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THUNDER OVER MEXICO
MR. UPTON SINCLAIR DEFENDS HIMSELF. {Editor's foreword).
The following letter, relative to the two Manifestos printed in Close Up from Experimental Cinema, has been received from Mr. Sinclair. Que Viva Mexico, or as it has been re-named, Thunder Over Mexico, was cut, as most people are now aware, by Mr. Sol Lesser in Hollywood. We have no wish to suppress any statement which could be made in defence of such an action, therefore we are only too glad to print Mr. Sinclair's letter in full. The fact remains, however, that Mr. Sinclair's letter would have been more valid had he pointed out which statements — and where — contained " deliberate falsehoods " ; and, above all, if he had attempted to excuse what remains the cardinal offense — the cutting of Eisenstein's film by somebody else, no matter how sympathetic or understanding that cutter may have been. The whole construction and integrity of any Eisenstein film — as any person who has seen them will know — lies in his dynamic and revolutionary conception of the film unit. What, for instance, could Mr. Lesser have known of " internal monologue " ? How would Mr. Lesser have set about assembling his material to " explode into a new concept ? " Given that Mr. Lesser knew all about even two such early underlying principles as these, how could he have made them anything but his own, and what would they have had to do with Eisenstein ?
Thunder Over Mexico will be a beautiful travelogue, without doubt. At best it will be unacceptable and false, the plundering of raw material and the debasement of the only significant intellectual work that has been done in the cinema for several years. The more beautiful it is the greater will be its falsity. The film should have been abandoned or completed. There was no middle course that was not unscrupulous and in its way sacrilege. This and this alone seems to me the important issue. The political content of the film is as nothing compared to this. And this is the reason were we glad to print Experimental Cinema's splendidly vehement protests. If Mr. Sinclair cares to make any statement which can justify the issue of a film called Thunder Over Mexico we shall be again only too pleased to print it. But in such a case as this there is no compromise. If the original film is lost to us forever, then there must be no film. For Thunder Over Mexico there is no excuse.
K.M.
Editor, CLOSE UP. October 18, 1933.
26, Litchfield Street,
Charing Cross Road, London, W.C.2.
Dear Sir :
With regard to the statements you have published concerning the Eisenstein picture, Thunder Over Mexico : I assume that you do not wish to publish falsehoods knowingly, or to suppress the facts concerning this matter. Many of the manifestos which have been sent out in this matter are full of false
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