On Tuesday, the new Indiana Jones film was released in Russia on 808 screens, making it the widest Hollywood release ever.
There's been a bit of controversy here over the portrayal of Indy's Soviet-Russian nemeses as incompetent, greedy louts. The Communist Party (surprise, surprise) has even called for a ban, and turned their entire website, http://www.kplo.ru/ , into an anti-Indiana Jones forum. Under a photograph of Indy slugging a Russian agent, the caption reads "Filthy Jones punches Russian soldier-defeater of fascism." Another one reads "Jones sadistically murders Russian agents."
I saw the film yesterday, keen on gaging the Russians reactions as best I could. They seemed to enjoy it; they laughed at all the rights parts (especially at the prairie dogs in the beginning and during the motorcycle chase). My guess is they didn't take the 'portrayal of Russians' business too seriously.
However, there was one scene when it came to a head: The Russians have captured Indy and his sidekick for the umpteenth time and taken them to the jungles of Peru (as in all Indiana Jones movies, the bad guys need his archaeologist skills). The camera pans across the tents to a bonfire where the Russian soldiers are kicking back 'Russian-style' with traditional dances (including the crouch-kick thing) over balalaikas-accordion tunes. The audience burst out laughing.
It's a coincidence that as I'm writing this, through my window I can hear babuskas performing these very tunes on the street.
Read more about the communists, because they're so cute when they're mad:
http://www.reuters.com/article/filmNews/idUSL2344657520080524
And don't forget to the celebrate the 305th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg on Tuesday.
3 comments:
Russian subtitles?
So your comments on the commies reminded me of my friend's story:
In US history in middle school they learned all about the cold war and the evils of communism, and on her way home on the bus, she sat worrying about what they'd do if the communists took over.
She came home and asked her father "where will we go if the communists took over America."
He replied "Who said we're moving."
That was when she learned that authority figures can have different opinions on the world, and it blew her mind.
Hope you're reaching your russian social aspirations.
k
I love that Andrei Gindos slanders the good names of Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett. They probably don't want to go to Russia anyway.
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