Customer Reviews

Faith of the Century: A History of Communism

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This documentary is great for individual viewing, but I also strongly recommend this film to teachers and small-group leaders, not only in courses on history and international relations, but for small-group discussion in congregations and libraries, community centers and seniors' groups.

This 2-disc set is a French-produced, 4-hour documentary on the rise and fall of communism around the world. Sound dull? It isn't.

In the nearly two decades that have passed since revolutions swept across eastern Europe and transformed the old-style communist world, archives have opened up and poured out a stunning wealth of documents, photographs and film footage. I'm a lifelong student of film and of documentaries in particular and I saw startling scenes in this film that I had never seen before.

Yes, the documentary was produced in France and there is a complete French narration. But there's also a solid English narration of the entire film that's just a "click" away in a "set up" screen. There are some scenes with subtitles, but mainly the action flows vividly with the English-language narrator orienting us to the historic events we're watching.

The film moves from Russia to the U.S., from eastern Europe to Cuba, from China to Vietnam. The producers made a huge effort to connect the communist dots all around the world.

The film's central assertion is: Although claiming to replace religion, communism itself became a major world faith. The film's central questions are: How could billions of people have fallen under the umbrella of a faith that either actively or passively led to the deaths of tens of millions under Stalin and Mao? What moved so many men and women to adopt the faith so passionately? And what finally tore away the veil of this faith?

Given that American Baby Boomers grew up in a world in which good and evil was defined by our teachers and civic leaders as a struggle with communism, this is a film series we all should watch. Plus, it's four-part format is perfectly divided for a month-long series of discussions in a small group. Invite group members to share their own recollections about each era either from their own experiences or those of their family and friends.

It is estimated that Hitler killed between 11-17 million people in his camps and extermination programmes. And I am so thankful that Hollywood has produced numerous factual documentaries and fact based films exposing the horror of the Nazis and the Holocaust. It strikes me as strange that there is no similar size body of work by Hollywood exposing the 20 million murdered by Soviet Communist leader Josef Stalin or the 40 million murdered by Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong or the other atrocities of Communism. While precise figures may never be known, it is estimated that as many as 259 million people were murdered under Communist regimes between 1917-1987.

With a growing number people from labour leaders to politicians to those who consider themselves the intellectual elite openly endorsing socialism and communism as a model for America, this film together with Edvins Snore's "The Soviet Story" and "Socialism A Clear and Present Danger" are films every American should watch. The promised utopia has never been realised by any socialist/communist country and communism has been responsible for more death and suffering in the last 100 years than any other single system of belief. Even today, political prisons operate in countries like China, North Korea, Vietnam and elsewhere. And there are indications that a growning number of former Russian Communists including Putin are wanting to return to the old ways. Also, I do not understand is why this DVD is listed as it is on Amazon ("Socialism A Clear and Present Danger" isn't even carried on Amazon). Both can be found at resonable prices at other websites.