MovieChat Forums > Moscow on the Hudson (1984) Discussion > Is this an American/anti-Russi an propa...

Is this an American/anti-Russi an propaganda movie...or not?

posted 17 years ago by VinnyM27
28 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this movie and while it's good, the first hour or so is basically an anti-Russian communist rant. A bit of a heavy topic for what I figured was a comedy. It's a bit heavy handed, too. And I assume this is the kind of movie that consevatives would love and kind of point to as the type of movies that Hollywood should be making but it is so obivious. It's not super pro-America, as his life isn't a fantasy and he struggles but that is kind of what conservatives say is postive about "Pursit of Happyness"...I didn't bother to listen to the commentary track but maybe I should've. Any thoughts on this?

[–] phail10 17 years ago

Let's face it though, life in Soviet Russia did suck pretty bad. There was no chance to advance in life at all unless it was in the military. If you were walking down the street and saw a line, you'd get in line without knowing what was being distributed. I would've defected if I had the chance.

[–] LoveTiedDown 17 years ago

Cuba has been the USSR for 50 years thanks to that jackass Fidel. Many of the refugees upon seeing this movie also have had nostalgia.

"Only Oppression should fear the full practice of Freedom."

-Jose Marti

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] boxerrebellion 8 years ago

Good point. I spent a week in Santiago de Cuba in 2013. Although I didn't experience the long lines like shown, we did experience no cheese at all available at any nearby grocery and witnessed that basically the only food on 'supermarket' shelves was rice and beans.

[–] h-vadim 16 years ago

Interesstingly enough those who say life in the USSR sucked are the ones who themselves sucked at life.

[–] gaw-2 17 years ago

I spent a chunk of grad school at Moscow State University and met all sorts of people in and out of school. I also know many emigres from that period at home in the US. The movie is VERY accurate. The drunken speech about loving his misery really sums it up.

http://i75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/BipolarBear1/thanksgiving.jpg
http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i320/BipolarBear1/?action=view&current=boru1.flv

[–] peteyob 16 years ago

Remember, this was made in 1984, so don't compare it to what Russia is like now. It was totalitarian and people feared for their lives if they engaged in any anti-government acts. I had a Russian teacher who was able to get out of Leningrad in the early 80s and she described life in the USSR as this bad and worse. I think we underestimate how bad it was. It is much like we underestimate the hopelessness and misery in Cuba today.

[–] h-vadim 15 years ago

*beep*
My parents and their parents lived in the USSR till it collapsed (or was forced to collapse by certain individuals) and I spent my childhood there. The spooky fairytales of the big bad USSR are just that - fairytales.
Sure it wasn't exactly paradise but which country is?
The only people to suffer there were the dimwitted "rebels without a cause" who engaged in disruptive activities because it was chic (or real criminals).
Although thankfully I don't live there I know that Russia now is a very scary place indeed - you wouldn't want to be there unless you're very well off.

[–] mikegok1 15 years ago

Hey, Vadik, how old were you when your parents, blessed their hearts, took you out of that miserable country?
Ask your parents how was their life in USSR and why did they left it behind.
I love people who talk about something that they did not expirienced.

[–] h-vadim 15 years ago

As I said they left it because it collapsed and all went to hell.
Their life there was pretty comfortable and mind you at the same time they were in no way connected to the ruling echelons or had protectors there.
In fact I'd say they were pretty non-conformist as regards the system - but I guess being non-conformist towards the system was always "in" in the big bad USSR.
I for my part know that I'm thankfull I'm not living in Russia today and at the same time proud that I was born in the USSR (as far as one can be proud of something not of one's own doing).

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[–] filmfanaticNorCal 9 years ago

Well said. I thought the movie was very even handed. It wasn't particularly anti-Russian or pro-American. Given what has happened since with Edward Snowden who defected to Russia, maybe there should be a sequel to this movie.

Life is for lovers, and lovers are for life.

[–] daggillies 14 years ago

Communism killed 100 million people in the 20th Century. Anyone who defends it in the 21st Century is either stupid, ignorant or insane. It's never worked anywhere it was tried, and it can't work (for well known reasons that people like Ludwig von Mises and Karl Popper will explain, if you have the wit to read them). The West is far from perfect, but I would argue to the extent it deviates from perfection it is due to the romantic fantasy of so-called egalitarianism that is the lingering contaminant of Socialist ideals. Soviet Russia (especially under Stalin) was a hell-hole. Mao condemned millions to death in his crazy megalomaniac schemes. The Khmer Rouge killed a third of the population of Cambodia. To defend Communism, in the light of all this, is shameful and repellent.

[–] velvetjoneslives 14 years ago

I think this is a generational thing. People under 40 do not know and will never know what life was like under some of these regimes. I know dozens of people who lived in the former USSR, none of them have positive things to say about their previous life. Granted, life varied somewhat depending on who you were and where you worked, but it was nothing compared to here. There, even if you were a Ph.D working at a prestigious university you still lived only slightly better than a common factor worker. The only ones who really had a good life were either high ranking military or party members. It was basically a two class society, the political elite and everyone else. For a better understand of this read "Klass: How Russians Really Live" by David Willis.

