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For as long as Hollywood has been making movies it has turned its eye to the Russians. Harlow Robinson, author of Hollywood's Russians, Russians in Hollywood, discusses Russian portrayals in American film and what those portrayals reveal about ourselves.
I enjoyed your piece on American portrayals of Russia in popular media, but was at a loss to understand your omission of one of the pivotal Cold War media franchises: The Tom Clancy novels and movies, starting with The Hunt for Red October. The character of Captain Ramius, portrayed by Sean Connery in the movie, was simultaneously a victim of Soviet brutality and incompetence and a consummate "competent-man" actor exacting his revenge on an impersonal, inhumane bureaucracy. The book was as easy to find in American military barracks in the late 80's as it was in the hands of the businessman sitting next to you on the flight to Denver. It had an extraordinary influence on how we saw Them at that point in history, much more than the rather silly film "Red Dawn".
(my name is pronounced ka-RAH-bay-ICK.)
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