For those of us who grew up during the Cold War...

[dennilfloss]

Do certain movies take you back to this time like The Mandchurian Candidate, Fail Safe, The Mouse That Roared & Dr. Strangelove, for example?

Last night I rewatched The Day After, Threads, When The Wind Blows, The War Game and the original On The Beach. Did not think of watching If You Love This Planet though, bad omission for a proud Canadian. Dunno why but I was in a nuclear war mood for some reason. Watching TDA & Threads always brings me back to when I first saw those on TV in 1983-84, including that feeling of fear & sadness. For those of us who lived in the Duck And Cover school years, these movies have a potent impact. It's hard to imagine how the threat of nuclear war was always looming like a sword of Damocles and very very present in our minds.

Here is If You Love This Planet, for those who might not have seen it as it was banned from the US as "foreign propaganda" for many years.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/if_you_love_this_planet/

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Yeah, man... remember when we hated the Russians and were friends with the Taliban?

CRAZY TIMES MAN!

 

[GasX]

Yeah, man... remember when we hated the Russians and were friends with the Taliban?

CRAZY TIMES MAN!

It wasn't the Taliban then...

Red Dawn, baby, Red Dawn

 

[Mixolydian]

For those of us who grew up during the Cold War...

Sorry to hear you're old.

 

[pauldun170]

Red Dawn, Firefox

 

[ImpulsE69]

I remember when the Russians parachuted in on my school and took it hostage. If it weren't for those pesky kids they'd have gotten away with it.

These days, unless you took their internet away, they'd probably help with the invasion...come to think of it, I might too.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Do certain movies take you back to this time like The Mandchurian Candidate, Fail Safe, The Mouse That Roared & Dr. Strangelove, for example?

Last night I rewatched The Day After, Threads, When The Wind Blows, The War Game and the original On The Beach. Did not think of watching If You Love This Planet though, bad omission for a proud Canadian. Dunno why but I was in a nuclear war mood for some reason. Watching TDA & Threads always brings me back to when I first saw those on TV in 1983-84, including that feeling of fear & sadness. For those of us who lived in the Duck And Cover school years, these movies have a potent impact. It's hard to imagine how the threat of nuclear war was always looming like a sword of Damocles and very very present in our minds.

Here is If You Love This Planet, for those who might not have seen it as it was banned from the US as "foreign propaganda" for many years.

http://www.nfb.ca/film/if_you_love_this_planet/

It wasn't banned in the US, it was declared by the government as propaganda, because the speaker is clearly out of her gourd. The genie is out of the bottle, kiddo, and no amount of pacifist fantasy is going to put her back in there. Just pray the next super weapon is developed by a country that has a conscience. No one wants to die in a nuclear holocaust, that's why it's best everyone is armed to the teeth.

BTW, I just watched Trinity and beyond. Thermonuclear explosions are gorgeous.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Check out 'Seven Days in May' for a great movie set in the cold war era.

Edit-Guess it really is a cold war movie.

 

[FerrelGeek]

Colosus: The Forbin Project. Dr. Strangelove is my all time fave cold war movie.

 

[nanette1985]

Those were the days. Somewhere I still have my collection of Fallout Shelter signs.

And yes, those movies touch some powerful emotions.

 

[randomrogue]

I haven't seen any of those movies in a while but not really. I've been to Russia so to me I just see the whole Cold War as a giant piece of propaganda nowadays. Before going to Russia though I definitely saw things from the Cold War point of view.

 

[OutHouse]

yea Kevin Costner in Now Way out.

the other day i told my 14 year old son that we used to shoot at silhouette shaped like Russian soldiers while on the CATM range the range master would say kill a commie for mommy over the loud speaker giving us permission to start blasting, my son was like HUH?

my kids just dont get it lol.

 

[unokitty]

Do certain movies take you back to this time like The Mandchurian Candidate, Fail Safe, The Mouse That Roared & Dr. Strangelove, for example?

No movies. But I remember the year that the nuns told us that we no longer could duck and cover under our desks during the nuclear war drills. That they had learned that it was unsafe to stay near our classroom windows.

So for safer drills, we would duck and cover in the hallways.

Made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

Uno

 

[aldamon]

The Americans is a great way to look back at the Cold War as well.

 

[BoomerD]

Better dead than Red.

Kill a commie for your mommy.

 

[Craig234]

I haven't seen any of those movies in a while but not really. I've been to Russia so to me I just see the whole Cold War as a giant piece of propaganda nowadays. Before going to Russia though I definitely saw things from the Cold War point of view.

The Cold War was largely a propaganda tool, pretty different from how it was portrayed. The US needed and used a villain for all kinds of things.

Not that it was so much intentional or conspiratorial, but it was convenient for various interests. No one got fired for being too anti-communist.

It goes way back. When the USSR was founded, Europe was a tight community of royal families who were pretty much aligned with their huge exploitation of people.

