Q: "Mr. Spielberg, why did you decide to make the Russians Indiana Jones' enemies?"
A: "First off, I am Russian," said Spielberg, an American Jew, with a straight face. He was wearing his long-familiar baseball cap with the stitched motto: 'Relax.' "My descendants were from Ukraine. However, when we decided the fourth installment would take place in 1957, we had no choice but to make the Russians the enemies. World War II had just ended and the Cold War had begun. The U.S. didn't have any other enemies at the time."
Q: "Why did you give Cate Blanchett such a nonsensical name like Irina Spalko?"
A: "I had nothing to do with that. That was the screenwriters!"
also:
Blanchett is familiar to Russian roles. In Sally Potter's film, "The Man Who Cried," she made a magnificent performance as a Russian prostitute. Ingeborg Dapkunayte taught her Russian words to use during the film. This time around, though, it seems they couldn't find a suitable Russian teacher for the star and she had to stick with a thickly accented English.
just thought it was interesting
edit: sorry forgot indiana jones is owned by disney now :agony-soviet:
I always liked the Plinkett review of Crystal Skull for this reason. Stoklasa points out that both sides were doing what they believed would allow their ideology to win out in the Cold War.
He points out that the Soviet's actions in the movie basically mirror the American's, especially when Indiana Jones is actually harassed by the FBI for allegedly being a spy.
He points out that the scariness of a an alien mind control device is kind of lessened when one of the first things we see in the film is a America's superweapon; an atomic bomb.
The lack of real conflict and consequences hurts the movie.
There's also something of a "fuck you" about Americans making a film about the Soviets doing mind control doing the Cold War.
"Only we get to do that"
Most American propaganda about other places is more accurate when inverted. The reason they're so good at coming up with lies is because they just take whatever they're doing or have done and say another country is actually doing that.