The Young Karl Marx [2017]

‘What you call profit I call exploitation’ – Karl Marx

If you studied an essay based subject at A-level it is more than likely you’ve come across political theorist Karl Marx or even Marxism as a whole a, so due to this I decided to go see ‘The Young Karl Marx’ to see if I could gain any further insight into his theories and reasoning which I only knew the bare minimum about.

The film didn’t give me any extra insight into Marx’s ideologies at all but instead seemed more focused on his former enemy and new comrade, Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske), making him appear as the mastermind behind his way of thinking rather than equals due to his superior knowledge about the mistreatment of factory workers in Manchester and family connections; however as Marx does get the credit historically it may be fair that his involvement is highlighted more in the film.

Although, he was very much the driving force behind the writing of the tongue twister titled the ‘Critique of Critical Criticism’, I found it difficult to believe Engels was fully committed to the equality of classes as he seemed unwilling to sever his family ties and still exploited them when it suited him. Also, at many times he appeared to act as child trying to do anything to anger his father rather than genuinely in the support of change. Marx (August Diehl), on the other hand, I found a more difficult character to define as he is very cocky and brash but does appear to have a genuine passion for his work, never even believing his work is good enough to be published. Plus, his ability to teach himself another language is something I am slightly envious of.

I think what I found most surprising about the film is that pair was associated with communism. At the end of the film I felt the same feelings as many of the workers who they ambushed with their new school of thought; however after thinking about this further it seems logical that people that shared their beliefs, that social class shouldn’t define what some is allowed or expected to do, would turn to this mode of thought. Also, it was towards the end that the film that I began to lose interest as the pace of the film significantly slowed down so it is possible that stopped me from fully understanding and supporting their views. I realise the film is called ‘The Young Karl Marx’ but the ending which showed the two comrades arguing about money and the future of their writing is another part of their journey that I’m very much intrigued to see.

Unsurprisingly, this is film is in no way a revision tool for any of the subjects that include Marxism but feel free to give yourself a break for two hours and class watching it as revision.