So when one of them - the Russian royal family - was overthrown, they'd have none of it, which is what led them to quickly send troops to fight the new Russian government - including President Wilson, who wanted none of that spreading this way. Wilson personally authorized widespread publication of forgeries claiming the Russian government were agents of the hated German government, which turned US opinion against them.

At the time Wilson was busy sending US forces to destroy the US labor movement which was rising.

Stalin always felt that his allies in WWII delayed getting more involved in the war intentionally to let Russians bear the brunt of defeating Germany, and he had a point.

It got to be pretty routine for 'communist threats' to be invented whenever convenient to justify something.

Lyndon Johnson told us we had to go kill Vietnamese because if we didn't, commies would be invading California.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

The Cold War was largely a propaganda tool, pretty different from how it was portrayed. The US needed and used a villain for all kinds of things.

Not that it was so much intentional or conspiratorial, but it was convenient for various interests. No one got fired for being too anti-communist.

It goes way back. When the USSR was founded, Europe was a tight community of royal families who were pretty much aligned with their huge exploitation of people.

So when one of them - the Russian royal family - was overthrown, they'd have none of it, which is what led them to quickly send troops to fight the new Russian government - including President Wilson, who wanted none of that spreading this way. Wilson personally authorized widespread publication of forgeries claiming the Russian government were agents of the hated German government, which turned US opinion against them.

At the time Wilson was busy sending US forces to destroy the US labor movement which was rising.

Stalin always felt that his allies in WWII delayed getting more involved in the war intentionally to let Russians bear the brunt of defeating Germany, and he had a point.

It got to be pretty routine for 'communist threats' to be invented whenever convenient to justify something.

Lyndon Johnson told us we had to go kill Vietnamese because if we didn't, commies would be invading California.

and if you substitute "terrorism" for "communism" you have the 21st century. nearly the same, except there is less threat of annihilation, and less and cheaper labor for the ruling industrialists to pay.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

and if you substitute "terrorism" for "communism" you have the 21st century. nearly the same, except there is less threat of annihilation, and less and cheaper labor for the ruling industrialists to pay.

Stop being so damned smart. You'll fuck up the economy.

 

[Hugo Drax]

Three days of the Condor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073802/

 

[MaxPayne63]

and if you substitute "terrorism" for "communism" you have the 21st century. nearly the same, except there is less threat of annihilation, and less and cheaper labor for the ruling industrialists to pay.

Commies and terrorists both hate americans for their freedom, and our government is doing its best to solve that little problem. Utopia will be here before you know it.

 

[Jadow]

Firefox was cool until he took off in the plane. i liked all the spy stuff beforehand

 

[JPS35]

"Shall we play a game?"

Threads was the most disturbing when inlcuded with The Day After and Testament. That movie kept me awake at night.

 

[dud]

Check out 'Seven Days in May' for a great movie set in the cold war era.

Edit-Guess it really is a cold war movie.

7 days is a great movie, so good that I bought the (rare) DVD but I don't consider it to be a cold war movie as much as a reflection of how polarized the nation was back then (confrontation with the Soviets and the opposite). The one movie that scare the crap out of me was "The Day After": http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/

I still remember the scenes where Jason Robards is stuck in traffic when the bombs hit, where the people vaporized instantly and the unlucky ones that survived. I survived about 30 years of "cold war" but was never really afraid (or even thought about it) until immediately after seeing that movie.

 

[GTaudiophile]

War Games
Firefox
The Lives of Others
The Hunt for Red Oktober
Spies Like Us
K-19

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

The Cold War was largely a propaganda tool, pretty different from how it was portrayed. The US needed and used a villain for all kinds of things.

Not that it was so much intentional or conspiratorial, but it was convenient for various interests. No one got fired for being too anti-communist.

It goes way back. When the USSR was founded, Europe was a tight community of royal families who were pretty much aligned with their huge exploitation of people.

So when one of them - the Russian royal family - was overthrown, they'd have none of it, which is what led them to quickly send troops to fight the new Russian government - including President Wilson, who wanted none of that spreading this way. Wilson personally authorized widespread publication of forgeries claiming the Russian government were agents of the hated German government, which turned US opinion against them.

At the time Wilson was busy sending US forces to destroy the US labor movement which was rising.

Stalin always felt that his allies in WWII delayed getting more involved in the war intentionally to let Russians bear the brunt of defeating Germany, and he had a point.

It got to be pretty routine for 'communist threats' to be invented whenever convenient to justify something.

Lyndon Johnson told us we had to go kill Vietnamese because if we didn't, commies would be invading California.

That's one perspective, and I mostly agree, however the way you portray it comes across rather one sided. There happen to be some things against the Communists, namely the purges, which are responsible for more deaths than any other single event in the 20th or perhaps any, century. Add up the deaths within the sphere of influence of Mao and Stalin and it there was reasonable grounds for concern even if events were properly portrayed. Then there's Tibet etc. Certainly we've engaged in behaviors which aren't noble at all such as Project Ajax, but our counterparts did their share and certainly oppressed their people more than we have.

Dr. Strangelove BTW.