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The Americans (2013)
Real Tradecraft
This is an awesome show that displays real espionage trade craft, but in reality most of the shenanigans could probably be attributed to the CIA rather than the KGB. At any rate, this story comes out of the head of a former CIA operative. Riveting performances by the two KGB leads, but I have to take away one star for their annoying, morose and melodramatic whiny daughter Paige who almost ruins the show. I also have to take away one star for anti-communist propaganda. It's done very cleverly and with nuance, but totally reinforces false stereotypes about the Soviet Union. On the positive side, it does an excellent job of recreating the 80s. If you lived during that time it will be a very nostalgic and thrilling journey. Overall, a very entertaining and well-produced show.
Mercury 13 (2018)
Soviets sent women to space no problem
Interesting documentary. Liberals will be angered at the way these women were treated and inspired by their courage. Far right wing conservatives will be angry because they are knuckle-dragging reactionary maniacs. My takeaway is quite different from both American camps. I can't understand why these women continued to be patriotic to a society that treated them so badly and why they were somewhat disappointed when the first woman in space was Soviet and not American. I also question the sincerity and inclusiveness of the American bourgeois feminist movement. Documentaries like this point out the injustices of the American capitalist system, but they do not question the fundamental injustice of capitalism itself and of America's backward and reactionary nature. The Americans only did anything remotely progressive because the Soviets embarrassed them and they were forced to by their example as well as by burgeoning social movements and organized labor in the US.
Wormwood (2017)
How much more evidence do you need?
This was entertaining, informative and even disturbing, but it is something that you MUST watch. LSD and mind control experiments are just the tip of the iceberg. The CIA was willing to go to any lengths in its desperate fight against communism and this documentary proves it. Most Americans, I'm afraid, will be in denial about these things or simply not care, but it looks like the communists were right all along.
Atomic Blonde (2017)
American Action Porn
This is another one of those America-saves-the-day films with obscene amounts of action and violence. It was shot well and it has a great 80's new wave soundtrack. There is a fairly interesting plot with twists and turns worthy of a spy action film, but the KGB guys are stereotypical Russian brutes while the Western agents are charming, sexy, flamboyant and uber-cool. It's trashy, but I found it to be fairly entertaining nevertheless. The thing that bothers me the most about this movie, is that it is so nauseatingly propagandistic, but then again, so are practically all Hollywood movies, especially action movies and "historical" dramas. What sucks is that this movie will reinforce in most Americans, and others under the American spell, a false understanding of Cold War history. People need to always remember that the victors write history and it appears that the Americans are still fighting the Cold War in the minds of men (and women).
Comrade Detective (2017)
Whose Propaganda?
I really enjoyed Comrade Detective a lot more than I thought I would. Others have referred to it as a comedic version of Miami Vice, but from the communist perspective and set in Bucharest, Romania. This is a very good way to describe it.
I wanted to give this show a 10-star rating, but I had to hold back a couple of stars for a very important reason - it is clearly propaganda. It is meant to poke fun at socialism and the socialist countries; as you watch this will be quite obvious. However, if you can forget everything you think you know about socialism and the Cold War and pay close attention to many of the statements of the protagonists of the show, you might find that they make quite a lot of sense. In fact, they are stating a lot of indisputable facts such as how the socialist countries really were targeted by the US and the capitalist West with propaganda, sabotage and subversion. If you doubt this, then I suggest you check out the documentary, Chuck Norris vs. Communism. Also, in many instances, our hero cops convincingly explain key points and arguments in favor of socialism and against capitalism.
Don't just turn off your brain and laugh when you watch this. Pay close attention and you might just learn something.
