Indy IV: Russian Communists Not Amused (Spoilers)

[Kanastrous]

MOSCOW - Communists in St. Petersburg on Friday condemned the new Indiana Jones' film as crude anti-Soviet propaganda that distorted history and called for it to be banned from Russian screens.

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" stars Harrison Ford as an archeologist in 1957 competing with an evil KGB agent, played by Cate Blanchett, to find a skull endowed with mystic powers.

"What galls is how together with America we defeated Hitler, and how we sympathized when bin Laden hit them. But they go ahead and scare kids with Communists. These people have no shame," said Viktor Perov, a Communist party member in Russia's second city.

The comments were made at a meeting of the local Communist party and posted on its Internet site www.kplo.ru.

"Our women don't look like Nazis, but maybe Cate Blanchett was threatened by unemployment, so ... she made this film," Perov said.

The film, the fourth in the hugely successful Indiana Jones series, went on release in Russian cinemas on Thursday. Russian media said it was being shown on 808 screens, the widest ever release for a Hollywood movie.

"Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett (are) second-rate actors, serving as the running dogs of the CIA. We need to deprive these people of the right of entering the country," said another party member, Andrei Gindos.

"The film is low-quality and would raise a smile if there wasn't a danger of drawing into its orbit teenagers who know nothing about the 1950s," Vladimir Mukhin, another member, said in comments on the Internet site.

Mukhin said he would ask the Culture Ministry to ban the film for its "anti-Soviet propaganda."

"Indians and aliens unite with Jones and his untrustworthy buddies to save the world from a Russian threat — what rubbish, simply a paranoid Churchillian fantasy," Mukhin said.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24788840/

***

There's no Soviet cinema, that depicted the US and the west as villians and bad guys?

I also liked the use of "running dogs of the CIA." You don't get a lot of "running dog," these days.

[Gandalf]

Are Russian Communists ever happy?

[Kamakazie Sith]

I like how they called it distorted history. Is it really necessary to tell anyone that? Especially when the movie has a massive warehouse full of top secret items including the Ark of the Covenant?

[Nieztchean Uber-Amoeba]

Damn, distorted history? You mean that the Nazis didn't actually find the chamber of the Holy Grail and choose poorly?

This is hilarious. "The KGB were not bad guys!!!"

[FedRebel]

MOSCOW - Communists in St. Petersburg on Friday condemned the new Indiana Jones' film as crude anti-Soviet propaganda that distorted history and called for it to be banned from Russian screens.

Does the word "fiction" not exist in the Russian vocabulary?

It's not supposed to accurately reflect history

[qoute]"What galls is how together with America we defeated Hitler, and how we sympathized when bin Laden hit them. But they go ahead and scare kids with Communists. These people have no shame," said Viktor Perov, a Communist party member in Russia's second city.[/quote]

Yes, lets forget the decades of Cold War, the massive nuclear arsenals optimized to wipe each other out, etc.

"The film is low-quality and would raise a smile if there wasn't a danger of drawing into its orbit teenagers who know nothing about the 1950s," Vladimir Mukhin, another member, said in comments on the Internet site.

I do believe schools teach history in your country, and I sincerely doubt any sane person would confuse a fictional film with actual historical events

Mukhin said he would ask the Culture Ministry to ban the film for its "anti-Soviet propaganda."

anti-What? The Soviet Union no longer exists. Hell the majority of the former Soviet population seem to be in agreement that the whole 'Communist Utopia' thing was a bad idea, given that one nation is now fifteen independent republics, some of which who've established friendly relations with with the Former Soviet Union's mortal capitalist enemy

"Indians and aliens unite with Jones and his untrustworthy buddies to save the world from a Russian threat — what rubbish, simply a paranoid Churchillian fantasy," Mukhin said.[/quote

Fine, make your own 'accurate' fictional movie which depicts a glorious communist paradise known as the USSR whom faces an enemy it has practically no defense against.

A "vile" Capitalist Empire which has a nuclear gun pointed at the head of the workers heaven. It'll be a story of heroism, bravery, and cunning; as the "valiant" KGB subverts this evil enemy to neutralize the hundreds of missiles which threaten the cities that stand as monuments to worker's freedom, and the thousands of bombers which fly over the 'Great Soviet Union' with insulting impunity.

[Coyote]

Man, "running dogs of the CIA"... havn't heard that in a long time. Brings a tear to my eye, it does.

I was wondering about that, though, and was going to ask Stas. I mean, seriously, the Soviets depicted in the film cannot possibly be taken seriously, can they? I mean, they're caricatures. The Soviets were in th e'50's, they know what it was all about back then. They had to have done the same to "evil CIA agents". Maybe even... running dogs?

[Patrick Degan]

"Our women don't look like Nazis, but maybe Cate Blanchett was threatened by unemployment, so ... she made this film," Perov said.

Perov should be grateful the "evil KGB" figure looks like Cate Blanchett instead of Rosa Klebb or the woman from the Wendy's "Soviet Fashion Show" commercial.

[Chris OFarrell]

Oh get OVER it people.

I mean its an alternate history ANYWAY...

But even if the West and East were allies in WW2, everyone knows it was just an alliance of convenience against the Nazi's. As soon as WW2 was over, the cold war was on, during which both sides tried their best to win against the other.

[Eulogy]

Does that mean that if *SPOILERS* I hide in a heavy fridge lined with lead, I can actually survive a nuclear blast? */SPOILERS*

[Sidewinder]

Now I'm VERY curious at what Vladimir Putin and the members of his political party think of 'The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull' (because, let's be honest, Putin and his boys and girls are the ones whose opinions are worth a damn in modern Russia, not the has-been Commies).

[K. A. Pital]

No one thinks anything about it.

