“Young Karl Marx” – A head of his time [MOVIE REVIEW]
August Diehl as Karl Marx, right, and Stefan Konarske as Friedrich Engels in “Young Karl Marx.” Photo courtesy of Kris Dewitte; Agat Film, and Velvet Film “Young Karl Marx,” the multi-national film directed by Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro), who co-wrote the screenplay with Pascal Bonitzer, is a very ambitious film. Breathing life into the historic characters of Karl Marx and his, shall we say, co-star Friedrich Engels is a gargantuan task. Peck attempts, and mostly succeeds, in presenting Marx and his entourage as anti-establishment intellectual rabble-rousers but also as individuals struggling to support themselves and their families financially and find their rightful place in a world that is in the beginning stages of overthrowing the old order. Bushy-headed Marx was the product of a middle-class family who followed an academic route, obtaining several advanced degrees, including law and a doctorate in philosophy. He was especially in thrall to the writings of Hegel, the leading German philosopher of the time. He very much supported Hegelian dialectics—which was the process of using logic to bring together opposing positions; he was less enthusiastic about Hegel’s belief in…
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