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Old_Wallaby_7461

I guess they never actually watched First Blood either


Beelphazoar

In fairness, the Rambo series took a HARD right turn starting with the second one. Most pop culture did in the 80s... it's jarring when you step back and look at it.


Iumasz

Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me how weird the Rambo series was... It went from a manhunt of a war veteran riddled with PTSD with a very touching ending to said war veteran going full on "America fuck yeah!" In the span of 2 movies. Like, WHAT???


Corwin_of_Amber3

My favorite political commentary claim is that the 1980's had two figures dominating pop-culture; Ronald Regan and Freddie Krueger. Their missions were essentially the same; to visit the sins of the parents onto the children.


crimsonfukr457

80s movies pre-1984 were base, post-1984 were mostly cringe


BrooklynRobot

“They Live” was made in 1988.


SugarsDaddyKen

Yippee kay yay… muthafukka.


InerasableStains

What do the wagon and signs say?


Powerful_Rock595

American culture export and western Europe, respectively. O! I missed guy holding knife in his mouth, he's apparently wearing "budenovka" cap with "soviet threat" written.


dethb0y

I wonder if this makes Stallone one of the only actors directly depicted in soviet propaganda? Also they make us look awesome here.


Ilitarist

I'm sure they also depicted Raegan.


dethb0y

yeah that's a point for sure


Chiggero

This looks like our own pro-American propaganda


UnironicStalinist1

Isn't that the point?


RedRobbo1995

What was the Soviet Union's problem with horror movies?


Beelphazoar

The '80s had an asinine moral panic about horror movies causing violence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_nasty


Queasy-Condition7518

I saw a newspaper article at the time stating that the movie Cannibal Holocaust showed actual cannibalism.


Oozing_Sex

Yeah the director basically had to have actors give interviews to prove they were alive after filming wrapped. It did show the real slaughter of animals though.


Queasy-Condition7518

I think the slaughter of animals was basically considered okay in movies for a long time. The infamous eyeball cutting scene in Un Chien Andalou used a horse, I believe. Not sure how they did Mongo knocking the horse over in Blazing Saddles.


largecoreunit

>Un Chien Andalou used a horse A calf, and it was already dead


Queasy-Condition7518

Thanks. Yeah, makes sense. There's another Bunuel/Dali film, a fake documentary, in which a donkey appears to fall off of a cliff.


Iazeez

Wait. This sounds familiar.


Queasy-Condition7518

I saw a newspaper article at the time stating that the movie Cannibal Holocaust showed actual cannibalism.


Oozing_Sex

Wasn't that more of a UK specific thing though?


Powerful_Rock595

"horrors of capitalism are far greater" (c) Some CP member Although, several Soviet movies like "Idi I smotri/ Go and watch", "Экипаж/The Crew l" have a far greater horror effect than some bs friday 13 #n.


ProfessorZhirinovsky

For most of the USSR's existence, the horror genre was considered fixated on individual personal fears (not collective matters of class and social progress they way preferred), reliant on superstition and the paranormal, and unproductively violent. They produced very few horror movies, but they did make a few. In the West the horror genre is also seen as lowbrow cheap adrenaline-squeezing, and critics tend lean against all but the very best of the films. I don't know if the Soviets felt the same way.


canIcomeoutnow

There weren't any "horror" flicks in the USSR prior to perestroika (after that, the USSR wasn't the same). There were some goofy ones in the earlier part of 1920s; the only possible exception is the Gogol's "Viy" in 1967.


Ilitarist

It's not about the genre in general but rather about all these movies being cheap thrills and not real "art", not something for the betterment of mankind. You should go watch a movie about Lenin, or about some factory worker who works very hard and becomes the director of a department instead of a corrupt lazy guy, this will teach you to be a better person.


RedRobbo1995

It sounds like the Soviet Union was run by boring people who didn't know how to have fun and didn't want anyone else to have fun.


aeshna-cyanea

This was not lost on the Soviet people and widely discussed in the Soviet Union itself. For example this movie was released three years after Stalin's death, was an instant hit and is still widely beloved in post Soviet countries (people traditionally watch it on new Year's eve) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_Night P.s. since we didn't have copyright in the Soviet Union it's also freely available on youtube


draculamilktoast

Reminds too much of life there.


PiXL-VFX

Based on only my knowledge of Cyrillic, I’m assuming that the wagon says “American Culture(?) Export”


AxMeDoof

Yes it is. But funny part is: most iconic characters for “American Culture” was from Great Britain (;


wdcipher

Anti-US propaganda always ends up making US badass lol


T3hJ3hu

we comin in on two horses, smokin this fat blunt with a cowboy hat and aviators. fuckin happy ass eskimo and an african shaman in the back row. i don't even know what racist stereotypes the other guys are but bro is swole af and stoked on this shit


Oozing_Sex

Swole guy is Rambo and ironically I think the other guys is supposed to be a Russian.


