In one of the scenes Lt. Burakov is in the hospital (madhouse) for a while and is watching TV. And the movie on the TV is an american movie from that period.
But at that time Russia and USA are at Cold War - very improbable that the Russians watched american movies???? The generals even don't let him speak about the case with the specialists from FBI (at the beginning). Besides I highly doubt there was televison at all at that part of Russia at that time!!!!!
I don't know the situation at that time, but earlier during the communist regime, they took american movies and dubbed them, completely changing the story and message of the movie.
They might have continued doing that throughout the regime?
A little OT here, but I read that the Communists showed "The Grapes of Wrath" in Poland, only they called it "Everyday Life in America".
They asked people about the ending - wasn't it terrible they way these poor people were homeless and in their old jalopy searching for their next job? One guy said, "Well, at least they got a car. That's more than what I got."
Is it true that when "The Grapes of Wrath" first appeared in cinema the Soviets showed it as anti-Western propaganda? But then had to stop because the ordinary Russians were envious of the Americans having cars?
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I'm not posh, I just like VB's clothes.
I suspect that either one was based on reality. The Communists regularly made propaganda bloopers that only the liberals believed.
shareEnvious of the "Grapes of Wrath"-era Americans? You know you're in a bad place when the Joads look like they've got it good😃!
shareThe movie being played is "The French Connection" which is a true story about Herion addiction, crime and the blight of major US cities (ie. New York City). I think the Soviet leadership at the time would play this film proving the inferiority of the US.
shareActually, while this seems to be anachronistic, it isnt at all. First of all, I know the scene, and you can tell, it wasnt being dubbed into Russian but that is no big deal since many Russians know English fairly well. However the Movie being shown was "The French Connection" a movie about corruption and inner city violence in Capitalist America. Any movie showing the decadence of Western Civilization was showed on regular Russian TV for all to see.
Give me ambiguity or give me something else
besides, no one speaks Russian in the film, and the two other times we see Burokov watching TV, the news readers are speaking english...
Omnia Mutantur Nihil Interit
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I agree that it is inaccuarate. The scene when he is in the hospital is before Gorbachev came to power and the Cold War divides start to crumble
It is not inaccurate or "a little mistake". During the Communist period they showed certain Western films, usually ones with a message that COULD be interpreted as "The capitalist world is bad/corrupt". Hence THE FRENCH CONNECTION. Heck, they even showed things like RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK -- remember, in that film the bad guys are Nazis -- alos bad (very bad) for Soviets. And if the rest is entertaining, escapist fare...so be it.
sharewell, i'm from Russia, and i can tell you that while some american films did make it to the country in soviet times, it was quite rare for them to reach the always state-run TV. someone mentioned that films depicting the supposed decadence of western society would be shown regularly, and that's complete bollocks.
instead, the majority of american movies seen by Russian audiences were comedies or dramas, with an occasional adventure thrown in. also, it was always an event to see a foreign film on TV. here is a sample of what we got back than:
Anything with Charlie Chaplin
Assortment of Sinbad adventures
Some Like It Hot (and similar black and white fluff)
The Great Race
West Side Story
Oliver Twist
Hangar 18
Tootsie
The Stunt Man
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (with general love for Milos Forman)
etc.
it wasn't until perestroyka fully settled that VCRs became widely available. even then, at first they were so rare, small businesses formed around the so called 'video salons,' where the owner of a VCR would show his collection of movies for money, like in a movie theater. typically, that's where films like The French Connection would be shown, not TV.
Regarding the language - since the entire film was in English, i see no problem with characters watching an american film in English. we can't seriously expect them to re-dub one scene to English with Russian accents, that would be ridiculous. but for the sake of argument, i can assure you all foreign films on Soviet TV were professionally dubbed.
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This is your life. It is ending one minute at a time.
Besides I highly doubt there was televison at all at that part of Russia at that time!!!!!
Just to inform the uninformed about the topic of western movies in col war communist countries.
It is true that some (!) movies weren't shown due to obvious reasons.
(culture clash, thought provoking or system critical)
But we had alot of western movies in the cinema back in the 80s.
Mostly movies from the 70s/80s, like some no brainer action flicks,
some horror movies and alot of western (Magnificent Seven, Dollar Trilogy etc.).
Most of the Stallone and Schwarzenegger movies.
Hellraiser 1+2, all the cannibal movies (Holocaust etc.), the towering inferno.
You can put it simple:
From 1000 amercian movies, around 400 were shown in communist countries.
Are you an expert on North Korea? Have you ever watched North Korean television? North Korea has the Pyongyang International Film Festival in which American movies are shown (pretty sure the PIFF is legal too lol), so what makes you think they don't watch American movies at other times too? People always spout their mouths off about things they don't understand. It's ironic that you started that post with mocking the OP for doing exactly what you just did.
Just because a country doesn't allow Hollywood to completely flood it with every junk movie ever produced in the US doesn't mean it's illegal to watch American movies there.
Biggest mistake was the glock 17 at the end, russian cops/military had russian guns as a Tokarev or Makarov
so that was a lot of baloney, neither military nor cops would be able to afford glocks at that time, heck probably not even today, about foreign movies i can tell one thing it was possible to watch them in the theaters or in private cinema clubs, well some of them, but they would be butchered with horrible dubbing.
Agreed, as the scene unfolded I fully expected to see the soldier pull out a Makarov or a Tokarev, and then I saw the glock. Which kind of ruined the whole last scene for me.
Other than that I thought the entire movie was fantastic.
So many ignorant people on this thread, most of all the OP. Of course they saw some Western movies, mostly non-political ones. But more to the point, what's with all this fuss Americans always have about how everyone else HAS to see their movies? How many Americans have ever watched a Soviet movie, or a North Korean movie, or an East German movie, or a Cuban movie? Do you know how hard it is to find movies from the communist world (former or current) in the US? If it weren't for Youtube, we'd see none at all, except for a few classics like Battleship Potemkin. And it's not just the communist world. How many Americans have seen a single Indian movie, or Brazilian movie, or Nigerian movie? How many Americans can name a single Indian actor? Some dedicated people with special interests do make the effort to seek out foreign movies, but most Americans, casual movie-viewers, never see a single one, except for the occasional British movie like Harry Potter. It's ridiculous to me that the most culturally insular people on this planet always have this insistence that everyone else MUST see THEIR movies, and they must see EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, they must be completely flooded by Hollywood to the exclusion of all else, or else there's "repression".
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