General Question

elbanditoroso's avatar

Do Russian movies and TV shows depict Americans as evil and malevolent, the way US movies and TV shows portray Russians as the bad guys?

Asked by elbanditoroso (33576points) October 29th, 2023

In plenty (most) US movies, TV shows, and spy novels, Russians are the bad guys and the plot is about how the good guys in the US defeat them.

Does Russia flip that around? If I watched a Russian spy movie, or TV show, or read Russian contemporary spy novels, are Americans depicted as evil and to be defeated?

Do they stereotype us the way we stereotype them in their media?

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7 Answers

ragingloli's avatar

In contrast to old colonial westerns, where native americans were depicted as barbarians, East German westerns always had the natives as the oppressed heroes, with the colonists invariably being the villain.
The North Korean cartoon “Squirrel and Hedgehog” has the colonials as villains.
I have no doubt that Russia does it likewise.

Blackwater_Park's avatar

@ragingloli American cinema parted ways from that a very long time ago. Like around the time sound was introduced in film.
I know cinema in China depicts the USA as colonial warlords

smudges's avatar

@Blackwater_Park Wait…are you saying that American cinema didn’t portray the Native Americans as heathen killers up until at least the 1970s? That they stopped that early in the production of movies?

Blackwater_Park's avatar

All the Westerns I have seen made in the last 60 – 70 years showed them as mostly being victims. One exception was very recent, The ballad of Buster Scruggs has a short sequence that was not like that.

Caravanfan's avatar

The Russian movies I’ve seen have been about Russians in Russia.

smudges's avatar

@Blackwater_Park Yes, they were victimized, but they were portrayed as savages that had to be ‘dealt with’ because they were killing the settlers.

LifeQuestioner's avatar

I can think of one instance, in a Russian produced movie about Chernobyl, where the accident was blamed on American sabotage, so I guess you could say it’s happened at least once.

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