initiated by carol on September 05, 2008 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0468559/)
The "Torn from the Flag" documentary film - by Klaudia Kovacs - of the 1956 revolution in Hungary stands out by its absolute credibility and how it captivates the interest from the beginning to the end. As a true documentary, even though it presents facts by showing original footings of film reports and makes surviving participants speak - it does not draw conclusions. The viewer does that so much more
The "Torn from the Flag" documentary film - by Klaudia Kovacs - of the 1956 revolution in Hungary stands out by its absolute credibility and how it captivates the interest from the beginning to the end. As a true documentary, even though it presents facts by showing original footings of film reports and makes surviving participants speak - it does not draw conclusions. The viewer does that so much stronger. And the unavoidable conclusion is that communism is not the paradise for the working class, but the hell; that the soviet domination gained no friends, only enemies and some collaborators who tried to get out; that nobody was fighting for the system: there are no elements of a civil war in that uprising, it was only Hungarians against the soviet military; that the young generation raised by communist indoctrination turned out to be the most ferocious enemy of the system and became the backbone of the revolution. The demand was not for material gains but for freedom and democracy, not as a result of any outside influence but out of healthy, human instinct, the awakening of the soul. We also saw that the revolution was not planned, prepared and organized, it was completely spontaneous, actually unexpected and surprising at that time. Because it would have been badly timed, coinciding with the American presidential elections and the Suez Canal crisis. The West did not aid it, to the contrary: it was abandoned. I was lucky to see this film at its premiere as part of the AFI Fest. Everybody else should see it. The Hungarian 1956 event was the beginning of the collapse of the world communism and a proof that no system, based on lies, can survive too long.
