MIM Movie Review

This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.

A Yank in Libya
65 minutes
1942

reviewed by mim3@mim.org

Just a tad up from a B grade movie, "A Yank in Libya" is about an Amerikan 
reporter who stumbles onto a Nazi plot to instigate revolt against the British 
in Libya. However, Nazis and Islamic rebels find out about him and nearly kill 
him. The overtones are completely contemporary as Nazi arming of the Islamic 
rebels foreshadows Reagan and Bush Sr.'s funding, training and arming of Al-
Qaeda.

U.$. military intelligence fools an Arab womyn to help free his Amerikan 
reporter friend from prison. Her motive was to gain a fake pearl necklace that 
the intelligence officer bought for 15 cents at Woolworth's. He told her 15 
cents is worth 20 camels in Libya. This reminds us of the struggle today against 
chauvinists still trying to pass off the living standards in imperialist 
countries as equal to those of the oppressed countries with tall tales of lower 
prices in the oppressed nations--15 cents for 20 camels for example.

Seeking to marry into the British interests in the area, the highest ranking 
Arab royalty manages to call off a revolt just in time to save the Amerikans and 
British in Libya. He keeps a peace treaty with the British and sees to the 
disarming of his own people.

The next year in real life, the British and French re-colonized Libya.

Taking a perfectly just war against the Nazis and goofing it with movies like 
this requires some effort. Black Panther George Jackson's ill-considered remarks 
on World War II and how oppressed nations did not care about its outcome come to 
mind as justified by this sort of movie.

It is ironic to see a chauvinist movie used to mobilize people to attack a 
chauvinist like Hitler. Other competitors in this genre include "Superman" 
serials at the time, especially the one featuring African cannibals instigated 
by Hitler to eat the Allies. Although "A Yank in Libya" probably worked for the 
Amerikan cracker public for reasons totally unconnected to overt politics, we 
would have considered a movie like this objective aid to the Nazis and we would 
have suppressed it.