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Cold War Propaganda
A new film set in the Cold War era of the 1950's was released a few weeks ago and is apparently a big hit. The plot revolves around James B. Donovan, a simple lawyer who is chosen to defend Colonel Rudolf Abel, a captured Soviet spy, in the midst of an atmosphere of anti-communist hysteria sweeping the US. Later in the movie Mr. Donovan is recruited by CIA to negotiate the release of captured American spies in exchange for Colonel Abel, including U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers who was captured by the Soviets after his spy plane was shot down in Soviet airspace. The tortured tagline of the film sums up the propaganda point to be driven home: "In the shadow of war, one man showed the world what we stand for." What we (the US) stand for is supposedly a just and humane society where everyone, even a communist spy, is entitled to a fair trial. This is set against the supposed tyranny and cruelty of communist states.
However, the version of events presented in this film and the case it attempts to make in favor of an American system of "fair play" can easily be disproved. Many relevant details have been distorted or conveniently left out of the narrative. Also, some facts have been included but presented out of any historical context. Unfortunately, most Americans will passively accept this false narrative without question or without doing any further study of their own. They will accept the movie as being a true recounting of historical events. I could now spend a lot of time discussing every single propaganda element within the film such as the dark and gloomy atmosphere in East Berlin; the scowling faces of the East German border guards; the menacing and hostile demeanor of various communist officials or scenes of torture, but I have decided to take a different approach. I will simply tell the truth of the historical incident that this film is supposedly based on; and I will do it using the memoirs of the two primary American participants in these events - James Donovan and Francis Powers.
Let's start by comparing the details and outcomes of the Abel trial in the US with that of Powers' trial in the Soviet Union. Both spies were caught red-handed and so there could be no doubt as to their guilt in both cases. Therefore, the purpose of the trials should have been simply to gather all the facts available in an effort to come up with a suitable punishment to fit the crime. Below, I have included a table that shows the results of each trial.
Powers (Soviet trial) Abel (US trial) Held Incommunicado 4 weeks 3 weeks Phys. or Psych. Abuse No Yes Max. Poss. Sentence Death (rare cases) Death (very common) Actual Sentence 10 years 30 years
Powers stated in his autobiography, written a decade after his return to the US, that he did not suffer any abuse during his captivity in the Soviet Union. Abel, however, said that during his interrogation he was struck in the face by one of the FBI agents who grew frustrated at his silence and refusal to cooperate.
Powers was told by the Soviets that execution for espionage was rare in the USSR, but Abel was informed that the death penalty was very likely to be his fate. In fact, just a few years prior to Abel's trial in 1957, the Rosenbergs had been sent to the electric chair for stealing atomic secrets for the Soviet Union. Finally, in the sentences that were eventually handed down, Powers received a relatively light 10 years imprisonment while Abel was given 30 years.
The Soviets were accused of subjecting Powers to a "show trial," but this is exactly what the Americans did with Rudolf Abel. As it turns out, despite all the blather about the high ideals of the American legal system, Donovan and his co-conspirators were really just concerned with promoting the idea of superior values of American "fair play," without any regard for the substance behind such claims. Furthermore, the real reason Mr. Donovan argued to save Abel's life was in order to hold him as a bargaining chip in the inevitable event of a spy swap with the Soviets down the road.
Mr. Donovan, the humble lawyer, was actually a high-ranking career spy. He admits in his memoirs that at the time he was supposed to be impartially defending Colonel Abel, he was at that moment still a spook! In his own words he reveals that he "still held a commission as a commander in Naval Intelligence." Prior to that he had worked as head legal counsel in the OSS (precursor to the CIA) for several years and had helped to organize the CIA after WWII! However, from the insane viewpoint of American exceptionalism nothing here is out of place, but if this film had been done from the Soviet perspective (taking into account the undeniable facts of the incident), the plot might go like this:
The US violates Soviet airspace repeatedly until one of their spy planes is finally shot down. The pilot, despite his refusal to denounce the criminal activity of his government, receives a very light sentence in comparison to America's treatment of captured Soviet agents. Some time later, a CIA spymaster shows up in East Berlin demanding the release of three American spies in exchange for one Soviet spy. Although this naturally strikes the Soviets as unfair, due to their good nature they agree. Colonel Abel returns home to a hero's welcome while Francis Powers is received with suspicion, denounced by the media and much of the American public as a traitor, and is held incommunicado by the CIA for "debriefing" for nearly a month. (All true!)
