The film also arrived at a moment when the "terrorist chic" aesthetic was being commodified by fashion houses (think: Balenciaga’s later hoodies, or the fetishization of Che Guevara t-shirts). The Raspberry Reich recognized that the iconography of revolution—the ski mask, the AK-47, the guerrilla uniform—had already been absorbed into the capitalist spectacle. LaBruce’s response was to push that absorption to its logical, absurd extreme: a porn film where the actors literally fuck the revolution to death. In 2024, viewing The Raspberry Reich is a disorienting experience. We live in an era of "slacktivism" (Instagram infographics), "cancel culture" (performative political purity), and a resurgence of anti-capitalist rhetoric among Gen Z and Millennials. LaBruce’s film feels less like a period piece and more like a prophecy.
The "raspberry" of the title is a triple entendre: the raspberry as a rude sound of derision (blowing a raspberry at authority); the fruit’s red color (communism); and a slang term for a woman’s genitalia—a nod to the film’s radical feminist, matriarchal revolutionary cell. To discuss The Raspberry Reich , one must confront its explicitness head-on. The film contains unsimulated sex scenes, graphic nudity, and what can only be described as "ideologically mandated fellatio." But unlike conventional pornography, where sex is the climax (literal and figurative) of the narrative, LaBruce weaponizes sex. In this film, the act of love—specifically, queer, non-monogamous, anonymous love— is the revolutionary act. The Raspberry Reich -2004-
★★★★½ (Essential for theorists; Apocalyptic for the faint of heart) Tagline: "Not everyone is ready for the dictatorship of the proletariat. Or the taste of raspberries." Author’s Note: Watch with an open mind, a copy of Herbert Marcuse’s "Eros and Civilization," and a safe word. The film also arrived at a moment when
After a botched bank robbery (where the revolutionaries steal a money-transport vehicle only to find it filled with advertising jingles on cassette tapes), the group kidnaps the son of a wealthy industrialist, named Holger (Andreas Rupp). The Commandant orders Holger to be "radicalized" through group sex and ideological re-education. The film then descends into a delirious fever dream of black balaclavas, leather harnesses, and repeated recitations of Theodor Adorno, Wilhelm Reich, and the Red Army Faction (RAF) manifestos. In 2024, viewing The Raspberry Reich is a
The ultimate joke of The Raspberry Reich is that the revolution is never coming. But in the meantime, as LaBruce suggests, you might as well find some comrades, turn off your phone, and rediscover what the body can do when it isn’t performing for the hetero-fascist state. Just be prepared for the morning after, when ideology meets the cold light of day—and the raspberry you blew at the world sticks to your lips.