MovieChat Forums > Eastern Promises (2007) Discussion > Stop demonizing the Russians.

Stop demonizing the Russians.

posted 9 years ago by gss2
9 replies | jump to latest

Hollywood loves to beat on the Russians. Eastern Promises, Training Day, John Wick, The Equalizer, and many other films feature Russian mobsters as villains. If you count other peoples from Eastern Europe, you can add Taken, The Dark Knight, Lord of War, and The Drop, and the series Banshee to that list.

The U.S. government loves to beat on them too. Lots of shady stuff going on with NGOs like Freedom House and such encouraging color coded revolutions. I don't defend Putin at all, mind you, or what has happened in Georgia, Crimea, and the Donbas. However, if Russia is a snake, then the U.S. government has done everything it can to provoke it into striking. The British government has sheltered several high profile oligarchs after they have fallen out of favor in Russia. Two of the more notorious ones owned Chelsea FC. Do you really think that these people are any less ruthless than Putin in kind, if not degree?

I think we have a disconnect between fantasy and reality here. Russian mobsters exist, and they can be nasty. However, they commit crimes that are a drop in the bucket compared to what America's own citizens do. I want every person who reads this article to look at the FBI's most wanted list. Then check the US Marshalls List for each state. Check your local Sheriff's office. Those lists are packed with lots of Blacks, a good number of Hispanics, a few Asians, and very many native born, white Americans. I guarantee that you will find very few Russians. Simeon Mogilevich, a crooked financier, is the only one who comes to mind as a wanted Russian fugitive in the FBI list. I haven't seen anyone else from anywhere in Eastern Europe on one of those lists for a very long time.

Why is this? Because Russians, statistically speaking, do not cause much crime in America. Native-born Whites, American Blacks, and Hispanics of various origin cause almost all (99.99%) crime in America. I would venture to say that Eastern European immigrants are some of the most law abiding and hardest working of all Americans.

Call me racist or nationalist or whatever, but I swear to god that I am telling it as it is. Look in the mirror first before you condemn a group of people for their leadership or for the spaces of a few.

[–] enigma-lake 9 years ago

So what did you think of Leviathan?

[–] chilone 9 years ago

This movie is about Russian gangsters. There are plenty of movies about bad guys of EVERY race, religion, nationality, etc.etc.

Russians aren't being singled out.

I think we have a disconnect between fantasy and reality here. Russian mobsters exist, and they can be nasty. However, they commit crimes that are a drop in the bucket compared to what America's own citizens do.

Why is this? Because Russians, statistically speaking, do not cause much crime in America.

This movie didn't take place in America.

I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

[–] samantha3 9 years ago

The film is about the Russian mob in London, not the U.S. It was made outside the Hollywood mainstream by a Canadian auteur known for his eccentric but excellent films for many years.

Oh, and it's not a mob movie, per se. David Cronenberg denied that fervently; he said mob movies bored him. It's a film about identity, one of his favorite themes, about moral choices, and even about different kinds of love. He liked the setting of the script when he read it, but the themes are universal.

And he filmed a sauna sequence that had them gasping in the aisles. But then, his films have pushed the envelope before.

[–] franzkabuki 9 years ago

"Look in the mirror first before you condemn a group of people for their leadership".

What's politics got to do with anything? Russian mobsters becoming rather visibly represented in movies simply mirrors the real life where, after the fall of Soviet Union, Russian organized crime started spreading across the borders fast and in great numbers. And it was a new, exotic thing for the film industry & audiences who'd been living on a steady diet of Italian Mafia for ages (and even so, depictions of Russian mobsters are hardly dominating the scene... there're plenty of movies about criminals of other ethnicities to go around).

And the OP is also quite misplaced on this particular board, considering that Eastern Promises balances its Russian mobsters out with some perfectly decent Londoners of Russian persuasion.

"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

[–] niteowljr 8 years ago

Dejavu all over again... Some Italian-Americans have had the same gripe about pretty much every American gangster flick produced since the 30s.

[–] AmericaILoveU (925) 2 years ago

Russians are still hated!

[–] Baluga (68) a year ago

It didn't play out in America though but Zin London (England). Yes, they too have street gangs, Asian syndicates and what have you but the movie can't be about everything and it's made pretty clear that this is an underground society where regular people don't have access.

[–] HarveyManFredSin (4877) a year ago

A few years ago, I would have agreed with you.

Since the invasion of Ukraine...fuck em. 😠👊🏼

[–] Killermueck (160) a month ago

This post aged badly. Russia is a terrorist state.