A difficult film to rate. Made at a time when China was softening after about a quarter century of isolation, it's an utterly unique window into the country, at least as it presented itself to this group of travelers led by Shirley MacLaine, as well as a window into their decidedly American reactions. The spirit of the undertaking is certainly noble. To travel to a place and meet its people always has a way of demythologizing it, and what one says, that "they're just human beings," cuts through preconceived ideas and stereotypes at the most basic level.
Unfortunately, it's also quite a propaganda piece. MacLaine is spoon fed the party line and the virtues of Mao in scene after scene. When she asks a couple of wives what they like about her husband, they talk about the purity of their partner's political ideologies. When she asks children what they want to be when they grow up, several state they want to be part of the People's Liberation Army and be a success for the revolution. The happiness of the people is on full display, all of the time, and it's a bit much.
In one of the more lucid moments, one of her traveling companions offhandedly says "They're programmed." In another, MacLaine practically touches the third rail with the hypothetical question about a genius artist who wants to create art not for the collective. The response is that such a person would be given the books of Marx, Engels, Mao, et al and "persuaded" to change his thinking. It's a terrifying answer alluding to re-education camps delivered through a smile, and not even over political dissent. There were no other hard questions or allusions to (for example) the terror of the Cultural Revolution, though while in China that would have been off limits to MacLaine and bad form besides, as she was a guest. She did seem to buy most of what she saw, however. It's a smaller thing, but she also repeated the myth that the Great Wall can be seen from the moon, perhaps an indication of her willingness to believe things.
On the other hand, seeing people and activities in China in this time held my interest. There are good points made about the advance of women's rights under Mao, though the comparison to the older women interviewed who had their feet bound when younger was not apt, as the practice had already been nearly eliminated before the Communists took power, something that isn't mentioned to MacLaine (nor does she ask). The exercises and games for small children instilling cooperation and the greater good seemed virtuous and beneficial, not indoctrination (at least at that age), though it's notable that similar teaching of cooperative behavior and simple ethics was also being done in Taiwan. Lastly, the Caesarean birth with acupuncture instead of anesthesia was pretty incredible, though far too graphically shown for my taste (seriously, beware if you're squeamish).
