Friday, October 26, 2007

The Russians are Coming

Last night we watched The Russians are Coming, a Hollywood film from 1960s, set during the cold war in smalltown New York, on an island upon which a Russian submarine accidentally lands. 8 sailors are sent out to find a boat to pull them back out to sea. Stereotypes abound, the story unfolds into a series of accidents and mishaps leaving the whole island believing that THE Russians are actually coming, they have landed and WW3 has begun. Chaos awakens the drunken village. A young, naive sailor falls in love with an all-American blond beauty. A little girl blows kisses at burly Russians. All this in silly slapstick style. At the heated climax, the Russian sub comes face to face with the village, threatening to blow them up. Mutual misunderstanding has driven them to a point of no return, it seems. Alas, a distraction saves the day: a little boy almost falls off the church steeple trying to get a better view of the showdown, he dangles precariously by the belt of his pants. When everyone chips in to help the kid, and save him, enemies suddenly become dear friends. The townies decide to escort the sub out to sea as to avoid an intended air attack. The fighter jets swoop dangerously low and, seeing 100s of tiny village boats surrounding the ominous black Russian, decide to head back to the base.


For me the film was great, especially the kitsch Soviet sailors in their stripes and stiff black leather jackets, with ridiculous imitations of Russian language. But this was not the case for everyone in our small audience, some of whom found it difficult to watch what they considered unrealistic and unfair idealism coming out of all-powerful Hollywood-in particular the USA who is seen as the world's bully in this era. It was however agreed as interesting and very relevant to view this film, at this time and place.

Debate involved the following: The issue of a film's role as entertainment
as well as meaning or ideology; problems regarding the comedy-war genre which fails to incite deep questioning or thought (as opposed to Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove); and this path led, somehow, to the state of the intellectual in Iran (the opinion was raised that some intellectuals are stuck in hermeneutic thought, creating a danger of misjudging the reality of simple things...)

-and my favorite quote from the discussion:

'they won't drink water unless Gramsci tells them to drink water'


:)



7 comments:

nabz-iran said...

That discussion at the end reminded me on Siavush, how he always comes to Iran at the end of each discussion :-)

Arash said...

the russians are coming! the russians are coming! some good debate going on over here as well, unfortunately it's only on bill maher. can i have my water now please?

Unknown said...

oh, russians are coming was one of the new-year eve highlights on the softly comunist yugoslavian (serbian) tv, back then in 80's. it was very funny, as i remember: the title as such- "RUSI DOLAZE", and i am very surprised to hear that your watch-mates discussed the authencity of this film- maybe that's one of the deviation of perspective among the Iranian soon-to-be-intelectuals.

anyway, is it allowed /legaly/ to see an american film in Iran these days?

(this time i am not going to delete any comments, although i am not sure if they deserve to be spared;).

Pisma iz Indije za familiju i drugare said...

Milose ne trabunjaj, no se prizovi pameti.

Ninja, great writing. Dobar schtimung. The first post was a beat hard to handle because it had no paragraphs.

Give us something about football fans and Hip Hop scene:)

neenee said...

the friend who shared this film with us actually saw it for the first time at drive-in cinema here, in the 60s. As far as I know, being American doesn't make a film illegal. Films are banned if they are seen to promote "decadent and immoral behavior" a definition whose boundaries are shifting...also are banned those which promote nihilism, feminism, alchoholism, secularism...these types of rules can be enforced arbitrarily, but at the same time their obscurity allows a certain space. Terminator 3, Kill Bill and The Aviator were screened in cinemas, and of course Fahrenheit 911.

Thanks for the feedback...some lighter material hopefully coming up. :)

Unknown said...

there is a good censorship example in Saudi Arabia , i think. the western magazines- such as TIMES, DER SPIEGEL, HERALD TRIBUNE ... are being imported and sold at the kiosks- but all the pictures that are containing slightest indication of erotic (rocks that are too short, breast-overtone...) have to be censored there"at the face of the place" - in the newspaper kiosk- by the hand and marker of a not even blue collar employ at the the kiosk. all the suspect fotos are falling under the jurisdiction of a guy who works at the kiosk- unbelivebale.

Mayche said...

Russians came to Sebia in form of Gasprom.
Neenee, this girl is from Ahvazu not from Teheran but if you meet her somewhere say hi to her ;)
Elham Hossein Zadeh.

How's going with hijab?