"Psychological projection is the process of misinterpreting what is "inside" as coming from "outside". - - In its malignant forms, it is a defense mechanism in which the ego defends itself against disowned and highly negative parts of the self by denying their existence in themselves and attributing them to others, breeding misunderstanding and causing untold interpersonal damage."

Soviet Movies, left to right:

Guest from the Future (Гостья из Будущего), Per Aspera ad Astra (Сквозь Тернии к Звездам)

Moscow-Cassiopeia (Москва-Кассиопея), Guest From the Future (again)

Kin-Dza-Dza (Кин-дза-дза), The Witches Cave (Подземелье Ведьм)

Moscow-Cassiopeia (again), This Merry Planet (Эта весёлая планета)

I don't know this one, She Fell from clouds (Spadla z oblakov)

  • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The Soviet movies seem to be a fair bit older than the American ones on the right. Old Hollywood sci-fi movies also had aliens that were just dudes in silly outfits.

    Did the Soviets ever do giant big budget schlocky genre flicks? Where's the Soviet Commando, Indiana Jones, Aliens or Ghostbusters

    • HarryLime [any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Did the Soviets ever do giant big budget schlocky genre flicks? Where’s the Soviet Commando, Indiana Jones, Aliens or Ghostbusters

      To my knowledge, they didn't usually make movies like that. Even their adventure films tend to be sort of comic and meditative. White Sun of the Desert, a Soviet version of American Westerns, is an adventure film set in Turkmenistan during the Revolution, but its gunfights and action scenes aren't exactly exciting (though it is a good movie, and considered a beloved classic). One Soviet film that had a huge budget and enormous battle and action scenes, was Sergei Bondcharuk's 8-hour adaptation of War and Peace.

      • cawsby [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Tarkovsky's Solaris was better than the American remake.

      • doublepepperoni [none/use name]
        ·
        3 years ago

        Both of those predate the post-Jaws, Alien and Star Wars blockbuster era though, and I wonder if it influenced their films at all.

        • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
          ·
          3 years ago

          Both of those predate the post-Jaws, Alien and Star Wars blockbuster era though

          I mean, the Soviet Union collapsed in the late-80s / early-90s. Hollyweird was still picking up steam back then.

    • Tervell [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      Not really schlocky, but they did have some big budget stuff:

      • Liberation is a series of WW2 films with some pretty big battles and lots of actual tanks. They start with Kursk, and then cover Bagration and eventually the battle of Berlin. Apparently they wanted to film the Kursk one on the actual battlefield, but gave up because of all the unexploded ordnance that was still lying around.
      • Waterloo and War and Peace by Bondarchuk both had an entire division's worth of actual Soviet soldiers as extras in order to reenact the battles, so you get shots like this and this

      And there's probably some others, these are just the ones I know of.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        3 years ago

        That they never produced a blockbuster version of Master and Margaritta is the greatest indictment of the Soviet system imaginable.