Cinematic Cold War: The American and Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds

by Tony Shaw, Denise J. Youngblood

The Cold War was as much a battle of ideas as a series of military and diplomatic confrontations, and movies were a prime battleground for this cultural combat. As Tony Shaw and Denise Youngblood show, Hollywood sought to export American ideals in movies like Rambo, and the Soviet film industry fought back by showcasing Communist ideals in a positive light, primarily for their own citizens. The two camps traded cinematic blows for more than four decades.

The first book-length comparative survey of cinema's vital role in disseminating Cold War ideologies, Shaw and Youngblood's study focuses on ten films—five American and five Soviet—that in both obvious and subtle ways provided a crucial outlet for the global "debate" between democratic and communist ideologies. For each nation, the authors outline industry leaders, structure, audiences, politics, and international reach and explore the varied relationships linking each film industry to its respective government. They then present five comparative case studies, each pairing an American with a Soviet Man on a Tightrope with The Meeting on the Elbe ; Roman Holiday with Spring on Zarechnaya Street ; Fail-Safe with Nine Days in One Year ; Bananas with Officers ; First Blood Part II with Incident at Map Grid 36-80 .

Shaw breathes new life into familiar American films by Elia Kazan and Woody Allen, while Youngblood helps readers comprehend Soviet films most have never seen. Collectively, their commentaries track the Cold War in its entirety—from its formative phase through periods of thaw and self-doubt to the resurgence of mutual animosity during the Reagan years—and enable readers to identify competing core propaganda themes such as decadence versus morality, technology versus humanity, and freedom versus authority. As the authors show, such themes blurred notions regarding "propaganda" and "entertainment," terms that were often interchangeable and mutually reinforcing during the Cold War.

Featuring engaging commentary and evocative images from the films discussed, Cinematic Cold War offers a shrewd analysis of how the silver screen functioned on both sides of the Iron Curtain. As such it should have great appeal for anyone interested in the Cold War or the cinematic arts.

312 pages, Hardcover

First published September 21, 2010

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

In most histories of the era the Cold War is portrayed as a struggle of superpowers using spies and proxy wars to check the advance of their foe. Yet as Tony Shaw and Denise Youngblood point out in this book, the United States and Soviet Union also waged though the cultural medium of movies. Through a selection of key films from throughout the period they demonstrate the evolution of the conflict, from the villainization of the other side during in its early years to the softer effort to champion values during the 1960s and 1970s, to the harsh tone of the revived Cold War in the 1980s and the effective concession of the argument by the Soviets at the end of the decade. The authors do a good job of analyzing the movies and situating them within the respective film industries of the two countries, and the films they select to make their arguments contain some surprising choices (such as Roman Holiday and Bananas for "Cold War films") that make for sometimes provocative interpretations, though it is interesting to speculate how their conclusions might have been different had they focused on other flicks. Nevertheless, this is a fascinating comparative study that demonstrates the manifold ways in which the Americans and Soviets clashed for dominance.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating side-by-side look at the U.S. and Soviet film industries and their role in/as Cold War propaganda. Shaw dissects how both countries' movies reflected and shaped views of themselves and one another, not only in terms of goals, methods, and governmental influence (did you know the CIA helped fund the movie version of George Orwell's Animal Farm?), but also subtler aspects like theme, plot, gender roles, and even visual choices. He breaks the Cold War into several phases and for each one chooses an American and a Soviet film that exemplifies the period. Some are well-known, others obscure, and Shaw discusses in the introduction how recent access to Soviet film archives has opened up new avenues of research and analysis. A great book for history buffs, movie lovers, and pop culture scholars.

[Spencer Willardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some interesting choices of movies and an interesting premise, but one that seems like it is reaching at times. I have a list of some movies in Russian and English that I hadn't seen before that I've added from the list.

One particularly odd choice to me was choosing Rambo First Blood Part II as the 1980s movie to contrast with "Incident at Map Grid36-80" rather than TOP GUN. Top Gun dealt with the Soviets directly (not through the intermediary of the Vietnam conflict) and was about naval aviation - similar to the Soviets. As the authors noted as well, it was the biggest hit as well. It seems to me that if you want to talk about Cold War Cinema, sidlining the movie that the US Navy helped to make for recruiting purposes and which US F-14s shooting down Soviet MiGs to end the movie, would be a natural choice.

I may be thinking more like political scientist than a film person, but it seemed odd. The book might be of interest to those who are interested in Russian film, in particular. They do a good job of describing the Soviet film industry and some good films are chosen.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very interesting book, one that looks at how both the Soviet and American film industries responded to the Cold War. This dual focus gives the book far more interest than books that focus on Hollywood "I Married a Communist" movies from 1947-55 or so. The authors view the Cold War as a struggle that lasted until the early 90s and one that changed focus from confrontation to coexistence and back again. Also, the authors make the wise decision to focus on a handful of key movies instead of trying to mention every film that pertains to the topic in a superficial way. The result is a truly original book that lets us view the films of the past in an new light.