# Do all countries make patriotic action movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 12, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203 "2024-04-12T17:26:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/1 "2024-04-12T17:26:05Z")
I’m only familiar with American cinema, like Glory, Clear & Present Danger, and Patriot, just to name a few. Do other nations create these kinds of jingoistic action films? I think I’ve heard of some Chinese ones that were similar. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/2 "2024-04-12T17:27:43Z")
Yes, China creates a great deal of them. Not sure “all” countries do, but I’m sure numerous ones have similar versions. Russia has quite a few WW2 movies I believe. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/3 "2024-04-12T17:30:13Z")
There was that whole James Bond thing, saving the West from evil, and postwar Britain from American cultural imperialism. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/4 "2024-04-12T17:50:38Z")
United Kingdom: _Lawrence of Arabia_, _Zulu_, _Dunkirk_ France: _Lucie Aubrac_, _La grande vadrouille_, _L’Armée des ombres_ Soviet Union: Virtually all films, especially those of Sergei Eisenstein. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/5 "2024-04-12T17:54:50Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > There was that whole James Bond thing, saving the West from evil, and postwar Britain from American cultural imperialism. I’m an idiot. I have of course seen the Bond films but somehow didn’t connect it to the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/6 "2024-04-12T18:00:14Z")
I suspect some of the Nazi propaganda films from the 30s and 40s would qualify as “action movies.” ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/7 "2024-04-12T18:03:45Z")
Specific to the USSR, there was the book and movie series hailing [Stierlitz,](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stierlitz) their James Bond. (No sex please, we’re Soviet) ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/8 "2024-04-12T18:06:38Z")
Well, I do know from actual viewing that Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and China do. There are a lot of those movies on Netflix. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2024, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/9 "2024-04-12T18:06:53Z")
The closest that I can think of for Japan would be something like Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. The main character is a member of a patriotic, jingoist organization but he’s attracted to an anti-government, pro-terrorism woman so…I’m not sure that it really fits. Good movie, though. Japan is constitutionally limited to using its military purely for self-defense. They mostly work like the National Guard, helping out to move people and build temporary structures in disasters. The people are fairly satisfied with the setup. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2024, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/10 "2024-04-12T18:13:07Z")
There are numerous [Indian](https://www.imdb.com/list/ls074940032/) and [Pakistani](https://www.imdb.com/list/ls065026986/) patriotic war movies, probably filmed from slightly different perspectives. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/11 "2024-04-12T18:44:49Z")
I’m visiting Türkiye at the moment and happen to have walked by a multiplex earlier today and browsed the posters out of curiosity. Many of the movies are American imports (e.g. the Ryan Gosling _Fall Guy_ is called _Düblor_ here, which literally means “stuntman”), but there was one poster that had a Turkish title and cast, with a soldier holding the hand of a little girl and looking at a burning battlefield. Don’t remember the title, but based on this I’m inclined to say “yes” to the OP. (Türkiye is a _wildly_ nationalistic country. Flags literally everywhere, even more than in the US, followed closely by posters and statues of, and other references to, Attatürk. The cab driver who brought us to our current hotel launched into an unprompted paean to Attatürk’s greatness and his pride in the country’s progress during the drive. So I’d be pretty surprised if “patriotic action movies” weren’t a thing here.) ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/12 "2024-04-12T18:52:39Z")
Türkiye’s [Valley of the Wolves](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Wolves) franchise fits that bill. To a disquieting degree from this distance. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/13 "2024-04-12T19:26:16Z")
