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Cultural Revolution In The Film Mao's Last Dancer

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To a fairly large extent the movie Mao's Last Dancer was an accurate and thoughtful depiction of the propaganda, chaos and turmoil of the Cultural Revolution in China. However, terrible acts of violence and torture that characterized the Cultural Revolution were not as prominent in the film. However; the film still remains a fairly accurate depiction of the time period 1966-1976 as it accurately portrays the propaganda, education, and arts revolution of the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution was mainly aimed at the youth of China who Chairman Mao feared would "make peace with imperialism" and abandon the ideals of the Communist revolution (Source C). Therefore it was only fitting that the propaganda of the Cultural Revolution was …show more content…

The movie sensationalizes the violence by only showing acts of violence in distant memories of Cunxin and not depicting the widespread torture and harassment of educators and counter revolutionaries. The Cultural Revolution was largely characterized by terrible acts of violence that were carried out by the Red Guards mostly against teachers and intellectuals (Source B). This torture was so grusome that many people died. Despite this, the film failed to portray these acts of violence and instead portrayed the propaganda and fear of western imperialism of the Chinese Communist government. This was depicted when the Chinese government was reluctant to allow Cunxin to travel to America because of the fear that he would be indoctrinated by the anti-Communists and not return to China. While there was one scene in which Cunxin had a memory of violence, when he watched an execution of 'class enemies', (Source A) it did not do justice to the 'attacks' that took place. Thus it can be seen that the film Mao's Last Dancer is a fairly fitting representation of the Cultural Revolution. The film depicts the influence that Communist government had on its people, the cultural transformation in China as well as the effect on the youth. However, one factor that the film failed to completely represent is the brutality and cruelty of the Red Guards and the Communist

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