Starring Hank Azaria, Emily Watson, John Turturro, Angus McFadyen, Cary Elwes, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Philip Baker Hall, Cherry Jones, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Jamey Sheridan, Bill Murray John Carpenter. Written and Directed by Tim Robbins. In the middle of the depression in 1936 New York, many would be actors are starving on the street, singing for nickels. Olive Stanton (Watson) decides to get in line with countless others to get a job with Roosevelt's Federal Theatre Project. The only job she can get is as a stagehand at a play being directed by 22 year-old upstart Orsen Welles (McFayden) and produced by John Houseman (Elwes). They are putting on the play The Cradle Will Rock, a pro-labour work written by struggling playright Marc Blitzstein (Azaria) about corporations who will do anything to prevent unions from organizing and getting workers a better portion of the economic pie, including moving companies out of town, dumping union agitators and suggesting unions are filled with communists. Along that vain, the head of the Theatre Project Hallie Flanagan (Jones) has been called on the carpet by a McCarthyesque publicity-seeking congressman to answer charges the Project has been infiltrated by Reds. Previously a pious and patriotic clerk (Joan Cusack) had testified to the presence of Reds in the Project office, with the encouragement of a vaudeville ventriloquist (Murray). Meanwhile, Italian fascist publicist Margherita Sarfatti (Sarandon) is in town raising money for Mussolini, selling off art masterpieces to the likes of William Randolph Hearst (Carpenter), a steel tycoon whose workers are just about to go on strike (Hall) and young John D. Rockefeller (John Cusack). The first two like more than Mussolini's paintings - they figure he's the best way to prevent the rise of communism. Rockefeller has hired noted communist painter Diego Rivera (Blades) to paint a mural in the Rockefeller Centre. The problem is his painting contains a decided socialist people-unite-against-the-capitalists theme. Rockefeller is not amused. After the congress circus, the house cuts funding to the Project by 20%, and cancels all plays for several months, one day before The Cradle Will Rock is to open. And the actor's union forbids the actors from performing the play. Will the show go on? Based on a true story and a real play, The Cradle Will Rock is a satire of not only the unfair disparity between underpaid and underemployed workers and rich, powerful men, but the things powerful people will do to maintain their position. Robbins has chosen to play the satire as a farce. While it works fairly well this way, occasionally the movie falls too heavily into farce, diminishing somewhat the impact of the movie's message. But what it does do well is illustrate the ludicrousness of politics - of opportunists making a name for themselves searching for communists, of acting unions preventing their actors from acting, and of very rich men grasping at anything, including obviously evil men, to prevent their workers from taking any power or money from their very rich selves. Robbins has denied that the play is about politics or about pro-labour sympathies, suggesting it is instead pro-collective - people working together against odds to achieve a greater goal. Like Magnolia, this is an ensemble piece where no actor is really the star. Every character is given their opportunity to shine, from the struggling actress to the big corporate tycoon. Several actors standout among a deep and talented cast. Emily Watson is her usual radiant and spirited self as the plucky young woman willing to risk it all for the play. John Turturro is outstanding, especially in the scenes where he angrily admonishes his family for accepting the Fascist Mussolini just because he pushes the Italian patriotic buttons. Vanessa Redgrave is energetic and hilarious as the wife of the rabid capitalist steel tycoon who dedicatedly supports putting on the pro-labour play even as her husband is doing his best to bust his workers union. Joan Cusack is quite funny as the upright patriot who sees communists behind every corner, negatively influencing the minds of her fellow Americans. But the revelation of the film is Cherry Jones, who exudes enthusiastic love of the arts, and dominates the scenes she appears in. If you lament the power of unions distorting the free market, think every socialist or progessive thought is evidence of communism, then you will not likely enjoy the movie, but if you can stomach the words Liberal or pro-labour you can expect to enjoy a well-written and well-performed look into history that often reflects events occuring at the start of the new millenium. If you would like to respond, please click the E-Mail Press Here To Go To The Review List Page