I’m trying to think of a Canadian war movie. (Our movie industry isn’t very strong, because we’re so close to the US.) The only one I can think of is _Passchendaele_. I don’t know if you would call it a “patriotic action movie.” Here’s the Wikipedia article. You could read the plot summary and judge for yourself. > **[Passchendaele (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passchendaele_(film))** > > Passchendaele is a 2008 Canadian war film, written, co-produced, directed by, and starring Paul Gross. The film, which was shot in Calgary, Alberta, Fort Macleod, Alberta, and in Belgium, focuses on the experiences of a Canadian soldier, Michael Dunne, at the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, inspired by stories that Gross heard from his grandfather, a First World War soldier. > The film had its premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival on September 4... ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/14 "2024-04-12T19:32:12Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > Soviet Union: Virtually all films, especially those of Sergei Eisenstein. Soviet patriotism was a tricky thing, though: a film that _really_ spoke of and to the people and culture got the film censored, shelved, and the director/writer persecuted. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/15 "2024-04-12T19:35:18Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > I’m trying to think of a Canadian war movie. (Our movie industry isn’t very strong, because we’re so close to the US.) There was a TV movie called [The Chronicle of 1812](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0207283/) ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/16 "2024-04-12T19:36:41Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The only one I can think of is _Passchendaele_. Paul Gross also did Hyena Road, which I haven’t seen, but googling makes it sound good. Don’t know how patriotic it is. > **[Hyena Road (2015) ⭐ 6.5 | Action, Drama, War](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034452/)** > > 2h | R CBC also did a miniseries on the Dieppe raid, but that wasn’t really “patriotic”, since most people consider the raid a failure. > **[Dieppe (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieppe_(film))** > > Dieppe is a two-part Canadian television miniseries that aired on CBC Television in 1993. It was based on the book Unauthorized Action: Mountbatten and the Dieppe Raid by Brian Loring Villa. > The series chronicled the events that led up to the infamous World War II Dieppe Raid on August 19, 1942, which resulted in 3,367 Canadian soldiers either being captured, wounded or killed. > It was criticized for not being completely accurate, and overdramatizing the events that took place. > Dieppe was nomin... ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/17 "2024-04-12T19:40:55Z")
Eh, sort of, but not always and not exactly. It’s been a long time since I’ve seriously explored Russian film, but here’s what I remember: The Soviets were proud of having a fairly sophisticated film industry and talented filmmakers, and supported efforts to have their best products exported to the world as evidence of Russian superiority. That included some stuff that seemed to Western eyes to be critical of Soviet leadership, history, or politics. But the thing was, those movies and filmmakers were often supported exclusively for international distribution, as a propaganda counter to the idea that the Kremlin was intolerant of criticism; but meanwhile, this kind of work was given limited if any attention internally, exactly because of worries about subversive influence. Basically, it was much more complicated than simply “criticize Kremlin, go up against wall.” (Something similar also happened with Iranian film in the 90s, to a lesser extent.) ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/18 "2024-04-12T19:42:01Z")
I mean there’s numerous Japanese anime that are all patriotic action series, Gate is written by a far-right guy IIRC and is entirely about the Japanese military kicking ass (though against fantasy creatures) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/19 "2024-04-12T20:03:05Z")
Israel is a very small film market, so it doesn’t make many action movies, and even fewer war movies, and those it makes are almost always of the tragic/futility of war/slice-of-life type. The only overtly patriotic film I can think of is 1979’s Operation Thunderbolt, which was about the 1976 Entebbe raid - and even that one is more of a eulogy to Yonatan Netantayhu than a rah-rah action movie. > **[Operation Thunderbolt (film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Thunderbolt_(film))** > > Operation Thunderbolt, known in Israel as Mivtsa Yonatan (.mw-parser-output .script-hebrew,.mw-parser-output .script-Hebr{font-family:"SBL Hebrew","SBL BibLit","Taamey Ashkenaz","Taamey Frank CLM","Frank Ruehl CLM","Ezra SIL","Ezra SIL SR","Keter Aram Tsova","Taamey David CLM","Keter YG","Shofar","David CLM","Hadasim CLM","Simple CLM","Nachlieli",Cardo,Alef,"Noto Serif Hebrew","Noto Sans Hebrew","David Libre",David,"Times New Roman",Gisha,Arial,FreeSerif,FreeSans}מבצע יונתן‎, literally "Operation... ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2024, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203/20 "2024-04-12T20:14:15Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > The only one I can think of is _Passchendaele_. Lost me early on, when the bayonet went right through the German’s forehead bone. It should have skittered into his ear or orbital (don’t ask me how I know this - sarcasm -) Could any Canadian War of 1812 movie surpass Douglas Coupland’s [monument](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_War_of_1812)? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-countries-make-patriotic-action-movies/1000203.md?page=2)