The Great Advancement of Chairman Mao Tse Tung's Thought (1966)

Plot Summary

This film is a product not of the China of today, but of Red China's Cultural Revolutionary era: a period when the most radical and histrionic thinking strove to turn China's immense population into martyrs for Chairman Mao's ideals. This film, whose original title translates to "The Great Advancement of Mao Tse-Tung's Thinking," was captured by American intelligence in the mid 1960's (who provide the simultaneous translation on the soundtrack). It must have scared the hell out of them, for the film shows Chinese soldiers engaged in strenuous training for post-nuclear attack. The great lie of this film - from the Chinese leaders to their own people - is that the radioactive fallout from a nuclear blast will not kill them. In the film's most haunting scene, we see a Chinese cavalry charge in the Gobi desert into the aftermath of an above-ground nuclear explosion. Both rider and horse are wearing gas-masks! A harrowing look at the unbending will of fanaticism.

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