References: Donovan, James B. Strangers on a Bridge. New York: Atheneum, 1967.
Powers, Francis Gary (with Curt Gentry). Operation Overflight. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970.
The Interview (2014)
Hateful Propaganda
This movie was a publicity stunt and false propaganda to smear North Korea, plain and simple. How could anyone but brainwashed Americans fall for this garbage? America always needs enemies and North Korea makes for an easy target because it refuses to bow down to the U.S. empire. It goes its own way like Cuba, Syria, Russia, China, Venezuela, Eritrea and others who are going down a socialist path or else do not intend to allow U.S. and European investors to steal all their natural resources, flood their domestic markets or exploit their people for cheap labor. Don't waste your time with this crap! Don't fall for this propaganda and psychological warfare operation!
My Perestroika (2010)
Propaganda from the Ford Foundation (CIA)
This propaganda brought to you by the big three corporate charities: Ford, Hewlitt and MacArthur Foundations. All three can easily be suspected of being CIA fronts, but there is solid evidence that the Ford Foundation has served as a front and a means of funneling money from the CIA to fund psychological warfare to sell the American brand to the world as well as to demonize socialism, communism and third-world liberation movements. They promote pro-capitalist and pro-bourgeois "values." One of the individuals followed in the documentary, a teacher, refers to Lenin as "basically a cannibal" and all of the interviewees are really down on their country - both as the Soviet Union and Russia today. At least 4 out of the 5 individuals express explicitly anti-Putin views; not a good sample of the Russian population given that Mr. Putin's approval rating in Russia is something like 87% as of this writing.
The documentary even tries to whitewash the abominable actions of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, the first a naive idiot and the second a scoundrel and a criminal who privatized everything in sight, usurped power in the name of "democracy" and destroyed the country. On the other hand, Putin is hated by the U.S. today because he has made Russia a great power again.
As an American citizen, I watched this hoping to see some old footage of Soviet times and maybe hear at least one favorable account of life in the USSR, but I was to be very disappointed. I have read other accounts of people who grew up under communism and while some heap criticism on it, others remember the good outweighing the bad. They say that although the communist party leadership kept a firm hold over the society, things like the absence of crime, guaranteed housing, free healthcare and education and even subsidized transportation and cultural activities were not something to just scoff at.
Argo (2012)
Anti-Iran Propaganda
The timing of this film is highly suspicious as reported by Patrice Greanville of The Greanville Post: "Appearing in late 2012, prior to the US presidential election, and in the midst of an all-out propaganda campaign to demonize Iran and take America to war against that long-victimized country (a stealthy dirty war of sabotage and assassination has been waged against Iran for quite some time now by NATO assets and the Mossad, with probably ample support from the Gulf royal mafia), the film can only add fuel–what else–to the flames. This film, under the guise of a thriller, can only exacerbate anti-Iranian feeling in America and elsewhere, and, in passing, perhaps as an unwitting bonus, give the sinister CIA a cuddly wink of approval. Which is exactly what you'd expect from nincompoop liberals like Affleck and Clooney." This film is also a whitewashing of CIA history. No, the CIA is not a force for good. CIA officers are not cool. There's nothing exciting or honorable about imperialism.
Won't Back Down (2012)
Propaganda
It was really hard to sit through this film. I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting myself into, but I was just too curious. "Won't Back Down" is a propaganda film and not even cleverly disguised - just like "Act of Valor." My hope is that people are getting wise to this game and not falling for such embarrassingly blatant manipulation. The mainstream media includes entertainment, which is used to indoctrinate and reinforce certain viewpoints and crappy values that are useful to the ruling class. Trying to bash unions and public education is part of the latest privatization effort and an attempt to further erode and destroy institutions that are at least set up to benefit everyone, and not just enrich a small elite. Public education could certainly be improved, but it should remain in the public domain. Don't waste your time with this film. It is pure propaganda.