Cold war movies

While most kids and teenagers today think of Russia as our one of America's best friends and as a fun place to go for vacations -for the girls, the vodka, the culture, the variety-, there was a time in which the largest country in the world was considered the core of all evil in our planet.

This conception was transmitted to every single element that was part of our lives, including of course cinema, and there were countless movies made dealing with the constant threat of a potential war between the United States and the USSR -aka the Soviet Union-. Today I would like to write a little about some of these movies and I'm going to be reminiscing a few examples that became classics in our hearts.

Dr. Strangelove: or how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

1962 is perhaps remembered as the peak moment in the history of cold war between the US and the USSR. The missile crisis scared the begeezus out of everyone around the world, fearing a World War Three between the two superpowers of the planet. A young and already successful american director by the name of Stanley Kubrick seized the opportunity to make a film about a every possible satiric scenario that could occur in the imminent nuclear war between Americans and Russians.

The result is one of the best comedies ever made and perhaps the best satire movie ever made. Dr. Strangelove tells the story of a Brigadier General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) who goes insane and decides there is nothing best to do than to launch a nuclear attack to Russia, because he's tired of the never ending communist conspiracy to infiltrate American's bodily fluids. The Soviet defense system is automatically prepared to deflect any attack by trigering "The Doomsday Machine", a device that will launch countless nuclear bombs to US targets, which will leave America with no other choice than to launch all their warheads to Russian targets.

The movie deals with the people who believe they should proceed with the attack -led by General Turgidson (Georce C. Scott) and anhilate Russia and the people who want to prevent the attack from happening, led by the President of the US. The performances are sublime and the direction is flawless. Sterling Hayden's lines are hilarious and his facial expression when he says "The boys must have surrendered" is drop dead laughs. George C. Scott affirmed this is his best and favorite performance and props up because he is at the best of his game -yes, even better than in "Patton"-. His obsessive paranoia with "The big board" and his offensive tone when he expresses himself about the "bunch of ignorant peons" is priceless. But it is Peter Sellers who steals the show in every scene he's in, and that's  lot considering he plays three different characters, the US President, a RAF Captain who serves under insane Gral Ripper, and Dr Strangelove -the fomer Nazi scientists now working for the Americans-.

-Do you think we can repopulate the Earth Dr Strangelove?
-Wouldn't be difficult Mein Fuhrer!!! ....errrr....uhhh ...I mean, Mr President.

WarGames

The 80s are remembered as a terrible decade artistically speaking, after so much glamour seen in the 60s and 70s, but it did have its reasons to flower on its own terms. One of them was the constant threat of World War III between the USA and USSR, especially when Ronald Reagan took office and was very firm of defending America's interests.

Another new subject that was rising due to emergence of new technologies, was the computer world. More teenagers were getting into these weird devices, that apparently had enough power to change school grades, book fake airline tickets, make ATM withdrawals and start a Nuclear War.

War Games tells the story of David Lightman, a high school kid computer geek/hacker who accidentally hacks/breaks into NORAD (The US Army Defense System), and triggers the process to begin a simulation and the eventual real procedure of commencing Nuclear War, by interacting with the operative system who runs all the network.

While not in the same league of Dr Strangelove, War Games is a decent thriller and it actually inspired a lot of kids back in the 80s to get into computers after seeing what they were capable of doing. It also served as a booster to Matthew Broderick's career, along with Ferris Buller.

It's an ok movie to watch over a weekend, although it might seemed a little dated when you try to put in perspective the tension that Americans lived back then and of course when seeing how noisy and binary computers were.

The movie however has one of the funniest one-liners I have ever seen on film. It's in a scene in which David is in his school classroom and is being interrogated by his biology teacher:

Mr. Liggert: Alright, Lightman. Maybe you could tell us who first suggested the idea of reproduction without sex.

David Lightman: Umm.... Your wife?


Rocky IV:

Now this is when things go a little too much over the fence and you say something like "whoa! The cold war was really everywhere". After defeating Apollo Creed and Clubber Lang (aka Mr. T), a new challenger emerges in the heavyweight world for Rocky in the form of a Soviet Union product. Ivan Drago (masterfully played by Dolph Lundgren) is now his new test.

Rocky IV repeats the same formula of overcoming defeat seen in the past films, but now adds on the political component of the US vs USSR conflict. It's America vs Russians, regular guy vs tall blonde, blue vs red, English vs broken English. It reminded me a little bit of the atmosphere surrounding the Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky match, and while I wasn't born then, I have read a lot about what was expected from the involved parties and how the world had their eyes on the event.

Rocky IV is a movie that deals more with the basic roots of the human nature. At first the Rocky vs Drago fight is a US vs Soviet Union contest, but as it progresses it then becomes a simple man vs man battle, with people putting behind their political orders and follow their nature of root for someone to win, the favorite or the underdog.

Also like in the previous films, the soundtrack is still there to pump you up. Actually, there are a lot of other elements that intend to do this: the date of the fight, on Christmas, Rocky's son, the "no pain" quote, Bridgitte Nielsen, and even Rocky's robot.

I watched Rocky IV when I was probably 8 years old, and I remember that when the movie ended I thought something like "well, this is it for this series... even if they make another one, there is nothing else left". Sly eventually made Rocky V and VI (aka Rocky Balboa), but I never considered those films in the same league of the first four. The nemesis component was gone and it was more about Rocky dealing with conflicts and emotional issues, kind of like a "Days of our lives" version of Rocky.

All in all, Rocky IV holds a special place in our memories and in the real world, it was proven that just like in the ending, the United States and the Russians, were able to put their differences aside, get along and become good friends.