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OK, let's dig into this. (Thread)
1) The example is nonsense and means nothing beyond the fact that our film industry had a tiny makeup budget and absolutely zero aptitude in special effects. It was basically theater on tape and relied on the viewers' ability to suspend disbelief https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1361017401429684236
1) The example is nonsense and means nothing beyond the fact that our film industry had a tiny makeup budget and absolutely zero aptitude in special effects. It was basically theater on tape and relied on the viewers' ability to suspend disbelief https://twitter.com/RodericDay/status/1361017401429684236
2) Soviet films were generally much less violent and scary. This was not because we had better morals and viewed the world through more generous eyes. This was because our culture was extremely prudish and staunchly conservative. Scary, violent films were unseemly, "uncultured"..
3) Soviet sci-fi films and literature were heavily ideological and had to show benevolent, communist Earthlings carrying the light of science and progress to outer space. Most of it was EXTREMELY dull. Some of the best ones (by Strugatsky brothers and Bulychyov) did show conflict
4) Speaking of Bulychyov, the above graphic shows one alien from "Guest From the Future", based on his book "100 Years Ahead." That alien appears in one scene. These two are major characters. This was truly all we could do with special effects.
5) To underscore this, in Bulychyov's novel, one of these "space pirates" is basically a humanoid rat, with small, ugly wings and a poisonous stinger on his tail. But this was well beyond the film industry's ability, so they just slapped a vaguely Darth Vaderish mask on him.
6) Strogatsky brothers' "Progressors" series had the same basic idea as Star Trek, though I'd say it was more realistic, cynical and offered better social commentary on who we are as humans. Of course, the best of their novels were never filmed.
7) But let's get to the point of the original post. How did we see the world beyond our borders? There is indeed a difference. Unlike Americans, who generally cared little about the outside world, we cared quite a lot. Almost an unhealthy amount. But we didn't see it as good.
7.1) We saw the outside world as hostile to us and a bleak, dehumanizing place to live.
7.2) We were taught to feel pity to the oppressed nations (African Americans, colonized peoples) but in a very paternalistic way that was meant to showcase the benevolence of the Great Russian People, such as in the film "Maximka".
7.3) Ultimately, this view of antiracism has left Russians unprepared to deal with black people on equal terms and has contributed heavily to the current state of affairs in the country, where racism is rampant, white nationalism is state ideology, and "Maximka" is a racial slur
8) One of the images in the OP is from the film "Kin-dza-dza", a darkly humorous masterpiece by the Georgian genius Danelia. The aliens there are entirely human and also horribly repugnant. They are supposed to be amplified reflections of ourselves. This was a Perestroika film.
9) Ultimately, to the extent there was a major difference between mainstream Soviet and US societies, we were more socially conservative and more convinced the world was out to destroy us. But we also cared much more about being liked. We had (and have) an inferiority complex
9.1) We considered ourselves misunderstood and underappreciated, but at the same time thought of our culture as sophisticated, elevated and in the highest taste possible. Some of it was. Most of it was just tabooing sex, violence and real human life and making filmed operettas.
9.2) We dreamed of wooing the West (especially France and England, we thought Americans much to uncouth) with our ballet (success), philharmonic orchestras (success), art (major failure) and films (another one). When it comes to the latter, even our propaganda knew we failed.
9.3) There's still a myth in Russia that even the English themselves think our Sherlock Holmes (played by the very talented Vasily Livanov) was the best. It's based entirely on the fact that Livanov's picture is in the Holmes museum on Baker St. In fact, it's there as a curiosity
9.4) Our Sherlock Holmes treatment has its moments, but it suffers from terrible cinematography and lighting and wouldn't pass muster with Western viewers. But we are extremely desperate to register foreign approval. Americans, by contrast, could't be bothered to give two shits.
10) Finally, it is no wonder that, since the Iron Curtain collapsed, Soviet citizens, tired of the neutered state-approved fare, flocked to Western entertainment and consumed it indiscriminately. In the 1980s, illicit "video salons" were all the rage...
10.1) They usually showed two genres of films: "pornukha" (soft porn and erotica, which to us was basically any view of an exposed breast) and "boyevik" (violent action). When I saw Running Man with @Schwarzenegger in 1988, my entire world was turned on its head. I was in awe.
10.2) The end result of this clash of cultures (and our insecurities) is that basically all high-budget film industry in Russia is one comically inept attempt after another to provide "our answer to Hollywood." Thankfully, most Russians are cynical enough to see it for what it is
11/x) The moral of the story is: please, don't judge either the American or the Soviet culture (both unique, occasionally tortured but extremely complex) on something as transparently silly as simplistic memes. It's an insult to those who lived, and live, in both.