One mistake westerners make though is that they think Russian's disliked Russia. That is definitely not true. Most of the pure blood Russians I know are extremely patriotic and proud to be Russian. What they hated was the Soviet Union. I think this is why you see strong support for Putin today in Russia. He brings back pride in Russia, something that was lost after the collapse of the Soviet Union. People from the Soviet republics are a different story though. They seems to make no distiction between Soviets and Russians. They seem to hate them equally.

[–] tvlover1961 8 years ago

You are so correct. I majored in Russian in college (sadly, never went there, long story that I won't get into). My professors were from the Soviet Union, one suffered a lot during WWII. I met a few other Soviets who either defected or in the case of at least one, had a green card marriage. They LOVED their country and spoke of the cultural aspects very fondly, but not the politics. Had it offered more freedoms that we enjoy in the US, I suspect many would have gone back in a heartbeat.

[–] johnburke222 14 years ago

Capitalism kills people too. People shouldnt excuse bad things in our own system just because a dictatorship in the USSR called itself 'communist' and used it to justify its own existence.

[–] h-vadim 13 years ago

And yet almost all people who experienced those times (yes, I'm talking about Stalin's time as well) have mostly only positive things to say. It is the ignorant young, who do not know history who make false assumptions and parrot lies.
Quality of life rose dramatically when USSR existed (and not only within that country, but all countries it sponsored) and then fell sharply with the dissolution. Funny how everyone mentions the economic miracles of FRG and Japan, and the Asian Tigers, etc., but never the staggering never seen before economic growth during Stalin's reign.
The shortages and queues all came about only in the late 80s when capitalism was being restored, not before.

By the way, the Khmer Rouge were directly installed and sponsored by your beloved USA. That massacre only ended when Red Vietnam chased Pol Pot out of there.

Research before you post.

[–] Pharaoh-in-de-Nile 12 years ago

H-vadim you are fighting a losing battle on IMDB, most on this site are either Ultra-Conservative or Ultra-Liberal Americans who only read or hear opinions that match their own. Hence they are mostly ignoring you. If they had actually met many people from the USSR (the majority of that generation in fact, as you and I know support the Communist Party of The Russian Federation (or one of the other Communist or, sadly, Soviet Nostalgia/Ostalgie parties) in the vain hope of regaining something of the Soviet Era) and yes it is mostly the young hipsters, the Russian mafia and the rich who are against the Soviet Union in Russia.

Likewise, no one would give Vietnam its due for ousting the Khmer Rouge (which was indeed started as a Marxist Party (during the "Vietnam War" era) but were actually not Marxist-Leninist under Pol Pot (and denounced Soviet and Maoist countries in their propaganda), they were Primitivist, and actually kept the Monarch as a Prince, until they made him into the president for life to appear more democratic) which of course was supported by the USA and UK. If it were not for Vietnam then Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge would not have stopped their genocide and many more people would have died. But then Vietnam are considered villains by way too many morons in the USA because they dared to fight against a USA invasion in support of a corrupt ultra-catholic and ultra-conservative despot.

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for them to actually do some research on the issue of course... the most they'll read is discredited works by Robert Conquest (who worked for the Anti-Communist branch of UK and later US intelligence)!

"The game's afoot!"

[–] runnerludd 15 years ago

I think it is critch to Both USSR and USA, It show that in USSR people hadnt a lot of money and they were always short of stuff. But it also show social life. Taht Vladimirs grappa lives with them. Sure in USA people life free but he gets mugged and scream "IM RUSSIAN". And says i Russia you knew who the enemy was. Well Pardon my english as Im from Sweden. I LOVE this movie

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[–] silvergirl606 14 years ago

Very few people would dub a movie about Jews fleeing in the Nazis propaganda. The USSR was a *beep* oppressive country, even in its post-purge era, and it's awesome that this movie actually points that out. I love Hollywood, but they really seem to act like the blacklist was a bigger tragedy than communism sometimes.

This is a sweet little movie, maybe a little idealistic about America (but many immigrants are), and it's about a guy grabbing freedom when he can get it. That's not propaganda, it's something wonderful about humans. North Koreans are out there today risking their lives to get out of the horrible country they were raised in. People search for freedom.

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[–] lavenderspirit2005 12 years ago

I'm a moderate liberal and this movie was not so much "anti-Russian" as it was anti-Communism.

And while I'm surely not talking about the shrill hysteria of the "McCarthy era", if more people learned more about the sordid underbelly of Communism, they'd be strongly against it too.

Being anti-Communism has nothing to do with being right-wing and everything to do with placing the highest value on essential human rights.

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[–] Hippo9 9 years ago

For sure. The movie is preaching the whole time.

[–] robert3750 9 years ago

Yeah, it keeps saying freedom is preferable to totalitarianism. I'll take that kind of "preaching" any day.