NFR Project: 'With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain' (1937-1938)

 

NFR Project: ‘With the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain’

Dir: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Herbert Kline

Pho: Jacques Lemare, Robert Capa

1937-1938

20:21

This film, part of a fundraising effort, documents the actions of the Lincoln Brigade, a group of volunteers who fought the Fascists in Spain.

OK, some context. The Spanish Civil War took place from 1936 to 1939. The conflict was between the leftists, known as the Republicans (and as the Loyalists and as the Popular Front), versus the right-wing Fascists, monarchists, and conservatives under the command of military leaders, known as the Nationalists.

Republican soldiers were, by and large, Communists, and recruiting was heavy across the Western world. Eventually, approximately 3,000 Americans joined more than 35,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries round the world, their working-class compatriots, in the ranks of the Republicans.

The Republicans were doomed. Although they were backed by the Soviet Union, Francisco Franco, the Nationalist leader, had Hitler and Mussolini helping him with materiel, weapons, strategy, and more. Towns were bombed. Partisans were shot. The Republicans were outmanned and outgunned.

Thus the need for the film. It was intended as a fundraising tool for a Rehabilitation Fund for wounded American soldiers trying to return home from the front. It was created by the great French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson along with Herbert Kline, who visited the conflict during the summer and autumn of 1937. Their footage, combined with some front-line footage made by Robert Capa, were spliced together to provide a portrait of the people involved in the conflict.

“THESE NEWSREEL SCENES JUST ARRIVED FROM THE FRONT AND HAVE BEEN QUICKLY ASSEMBLED SO THAT YOU MIGHT SEE WITHOUT DELAY THESE FIRST CLOSE UPS OF THE BRAVE FIGHTERS,” the opening title proclaims. We see many short shots of the soldiers – a ragtag bunch. We see them bathing, eating, marching. We see them convalescing after a battle.

Finally, the film’s title cards exhort the viewer to contribute to the Fund. “THE PEOPLE OF AMERICA MUST HELP THESE BOYS. IN SPAIN – THE LINCOLN BRIGADE WITH THE PEOPLE OF SPAIN STILL FIGHT ON AGAINST FASCISM . . . IN AMERICA – WE MUST CONTINUE OUR TRADITION OF FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY. THEY OFFERED THEIR LIVES! WILL YOU OFFER YOUR HELP!”

Though more aid was forthcoming, it was not enough. On Nov. 1, 1938, the volunteers said farewell to the Spanish people at Barcelona. They returned to the United States, where their participation in such a Communist-driven affair meant that they were considered security risks. They were denied military appointments and government jobs. The veterans of the Brigade were placed on the Attorney General’s List of Subversive Organizations. “Veterans were fired, spied upon, harassed, labeled Communists to employers, denied housing, and refused passports for decades.”

Later creative works would deal with the Civil War, as in Picasso’s epic and arresting painting Guernica from 1937, and Ernest Hemingway’s 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. Franco consolidated his power and ruled as a repressive dictator for decades. The Lincoln Brigade vets who lived into the 1970s gradually gained a general respect for their service.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Lost Horizon.