"We the Living," a 1940s movie based on an Ayn Rand autobiographical novel, is available in DVD

An extraordinary film just came out on DVD which couldn’t be more timely. It’s about a fiercely outspoken, beautiful woman trapped in a country rapidly descending into socialism, with the government steadily ratcheting up control over all aspects of life

The movie is We the Living, based on the Ayn Rand novel of the same title. Rand said that this work “is as near to an autobiography as I will ever write.”

Conservatives and libertarians have long lamented the scarcity of movies that depict the evils of communism. Let’s see, there’s Doctor Zhivago, The Killing Fields, The Lives of Others, and ... well, now there’s We the Living — a long-lost classic filmed in 1942, and now available on DVD for the first time ever.

We the Living takes place soon after the Bolshevik takeover of Russia, which Rand experienced as a young woman. The stunning Alida Valli plays Kira, a fiery college student who detests the communists ruining her country. (Valli is perhaps best known to American audiences for her indelible performances in The Third Man and The Paradine Case.)