# Cold War American films showing Soviets in a positive light **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300 "2019-01-06T16:54:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/1 "2019-01-06T16:54:24Z")
_The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming_ (1966) is on TV right now. According to the Wikipedia article, ‘It was one of the few American films of the time to portray the Russians in a positive light.’ What other Cold War-era films showed the Soviet Union in a positive light? I think _Fail Safe_ doesn’t show them in a _negative_ light, but I don’t see them as being depicted _positively_. (I may change my mind based on answers here.) _Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb_ shows them to be as corrupt and inept as the U.S., though they are the victims. So… What are the ‘few American films’ Wikipedia is talking about? ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/2 "2019-01-06T17:24:12Z")
How about Marooned, the Russian Cosmonaut tries to help rescue the stranded Americans. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/3 "2019-01-06T18:11:37Z")
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I don’t remember _Gorky Park_ being particularly anti-Soviet, despite being set in Moscow. I’m not sure that the portrayal of the country was altogether positive, though. Maybe someone with a better memory can say more. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/4 "2019-01-06T18:15:29Z")
Oh, and how about _Reds_? I think it takes an altogether positive view of the 1917 revolution that led to the founding of the USSR, even if it was critical of the policies later enacted by the Bolsheviks. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/5 "2019-01-06T18:59:29Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I don’t remember _Gorky Park_ being particularly anti-Soviet, despite being set in Moscow. I’m not sure that the portrayal of the country was altogether positive, though. It was “positive” in the sense of showing sympathetic Russians bearing up under the weight of their overbearing, corrupt government masters (similar to a later, non-Cold War era film, _K-19: The Widowmaker_). > [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb shows them to be as corrupt and inept as the U.S., though they are the victims. Given the end of the movie, one might say that _eveyone_ was the victims. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/6 "2019-01-06T19:02:54Z")
I guess there’s **Red Heat** , the buddy-cop movie where Schwarzenegger is top billed as “Moscow’s toughest detective”: comes to America to bring a crook to justice, notes what he sees as Western shortcomings, gets the job done action-hero style — he’s maybe short on official police powers during his visit, limiting his gunplay options, but his muscles are supermannish — and leaves (a) with no sign that he’s tempted to defect; but (b) while initiating a souvenir exchange, as a show of friendship. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/7 "2019-01-06T19:44:41Z")
> [@Icerigger](#): > > How about Marooned, the Russian Cosmonaut tries to help rescue the stranded Americans. I’d forgotten about that one. Loved it when I was a kid. > [@psychonaut](#): > > Oh, and how about _Reds_? I think it takes an altogether positive view of the 1917 revolution that led to the founding of the USSR, even if it was critical of the policies later enacted by the Bolsheviks. Not really what I was shooting for, as it doesn’t take place in a Cold War atmosphere (though it was made during the Cold War). > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > I guess there’s **Red Heat** … > [@psychonaut](#): > > _Gorky Park_… I haven’t seen those two. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/8 "2019-01-06T19:59:49Z")
There was an early 1980’s movie where a bunch of pre-teen kids who liked to get together and play army (I am pretty sure that one of the child actors was Peter Billingsley from “A Christmas Story”) ended up capturing a marooned Soviet sailor who washed ashore in America, at that time a vile, vindictive country blinded by a savage patriotic hatred for all things Russian. The sympathetic sailor was humanized as being little more than a child himself, and he showed the kids he was no different than they were, with Very Imporant Lessons in tolerance, peace and acceptance (with more than a little bit of the not-so-subtle decrying of good olde fashioned American bigotry & xenophobia thrown in for good measure) learned by all. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/9 "2019-01-06T20:06:02Z")
> [@Royal\_Nonesutch](#): > > There was an early 1980’s movie where a bunch of pre-teen kids who liked to get together and play army (I am pretty sure that one of the child actors was Peter Billingsley from “A Christmas Story”) ended up capturing a marooned Soviet sailor who washed ashore in America, at that time a vile, vindictive country blinded by a savage patriotic hatred for all things Russian. The sympathetic sailor was humanized as being little more than a child himself, and he showed the kids he was no different than they were, with Very Imporant Lessons in tolerance, peace and acceptance (with more than a little bit of the not-so-subtle decrying of good olde fashioned American bigotry & xenophobia thrown in for good measure) learned by all. Russkies. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/10 "2019-01-06T20:10:39Z")
In the 1980s [Columbia Pictures was working on a biopic of Samantha Smith](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=x61JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ow4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=6872%2C3284761), the child peace activist who wrote a letter to Yuri Andropov and subsequently accepted his invitation to visit the Soviet Union. The film never got made, though if it had it would be hard to imagine how it could have painted the Soviets as the villains. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/11 "2019-01-06T20:17:45Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Russkies. No, that’s not true, I’m actually a native born & raised American, just currently living here in Poland. Pravda! ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/12 "2019-01-06T20:26:14Z")
