(Contributed by Laurie Smith)
Enough picking on the Russians already!
Sid invited me to do a guest posting on his blog and after expressing initial concern about not being up to the task from the standpoint of eloquence and style, I decided to give it a shot.
I had the pleasure of recently seeing three movies, and they all fit Sid’s criteria for moviegoing: they contained aliens or explosions. In this case, explosions in all three and a sci-fi theme in two of them. On the airplane to/from Toronto I watched Hot Tub Time Machine and Iron Man 2. In Toronto, Sid and I went to see Salt.
The Russians have long been cast as the bad guys when it comes to international political intrigue and espionage, and it seems that this stereotype persists even today. In Hot Tub Time Machine the three friends travel back to 1986 (great for 80’s music lovers!) because a can of Russian “Chernobyl” cola spills on the hot tub controls and causes a meltdown and a black hole. The time travelers are accused at one point of being Commies, with radioactive secret Russian soft drinks. In Iron Man 2 the musclehead techno-scientist villain is Russian and Mickey Rourke even does an acceptable job of speaking the language. In Salt the conflict between Russia and the U.S. results in a gang of highly trained hardcore Russian assassins and a plan to destroy America. Seriously folks, enough picking on the Russians already! Half my family heritage is Russian so I’m always interested in seeing how Hollywood portrays the nation. One of my favourite movies, The Sum of All Fears, is unfortunately all about a threat of imminent war between Russia and the U.S. Isn’t it time to pick a new villain? How about vilifying Luxembourg for a change?
- Laurie
I'd like to thank Laurie for a great little post, much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteTechnically speaking, Salt can be considered science fiction since it's set in 2011. (There's a scene where the funeral of the vice president is being discussed on TV, and the date is shown.)
It IS interesting that Russia continues to be the stock bad guys. You might as well decide to feature elderly members of the FLQ in a Canadian suspense film.
- Sid
I wish to give myself a brownie point for sourcing the correct Cyrillic version of the original title.
ReplyDelete- Sid
I agree with you about the portrayal of Russians in Hollywood movies. Islamic terrorists are also the bad guys but they always seem to be spurred on, wittingly or unwittingly, by corrupt, greedy Americans. The Russians don't even get that. They don't make the politically correct cut or something.
ReplyDeleteChris
avtor molodec!
ReplyDeleteНайс пост! Сенкью!
ReplyDeleteЛюбимый фильм на твой взгляд ?
ReplyDeleteУчастники форума theinfiniterevolution.blogspot.com поделитесь
Мой - Кавказская пленница, или новые приключения Шурика
According to Google Translate, that last comment says:
ReplyDeleteFavorite movie in your opinion?
Participants of the forum theinfiniterevolution.blogspot.com share.
Me - Prisoner of the Caucasus, or The New Adventures of Shurik
Further research says that neither movie is SF or fantasy, but I have to be fair and move the comment off the spam list, there's actually nothing spammish in the content.
- Sid
Well, entertaining though it's been, I've been getting three or four Cyrillic spam comments a day for this posting for several months now, and no legitimate comments, so comments are now closed.
ReplyDelete- Sid