H5

Applied Humanities

What Is Art? The Villain Gap 5 Module Five: Impact of the Humanities / Page 5.1.3 The Villain Gap On this page: 0 of 4 attempted (0%) | 0 of 3 correct (0%) Objective: Examine the ways in which films portray cultural perspective.

One final example of how art provides insight into culture is seen in films from the Cold War era. The term “Cold War” refers to the nuclear arms race, proxy conflicts, and generally aggressive posture between the United States and the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th century. (It is known as a “cold” war because the two countries never engaged in a direct shooting war with each other during this time.)

In the United States, tensions with “the Russkies” formed a prominent part of the national culture. Politically, doing anything to “beat the Russians” carried real weight: It was the successful launch of a Russian satellite, Sputnik, that motivated NASA to go to the moon, for example. Government spending ballooned in the post-World War II era as the Pentagon pushed to ensure “peace through superior firepower.”

Because the Cold War was on American’s minds a lot for a long time—from the immediate aftermath of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989—it’s not surprising that it showed up often in film, with Russians often portrayed as villainous proponents of a repressive ideology. And you might expect that Russians had very similar feelings about America, and that their art would also reflect the same kinds of fears and self-righteous attitudes. But did they?

The Villain Gap

Use the following essay to respond to the questions below.

The Villain Gap: Why Soviet Movies Rarely Had American Bad Guys The A.V. Club, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (March 31, 2016)

Multiple-Choice Question

This article is about films made over decades, but it centers on a conversation at an event that took place in which of the following time periods?

this past year in the early 1990s in the late 1980s in the mid-1960s

Multiple-Choice Question

According to the article, who were the typical villains in Soviet cinema of the Cold War era?

Christians Americans Afghans Nazis

Multiple-Choice Question

According to the article, how were Americans in Soviet films from the Cold War era characterized?

as people with low morals and an obsession with freedom as ignorant victims led astray as loud, rude, wealthy brats as cold killing machines

Response Board The author states, “As the Americans made fantasies of threat, the USSR made fantasies of stability and global standing.” How does this help explain the different ways each side portrayed the other in films?

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