# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/41 "2019-01-07T21:06:26Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Not American-made but definitely very popular in America. The James Bond film “The Spy Who Loved Me” features the Soviet version of MI6 shown in a highly sympathetic light and portrays both the British and Russian spies on equal footing, distrusting of each other but also highly competent and willing to work together. The ending has the Russians, Americans, and British working together to avert WW3. In addition, the later James Bond film “Octopussy” also shows the Soviets in a positive light, as when a rogue Soviet general attempts to start a war between the the two superpowers Russian secret service again help foil him along with James Bond and the Russians even award James Bond with a medal for his efforts in saving the Soviet Union from disaster. Also _For Your Eyes Only_, in which a Greek drug smuggler, a Cuban hit man, a Belgian hit man, and an East German biathelete are much worse than the Russians. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/42 "2019-01-08T00:03:17Z")
Skywatcher: > [@](#): > > Also For Your Eyes Only, in which a Greek drug smuggler, a Cuban hit man, a Belgian hit man, and an East German biathelete are much worse than the Russians. They’re working for the Soviets, so I don’t see how they’re portrayed as worse than them. On the other hand, both Octopussy and The Living Daylights have as the antagonists rogue Soviet officers (in concert with others) who do their dirty deeds behind the Kremlin’s back because the Soviet government is too reasonable to do such evil things. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/43 "2019-01-08T00:09:11Z")
_I Spy_ on TV (mid-1960s) which teamed American secret agents with a Russian one versus an international syndicate of bad guys. ---
**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 8, 2019, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/44 "2019-01-08T00:14:35Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > On the other hand, both Octopussy and The Living Daylights have as the antagonists rogue Soviet officers (in concert with others) who do their dirty deeds behind the Kremlin’s back because the Soviet government is too reasonable to do such evil things. Heck, in A VIEW TO A KILL the Soviets decide to award the Order of Lenin to 007, because they’re reasonable enough to grant that he’s earned it. ---
**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 8, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/45 "2019-01-08T01:07:02Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > _I Spy_ on TV (mid-1960s) which teamed American secret agents with a Russian one versus an international syndicate of bad guys. I think you’re referring to _ **The Man from UNCLE** _, unless Bill Cosby or Robert Culp was supposed to be Russian. The Russian on _ **UNCLE** _ was played by David “Ducky” McCallum, who is Scottish IRL. Has Marya on _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _ been mentioned yet? Granted, she was a “White” Russian, meaning she was probably anti-Soviet (as opposed to simply being from Belarus), but she did oppose the Nazis. Bob “Elroy Carpenter” Hastings played a downed Russian pilot in one episode of _ **Hogan’s Heroes** _. There was also Vladimir Minsk, played by Leonid Kinskey (“Sasha” in _ **Casablanca** _), in the series’ pilot. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/46 "2019-01-08T03:11:30Z")
[White Nights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Nights_(1985_film))? Russian and American find common ground, and in the end the Soviets do the right thing and everyone is free. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/47 "2019-01-08T05:36:48Z")
_The President’s Analyst_, maybe? [The President's Analyst (7/9) Movie CLIP - Please, No Russian - I'm Spying! (1967) HD - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_117002&feature=iv&list=PLC281E1B4FE6315EE&src_vid=VgKqo3TvZoI&v=3PHLmv4Zzu0) ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/48 "2019-01-08T13:39:07Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > _The President’s Analyst_, maybe? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation\_id=annotation\_117002&feature=iv&list=PLC281E1B4FE6315EE&src\_vid=VgKqo3TvZoI&v=3PHLmv4Zzu0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_117002&feature=iv&list=PLC281E1B4FE6315EE&src_vid=VgKqo3TvZoI&v=3PHLmv4Zzu0) Good one. The Phone Company is pure evil. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2019, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/49 "2019-01-08T13:54:21Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > _ **The Spy Who Loved Me** _. Ah yes, Agent Triple-X. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/50 "2019-01-10T18:03:57Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > They’re working for the Soviets, so I don’t see how they’re portrayed as worse than them. Aside from Kriegler, they’re all basically mercenaries. The Soviet they’re working for, General Gogol, is the same reasonable man seen in _The Spy Who Loved Me_ and will be seen in _Octopussy_ ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/51 "2019-01-10T20:03:15Z")