[quote=“Johnny\_L.A, post:1, topic:827300”] _The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming_ (1966) is on TV right now. According to the Wikipedia article, ‘It was one of the few American films of the time to portray the Russians in a positive light.’/QUOTE] A nice film. Which begs the question, did Russian citizens ever get to see it? And what did they think of it? Dennis ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/13 "2019-01-06T20:28:49Z")
_Funeral in Berlin_ (1966) & _Billion Dollar Brain_ (1967) - Oskar Homolka as “Colonel Stok” is not really a villain so much as as a playa’ in international espionage. He actually helps Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) in the latter flick. _Telefon_ (1977) - Charles Bronson as heroic Russian officer out to stop a rogue Soviet agent from triggering WWIII. _The Hunt for Red October_ (1990) - Heroic Soviet defectors on a sub. _Rocky IV_ (1985) - I root against Stallone on principle… Prior to the Cold War, unusually sympathetic treatment of Russians occur in _Mission to Moscow_ (1943) and\* Song of Russia \*(1944). For comparisons, see: [The villain gap: Why Soviet movies rarely had American bad guys](https://film.avclub.com/the-villain-gap-why-soviet-movies-rarely-had-american-1798245725) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/14 "2019-01-06T20:29:57Z")
[Silk Stockings,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_Stockings_(film)) the 1957 musical remake of _Ninotchka_, makes the Russians stuffy and puritanical but that’s played for comedy. They aren’t evil, they just need a taste of western decadence to be human. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/15 "2019-01-06T20:33:17Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > > > _The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming_ (1966) is on TV right now. According to the Wikipedia article, ‘It was one of the few American films of the time to portray the Russians in a positive light.’ > > A nice film. Which begs the question, did Russian citizens ever get to see it? And what did they think of it? > > Dennis [At least a few did](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Russians_Are_Coming%2C_the_Russians_Are_Coming#Reception): > [@](#): > > According to Norman Jewison, the film – released at the height of the Cold War – had considerable impact in both Washington and Moscow. It was one of the few American films of the time to portray the Russians in a positive light. Senator Ernest Gruening mentioned the film in a speech in Congress, and a copy of it was screened in the Kremlin. According to Jewison, when screened at the Soviet film writers’ union, Sergei Bondarchuk was moved to tears. I recall reading elsewhere that it did have at least a limited release in the USSR, and audiences loved the fact that the Russians were depicted as being every bit as incompetent as the imperialist lackeys. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/16 "2019-01-06T20:49:17Z")
I came in to say Russkies, but I was too late. I think that it’s not only one of the few movies with a softer Cold War message but also, I think, possibly the last Cold War movie put out by Hollywood. WarGames was 3 years earlier, Rocky was 2 years earlier. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/17 "2019-01-06T20:49:40Z")
[quote=“mixdenny, post:12, topic:827300”] > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > _The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming_ (1966) is on TV right now. According to the Wikipedia article, ‘It was one of the few American films of the time to portray the Russians in a positive light.’/QUOTE] > > A nice film. Which begs the question, did Russian citizens ever get to see it? And what did they think of it? > > Dennis I saw it on DVD and there was a commentary in which it’s mentioned that the film was shown to some Soviet embassy personnel. They were very agitated at the climax, and loudly approved of how it was resolved, firstly between the Russians and the townspeople, and then the “escort” at the end. ---
**Author:** ![Royal\_Nonesutch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecb155/32.png) [@Royal\_Nonesutch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Royal_Nonesutch)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/18 "2019-01-06T20:59:41Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > I came in to say Russkies, but I was too late. > > I think that it’s not only one of the few movies with a softer Cold War message but also, I think, possibly the last Cold War movie put out by Hollywood. WarGames was 3 years earlier, Rocky was 2 years earlier. I haven’t seen WarGames for 30 years, but were any Soviets shown at all in the entire movie? I remember it made the U.S. military out to be incompetent fools and trigger-happy warmongers, but I can’t remember any foreign forces depicted. (I am now currently trying to remember if it was with Ally Sheedy or Elisabeth Shue, resisting the temptation to look it up) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/19 "2019-01-06T21:09:19Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _Prior to the Cold War, unusually sympathetic treatment of Russians occur in Mission to Moscow (1943) and_ Song of Russia \*(1944). I’ve not seen the latter, but I can say without reservation that the former was pure American wartime propaganda. As was _ **The North Star** _ (1943) with a very young Anne Baxter. In _ **You Only Live Twice** _, Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts help James Bond defeat Blofeld’s attempt to start a war between the US and USSR. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/20 "2019-01-06T21:13:38Z")
Not a movie but a TV series: I remember an episode of _ **Strange Report** _\* ca. 1970 in which Soviets cooperated with Adam Strange in an investigation. \*I know, British and not American… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300.md?page=2)