Strike : Sergei Eisenstein

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It’s an utter coincidence that I had watched 2023 Eisenstein’s Strike [1925] on 4rth May, just following Chaplin’s feature oeuvre. And I was immensely moved by the movie not only for its narrative style and formal structure but also mostly the themes of human dignity and labor rights and their eternal conflicts with the owners’ interests.

 

The following morning, I came across a post on my Facebook News Feed about the strike of Writers Guild of America held on 2nd May, 2023 just day after the International Labor Day. The disputes are very crucial and contemporary. One is about cutting short the residual payments for Streaming platforms, another is a more delicate one. It is about the threat of human creativity and engagement of the entertainment industry. Employing AI based technologies especially ChatGPT and automations on creative process is minimizing their rooms to work under stable conditions.

 

Previously I wrote a brief review on Chaplin’s Modern Times released in 1936 where the technological advancement in production and operating systems created a vast amount of unemployment and a psychological strain and social discontent. Here in 2023, the world is facing the same degree of discomfort and uncertainty for the same technological assignment. On a very personal note, I have observed that some businessmen are reluctant to treat their employees as free-willing agents in the working places. In modern office set-ups decorated with highly advanced appliances, they don’t even think that the employee should enjoy the ILD as a full paid holiday, some try to keep the office open for more working hours.

 

I can’t get the idea that we are experiencing sheer insecurity over the issue of AI. If we follow the stream of technological development, we will see there are no such centuries in the modern world when we had not faced some sorts of changes and we had not fallen in the pit of progress with insecurity. But we had always recovered the transformation phases because everything was for the good usage of human beings. But this AI phase is different which is in pursuit of replacing human engagement. But I am a bit optimistic that this one also will reverse its path for the sake of humanity. If it doesn’t, I wonder, what if AI replaces not only the working class but also both the capitalist and consumer class. Though it is a whim and a prospect too.

 

I was stunned to watch Yakov Strongen’s suicide being accused of stealing that ignited the strike and lead to demand 8 hours working duration, fair management treatment and annual wage increase; as good as the WGA is on strike for maximum human employment [controlled AI hire, fair working arrangement [replace writers’ room for mini-room] and inclusive payment system. I wonder, it really happened in 2023.

 

Eisenstein is the master of shooting with the mass. There are many things to learn from him. The whistle, march and escape shooting are as marvelous as I could conceive of. In the beginning of part 3 when the kid woke up the dad and they played is heart-warming as much as when the police threw the kid from the roof and it died is heart-wrenching.

 

The rhythmic montages and dissolves from the animals into human forms are really unique if I consider the filming period.


 Strike [1925]

Стачка

Sergei Eisenstein

Russian, USSR


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