Indiana Jones offends Communists
It looks like the bold opinions expressed by Cate Blanchet’s Russian character in Indiana Jones has upset some Communists. And not just some fluffy group pretending to be communists, but the real deal. The official Russian Communist Party.
Cinematical reports:
Party have called for a nationwide boycott of the film, because it lies about history and aims to undermine Communism. They’ve objected that the Soviet Union in 1957 was launching satellites instead of “send[ing] terrorists to the States,” and are wondering whether “talented directors want to provoke a new Cold War.”
I was about to address this, but I feel that Eugene over at Cinematical sums it up in a way that I couldn’t say better:
First, it’s important to note that the Russian Communist Party isn’t a tiny cabal of pamphleteering loonies à la the American Communist Party. The Russian Party got 11.6% of the vote in 2007’s parliamentary elections (that’s about 8 million votes), and its representatives actually hold seats in Parliament; it’s the largest opposition party in the country, and the Communist presidential candidate tends to be competitive.Second: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Classic. In any movie where an enemy is presented as belonging to a cultural/ethnic/political group, they are likely going to be cast in a negative light. Its going to happen. SOMEONE has to be the badguy (He is just never Canadian)
No one is going to start another cold war over the depiction of a character or that characters political views. If that were the case EVERY movie that makes fun of an ethnic/cultural/political group would be guilty of starting something.
So let me second that “HAHAHAHAHAHAHA” as this is pretty silly.
16 Comments, Comment or Ping
Jason Stanley
Not surprised really…the film pretty much offended me the whole way through.
George Lucas. Hang your head in shame.
May 26th, 2008
Dave
I guess that after a 126 million dollar box-office hit in their first weekend, they don’t really care about Russia, who at best could only bring in about 15 million dollar in theatre revenues. And maybe, just maybe, they will create enough buzz for this movie that more Russians will go and see this movie, than if their wasn’t a boycot. Silly Communists.
May 26th, 2008
The Poster
Well after all those Bond films, Communists has become the acceptable villain in Hollywood even if substitute it with any other group and it will cause controversy. Its a legacy of Cold War. You can help it with Hollywood being a jerk this time since Communist-equals-evil is deeply rooted in the American consciousness now. Plus Russia being a small market certainly doesn’t help.
BTW, the other day I saw the cover of an old Atari game called Invasion of Communist Aliens. Haha that was a good laugh.
May 26th, 2008
Mark
Who would they go to war with: Paramount Pictures??? This is as silly as China’s reaction to the Shanghai police officers in MI:3. It’s. A. Movie.
May 26th, 2008
Kristina
Who cares? Drink your vodka and shut the fuck up.
May 26th, 2008
Rodney
Maybe you don’t remember the ColdWar, but they are not talking about going to war with guns and armies. The Coldwar was all about deliberately poor relations.
Cold War period, which lasted from the mid-1940s until the end of the 1980s, international politics were heavily shaped by the intense rivalry between these two great blocs of power and the political ideologies they represented: democracy and capitalism in the case of the United States and its allies, and Communism in the case of the Soviet bloc.
There was no physical war as much as a general dislike for each other which impacted relations on ALL levels. Trade, tourism, and political agreements. They would go out of their way to badmouth and distance themselves from each other despite not being at war with each other.
Its still a stupid stretch to think this could be sparked again by a movie (it took the second world war to start it last time) but this is what he is implying. The Russian Communist Party is saying we are trying to pick a fight socially, not militaristic.
May 26th, 2008
Simple Simon
Does anyone here remember when Communists at least had balls? Well…those and AK-47s…
May 26th, 2008
djj
“Not surprised really…the film pretty much offended me the whole way through.
George Lucas. Hang your head in shame.”
QFT
Get in line communists.
Seriously though, taking this movie as a genuine attack on communism in any way shape or form is pretty crazy.
May 26th, 2008
Dragonslayer
Whopptie freakin’ doo!!!! Who gives a crap?
May 26th, 2008
Darren J Seeley
I don’t blame them, after all…
“Print is the sharpest and the strongest weapon of our party.”-Joseph Stalin
Hey, seriously, if I had to hunt crystal alien skulls that bring aliens more powerful than God almighty, and divine knowledge causes one to turn into dust, I’d be pissed too.
May 26th, 2008
leeloo
plutonium much lately?
May 26th, 2008
kiyo
you’d think, with all the things they have to worry about, that the historical accuracy of an indiana jones movie with a plot surrounding alien artifacts would be the last thing they’d notice. then again, maybe i’m wrong and they just don’t have anything better to do. come on communists, how can we fear you when you say shit like that?
May 26th, 2008
Noc
OMGWTFBBQ!!1!1!!!
LMAO. The communist are worried that their children will take an INDIANA JONES movie as a record of HISTORICAL FACT?
I think that says more about the condition of their educational system than anything else.
I guess, by this notion, I should believe everything I waw in James Bond films, too…(sic.)
Read: IT’S A MOVIE, MORON.
(and a damn entertaining one, too…)
-Noc
May 26th, 2008
Rusty James
@ “There was no physical war”
except for Vietnam.
And Korea.
And Afghanistan and Nicaragua and probably a few others.
May 26th, 2008
Rodney
Rusty, those are their own wars. The ColdWar was Russia and the US.
May 26th, 2008
Matthew Boyd
“We are searching for a mystical crystal macguffin, though. That much is true.”
May 26th, 2008
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