Buchner, Noel

The Good Fight, a feature-length documentary film released in 1983, pays homage to American volunteers who served with the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. The film is an exploration of the political motives that compelled the volunteers to travel to Spain in the 1930s, their weathering of anti-communist sentiment during the 1940s and 50s, and their political engagement in later life. The film makes extensive use of archival footage from the war, stills, primary documents, radio broadcasts, newsreels, and interviews. With the help of an NEH grant, filmmakers Noel Buchner, Mary Dore and Sam Sills interviewed more than 125 combat and medical veterans in the course of researching and editing the film. The final documentary, which is narrated by Studs Terkel, features eleven veterans including Bill Bailey, Steve Nelson, Milt Wolff, Edward Balchowsky, Salaria Kee (a.k.a. Salaria Kea) O’Reilly and Evelyn Hutchins.