I think the frustration is explainable because really people in Russia, and especially Communists, have grown tired from all the Hollywood cold war crap that is thrown at us, from "Red Dawn" to "Rocky IV".

There's no Soviet cinema, that depicted the US and the west as villians and bad guys?

We never fell to Red Dawn levels, where Soviet supermen killed hordes of US invaders or something. Only spy thrillers, and even then the spies were not shown to be "evil".

The role of Evil from a capital "E" in most soviet movies was exclusively restricted to the Nazis, I guess that's why the West did't get so much attention (besides were we info-blockading you, and in cinema as well).

[Superman]

I know how we handle this. First we go to the Russian commies. We tell them that the movie is part of a much larger revisionist propaganda campaign thought up by the Muslims. After that, we go to the Muslims and tell them that the Russian commies wipe their asses daily with torn pages of the Koran. We then let them go at it; each side fighting because they're whiny ass douche bags.

[Superman]

I think the frustration is explainable because really people in Russia, and especially Communists, have grown tired from all the Hollywood cold war crap that is thrown at us, from "Red Dawn" to "Rocky IV".

They could always make their own Russian version of Hollywood, then crank out movies about evil capitalistic pig Americans. It would beat whining.

[neoolong]

I think the frustration is explainable because really people in Russia, and especially Communists, have grown tired from all the Hollywood cold war crap that is thrown at us, from "Red Dawn" to "Rocky IV".

They could always make their own Russian version of Hollywood, then crank out movies about evil capitalistic pig Americans. It would beat whining.

Naw. That's what Turkey does. Case in point, Valley of the Wolves.

I'm personally ashamed for Billy Zane and Gary Busey. Do they need the money that badly?

[ray245]

I think the frustration is explainable because really people in Russia, and especially Communists, have grown tired from all the Hollywood cold war crap that is thrown at us, from "Red Dawn" to "Rocky IV".

They could always make their own Russian version of Hollywood, then crank out movies about evil capitalistic pig Americans. It would beat whining.

No other country cinema industry has more money than hollywood..

[Superman]

No other country cinema industry has more money than hollywood..

Thanks for the news update, retard.

Well, the commies in Russia might be happy to know that more than a few critics are ripping this movie a new one. It will be interesting to see the major reviews after the weekend.

[CJvR]

Does the word "fiction" not exist in the Russian vocabulary?

Sure it does, in many flavors. It is called Pravda, official statistics and 5 year plan.

[Oskuro]

I think it is noteworthy that the movie also crticizes the way the American government handled the communist witch-hunt (At the beggining, with what they do to Indy's career), and also, that when they talk about Cate Blanchett's character being a parapsichology expert, they seem to not take her too seriously.

To me, it felt like the russians in the movie where this small group with their own agenda, not a major effort by the Communist governement.


But, I must agree that all the anti-communist talk in the movie made me a bit uncomfortable, if anything because it feels like resurrecting the ghost of the cold-war era fears and prejudices.

[Coyote]

Naw. That's what Turkey does. Case in point, Valley of the Wolves.

I'm personally ashamed for Billy Zane and Gary Busey. Do they need the money that badly?

Joke's on them; they got paid in lira.

[Coyote]

No other country cinema industry has more money than hollywood..

Thanks for the news update, retard.

Well, the commies in Russia might be happy to know that more than a few critics are ripping this movie a new one. It will be interesting to see the major reviews after the weekend.

Movie critics, bah. Any movie that cannot be described as "A warm, tender human drama about a ________ boy and the unusual love he finds with ________" is utterly without merit, in their world.

[CmdrWilkens]

I think the frustration is explainable because really people in Russia, and especially Communists, have grown tired from all the Hollywood cold war crap that is thrown at us, from "Red Dawn" to "Rocky IV".

They could always make their own Russian version of Hollywood, then crank out movies about evil capitalistic pig Americans. It would beat whining.

No other country cinema industry has more money than hollywood..

Except that Bollywood produes more films per year, has a larger audience, and has a lower saturation rate (meaning they can continue to grow easily). So yes Hollywood ontinues to have a strangelhold on the cash but come 10-12 years from now that could VERY easily change.

[Publius]

In a similar article, the communists are quoted even further:

Other communists said the generation born after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union were being fed revisionist, Hollywood history. They advocated banning the Indiana Jones outright to prevent "ideological sabotage."

"Our movie-goers are teenagers who are completely unaware of what happened in 1957," St Peterburg Communist Party chief Sergei Malinkovich told Reuters.

"They will go to the cinema and will be sure that in 1957 we made trouble for the United States and almost started a nuclear war."

"It's rubbish ... In 1957 the communists did not run with crystal skulls throughout the U.S. Why should we agree to that sort of lie and let the West trick our youth?"

Essentially, the complaint is the result of certain communists having little concept of fiction. One wonders why such an elementary concept would elude them.

[Civil War Man]

Essentially, the complaint is the result of certain communists having little concept of fiction. One wonders why such an elementary concept would elude them.

Maybe a sizeable segment of the modern Communist Party is populated by the aliens from Galaxy Quest.

[K. A. Pital]

Essentially, the complaint is the result of certain communists having little concept of fiction.

"Red Dawn", "Rocky IV" and "Rambo III" are fiction likewise, and they did form perceptions of people. Due to the stupidity of the average moviegoer, the stereotype and the fictional events and personalities get extrapolated to real ones.

[Havok]

What the fuck are they whining about?
The Soviets in the movie are smart and resourceful and badass. They say that they are a special division/group. Hell they actually pull off the raid of Area 51. If Cate Blanchette had blond hair, would they be bitching this much?
And OH NO!! GASP! The Soviets were our enemy in 1957! Ah history is being distorted!!

If anything their complaining should be offensive to US. If they think that their teenagers are that stupid, imagine what they think of ours!!