reliable film critic. The essence of timelessness is more than beauty. It’s also truth, and the truth that America is a place and an idea worth fighting and dying for will not be denied, not under a pile of left-wing critiques or even Red Dawn’s own melodramatic flaws. Released at the midpoint of Reagan’s presidential showdown with the Soviet Union, this story of what was at stake in the Cold War endures.

4. Affirming the Family

ELENI (some subtitles):  Quality:  * * * * Acceptability:  +2 − 1986:  ELENI is the greatest movie about a mother’s love in the face of adversity. It is the true story of a mother who was murdered by the communists during the Greek Civil War. Eleni proclaims, “Christ is risen” on Easter, prays to God and concludes before her execution with the touching statement, “It is such a joy to be a mother that I thank God for letting me know it.”

5. Affirming Private Property

IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE:  Quality:  * * * * Acceptability:  +3 – 1946:  Jimmy Stewart plays the beleaguered but good-hearted George Bailey, who finds out what life would be like if he’d never been born. One of the precious things that George discovers he provides is a way for the average family to own their own home and not only make their own lives better but also improve their whole community.

Note:  Dr. Tom Snyder, editor of Movieguide®, contributed to the description of the movies listed above.

Watch ENCANTO →

Quality: - Content: +2

Watch HIS GIRL FRIDAY →

Quality: - Content: +1