Right, my point is that they’re not MORE evil than the Soviet government, they’re agents of that government (whether permanently employed or on a job-for-hire basis), so their level is basically equal, whether you consider it to be in a good light or not. The villains in Octopussy and The Living Daylights, on the other hand, are clearly being portrayed as more evil than the Soviet government. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/52 "2019-01-10T20:46:30Z")
The TV series _ **Men Into Space** _ (1959-1960) has a couple episodes with Russian cosmonauts. They’re portrayed as normal people. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/53 "2019-01-10T21:10:38Z")
_The Six Million Dollar Man_ had an episode where Gary Collins portrayed a Soviet cosmonaut as a good guy. In the “Venus probe” episodes, the Soviet spies were portrayed more as “bureaucrat” than “monster”. ---
**Author:** ![Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reindeer_flotilla/32/3024_2.png) [@Reindeer\_Flotilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reindeer_Flotilla)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/54 "2019-01-10T22:09:57Z")
> [@Royal\_Nonesutch](#): > > 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) This is completely backward. The movie portrayed the military personal as reasonable and competent (as well as the Soviets by reference as they hadn’t done anything wrong); it was the civilian scientists (especially the Dabney Coleman character) that were insisting the automated systems were infallible and pushed for military escalation. The civilians were also demanding harsh treatment towards the Matthew Broderick character, insisting he had to be a foreign agent since their systems were too perfect to allow a mere kid to hack into them. The military treats him relatively decently, all things considered. And when Falken returns to NORAD, McKittrick immediately tries to discredit him but General Beringer has none of it and takes Falken’s speech, appealing to Beringer’s humanity, to heart. Beringer couldn’t be happier to stand down, and couldn’t show more anguish when forced to order the bombers back to fail-safe. “God damn it I’d piss on a spark plug if I thought it’d do any good. Let the boy in there Major.” ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/55 "2019-01-10T23:50:33Z")
The Bob Clampett Loony Toons cartoon _Russian Rhapsody_ had a very positive view of the “Gremlins From the Kremlin”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/56 "2019-01-11T03:16:57Z")
One that hasn’t been mentioned that came to me early on was _Hopscotch_, from 1980, with Walter Matthau playing a US CIA agent working against the Russians, but also on a friendly basis with his opposite number, played by Herbert Lom. Compared with the US Agents chasing him (led by Ned Beatty), the Russian is much more of a gentleman than they. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2019, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/57 "2019-01-11T18:18:05Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > Right, my point is that they’re not MORE evil than the Soviet government, they’re agents of that government (whether permanently employed or on a job-for-hire basis), so their level is basically equal, whether you consider it to be in a good light or not. And my point is that they’re more interested in money rather than ideals. If you recall, Kristatos intended to sell the ATAC to Gogol even though that’s who hired him. Gogol could have let his man shoot at Bond but didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2019, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/58 "2019-01-12T02:37:40Z")
Not American or a Film (later made into a film, but not a coldwar one though) but Smilie’s KGB nemesis Karla in the La Carre books is a very sympathetic character, not a villain by any means. In fact the book ends with Smilie being disappointed that he eventually convinces him to defect (by threatening him with knowledge of what he’s done to protect his daughter). ---
**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 12, 2019, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/59 "2019-01-12T03:50:59Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Not American or a Film (later made into a film, but not a coldwar one though) but Smilie’s KGB nemesis Karla in the La Carre books is a very sympathetic character, not a villain by any means. On TV, he was played by Patrick “Jean-Luc Picard” Stewart. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2019, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300/60 "2019-09-01T04:48:05Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Also _For Your Eyes Only_, in which a Greek drug smuggler, a Cuban hit man, a Belgian hit man, and an East German biathelete are much worse than the Russians. > [@cmkeller](#): > > Skywatcher: > > They’re working for the Soviets, so I don’t see how they’re portrayed as worse than them. BUMPED Rewatchng FYEO, as far as I can tell, they are simply trying to do whats best for the USSR, nothing evil per se. Getting hold of enemy equipment is a standard part of statecraft, [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-war-american-films-showing-soviets-in-a-positive-light/827300.md?page=4)