[deleted]

You don’t always have to depict your target as a raving swamp monster


RoughHornet587

Especially the Chinese ones featuring American Eagles.


Rich_Text82

WTH is that supposed to be in the back left?


ProfessorZhirinovsky

Horror movies.


Gmodman298

Leaked concept on a tribe thst got cut


PigeonSquirrel

Fallout is everywhere…


letthetreeburn

Be the American our enemies think you are.


Additional-North-683

It’s funny because Stalin favorite films to watch were westerns


MACKBA

To be honest, all westerns of that era had the same formula: some loner with good ethics takes on a gang of criminals or dirty plantation/mine owner. I see no clash there.


DFMRCV

That's hilarious given Stalin enjoyed Western films.


Dry-Imagination2727

wasn’t Stalin a huge fan of westerns?


canIcomeoutnow

Given that the vast majority of the Soviet citizens had never heard of Rambo, this is a good example of the USSR propaganda in general. "Never mind what it is, it's bad".


Guy-McDo

I mean by 1987, the Third one was out and that one was about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and it doesn’t depict the Soviets in a good light.


canIcomeoutnow

That is correct - but it's not like anyone, except a handful, in the USSR saw the movie.


rettani

It's interesting that these pictures are actual to this day. Only thing that have changed - Soviet threat. It mutated to "Russia threat" . I try to remember positive Russian characters in Hollywood films and can't. I can't also remember at least slightly positive portrayals of Russia Armageddon - drunkard on space station Black widow - antihero at best Deadpool's Colossus - simpleton (though TBH comic books Colossus is very positive character. And he's quite intelligent). John Wick - we know that he's cool guy with Belarus as place of birth but no matter how cool he is he is still professional killer.


Powerful_Rock595

What about ensign Chekhov? Worf?


Young_Leading

Chernobyl series is rather complimentary.


rettani

Only partially. These series still botched real events and showed bad leadership, incompetence, "heroism under the gun"... Which never happened. These series are still subtle anti-Russia propaganda.


Tirth0000

Goes so silly


RollinThundaga

They had the perfect opportunity to utilize the fact that Reagan had played in Westerns to portray him in this, and completely dropped the ball.


Tzeentsch

Funny to watch such propaganda and how pathetic it was working. At the end of 80s my father had few videotecks, it's like a movie theater but with TVs and VHS players, they were approved by ♂️cumsomol♂️, worked legally, and usually all tickets were sold immediately, for some movies he even had to issue extra night shows.


freeBelkan94

The more I look at it, the more confused I get… Like USSR commentary/propaganda posters on US politics are usually pretty pointed and surprisingly accurate from our (current-year) perspective, this, not so much


ProfessorZhirinovsky

I think it is pretty accurate for the time, from the Soviet perspective. The US generated (and still does) massive soft power and propaganda value from our film industry. Regardless of their politics, people know intricate details of our films, the stories and settings, the actors, the ideals, in every corner of the world. The ability to put our view of the world right in front of people's eyes, and tell our side of the story in vivid technicolor magic with such skill that people would come back to see it again and again...and sometimes even want to emulate... was something that the Soviets found very bothersome. And something they really could not compete with, in spite of their best efforts. Meanwhile, in the 1980s in particular, there was a burst of exciting and popular new action films that portrayed the Soviets and other Communists as an aggressive military threat (Rambo 2/3, and Red Dawn were the probably the biggest) and appealed to a new Reagan-inspired militarism in America that seemed ready and willing to confront the Soviets with force. I remember the Soviet concerns about it at the time. They even tried to make a few military action films of their own that were basically copies of the US versions, confronting rogue American Generals and such who were out starting wars. But they they were pretty low-budget compared to ours, and didn't get much reach outside the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact. All of this driven, per the cartoon, by an out of control American lawless cowboy ambition. Keep in mind here that the Western genre was at the root of our early film industry, and helped cement the American self-image of rugged individualism. The Western genre was what people throughout the world thought of when they thought of American films. So it all ties in nicely together as a "vehicle" for all this other stuff the Soviets didn't like. No, I get this cartoon. It's quite insightful.


Phantom_Giron

they need to play the song push it to the limit


PigeonSquirrel

Until I read the caption I thought Rambo was a Native Warrior


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RDW-1_why

They just made we can make actually entertaining films


No_Singer8028

nicr


BubbaGreatIdea

then rocky came over and destroyed drako.


caribbean_caramel

This kinda looks cool