Featuring (as the cover suggests) an article on the 90s Fantastic Four
movie… It’s a hefty 16-page article packed with background info,
behind-the-scenes photos, interviews with the cast and crew, etc.
Directed by Roger Corman and starring a cast of then little-known
actors, most of whom have gone on to remain little-known, the movie was
rushed into production in order to
retain the rights. (Apparently the contract they’d signed with Marvel
had a clause that stipulated that the rights would revert to Marvel if
the movie wasn’t completed by a certain time… Something like that.
It’s all very confusing. Last year saw the release of Doomed - a
brand-new in-depth documentary about the movie. I don’t yet had a copy
of that but it’s on the must-buy list.) This is why subsequent Fantastic
Four movies have been produced by Constantin Film, the company that
co-owned the rights with Roger Corman.
Film Threat’s whole
sumptuous, optimistic article ends with “The Fantastic Four is
tentatively scheduled to open Labor Day at a theater near you.” Labor
Day, for the non-Americans, is the first Monday in September. It has
nothing to do with babies, apparently. Anyway, Labor Day 1994 came and
went without any sign of The Fantastic Four movie being released. And so
did the following Labor Day, and the one after that…
The
movie has never been officially released in any form, but bootleg
versions are pretty easy to find. The picture quality isn’t very good,
but it’s clear enough to see that the movie itself isn’t very good
either. But that’s not for want of trying: Yes, it’s silly and cheap,
and it hasn’t aged nearly as well as Marvel’s other 1990s movies The
Punisher and Captain America, but it’s still fun, which is a lot more
than can be said for the breathtakingly dull 2015 Fantastic Four movie.
Also: this movie’s version of The Thing (AKA Ben Grimm) is by far my
favourite, even though the subsequent versions – foam costume for the
2005 version, CGI for the 2015 version – probably cost more to put on
screen than this entire movie.
The Industrial Revolution, usually dated from around the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century, brought an extraordinary array of inventions that changed industry and society alike. Most inventions were collaborative affairs where inventors built on the ideas of others. In addition, there was a continuous evolution of these inventions as inventors and engineers sought improvements in efficiency and capacity.
On this day, 20 April 1936, an Arab National Committee was formed in Nablus, Palestine, and resolved to call a general strike across the then-British colony. On April 21, other Palestinian leaders met and agreed to support the strike call, which would call out all Palestinian Arabs engaged in labour, transport and retail the following day.
Zionists were escalating their efforts to colonise the country, Jewish immigration from Europe had increased, and groups like the Jewish Colonisation Association were establishing settlements and buying up huge swathes of land with open intentions of forming a Jewish colonial ethno-state.
In response, the strikers demanded: a stop to Jewish immigration; prohibition of Arab Palestinian land being transferred to Jewish settlers; and the establishment of a democratic government.
The general strike was a key early escalation in what became known as the Arab revolt of 1936. The following month, Palestinians also began to withhold taxes, and armed insurrection broke out in the countryside.
British authorities responded with violent repression, drafting in thousands of soldiers, and enlisting armed Zionists and police to help crush the rebellion. Britain declared martial law, and British and Zionist forces killed up to 5000 Arabs, wounded up to 15,000, arrested 9000 and blew up thousands of homes, leaving tens of thousands of Palestinians homeless.
In October, the Arab Higher Committee called off the strike and the revolt, but rebellion of poor peasants in the countryside continued until 1939. Eventually, British and Zionist repression succeeded in gradually crushing the movement. Although a British government White Paper, issued in 1939, did make concessions to Palestinians, agreeing to limit Jewish immigration and land purchases, and consider establishing an independent Palestinian state within 10 years. But these were not later honoured.
More information, sources and map: https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/11248/Palestinian-general-strike
Pictured: Palestinians gather in Abou Ghosh during strike https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=611965164310036&set=a.602588028581083&type=3
