Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train

As much a concentrated primer on the mid-20th-century people's-voice movement as it is a biographical documentary about one of the formative leaders, Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train traces both Zinn's personal background (his childhood in Brooklyn, his WWII service that led him to pacifism, his controversial tenure at Spelman College) and his influence on the social politics that have shaped recent history. While fairly standard in its format of combining archival footage with talking heads, the film captures Zinn's quintessence with well-chosen material (including choice passages from many of his most famous speeches and books) and interviews with Zinn and many of his insightful contemporaries. Among these are Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, and Alice Walker, who says "he was the best teacher I had" at a time when both of them were becoming heavily involved in fighting for civil rights during the 1960s. Zeroing in on periods that included Zinn's first protest march (showing stills of him bloodied by overzealous riot police), his frontline leadership in marches in the South, and his POW negotiations in Vietnam (subsequently undermined by the U.S. military), directors Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller provide an excellent profile of the influential author of books such as A People's History of the United States (told from various minority points of view) and Disobedience and Democracy. But what makes the film especially engrossing is how disturbingly relevant Zinn's efforts still seem in this era of the Patriot Act and another unpopular war. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (R. Blackwelder)[DVD Review--May 30, 2005-- First Run Features, 78 min., not rated, $24.95--2004's Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train debuts on DVD at a sell-through price, with extras including a speech by Zinn at a Veterans for Peace convention in 2004 (16 min.), a 1971 audio speech at Boston Common (12 min.), an interview with Zinn on human nature and aggression (9 min.), trailers, and DVD-ROM features including biographies, a transcription of the Boston Common Speech, and a recommended reading list. Bottom line: a solid extras package for a solid doc.]