the russians are coming, the russians are coming

Recently, I received a wonderful birthday gift from my mother. It was the DVD of one of my favorite movies of all time (and hers too), The Russians Are Coming, the Russians are Coming. This movie came out in 1966, and it is the hilarious story of a Russian submarine that accidentally runs aground on "Gloucester Island" off the coast of (presumably) Massachusetts, during the Cold War, after its drunken captain gets too close to land attempting to "see America." The Russian sailors' intentions were innocent enough. Yet, this movie shows how misunderstanding, paranoia, rumor, and mob-mentality can lead otherwise "normal people" to become completely out of control.

The comedy has some wonderful and universal "anti-war," themes -- in combination with slapstick, plays on language, and funny repartee. Alan Arkin is superb, and Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winter, Brian Keith, and Paul Ford are no slouches. (Arkin won the Golden Globe for best actor in a comedy, and the film won the Globe for best comedy that year.) There are a few corny '60s scenes -- particularly the minor love story aspect -- but otherwise, the movie has timeless humor, even set in a time that today's children could hardly fathom.

As an aside, I grew up in the 1960s in a city that had an adjacent air force base. When I watch the part of the movie where the military planes screamingly buzz over the submarine, I recall those planes practicing maneuvers overhead when I was young. I got used to them after awhile. To hear them now, however, would be totally alarming and out of place.

I love the end of this movie. It speaks to the triumph of love over war, of care for innocent children over politics. The clash of culture is surface, and what is found underneath the facade of our own perceptions of others is a common human spirit.

One of the treats of now owning the DVD, other than I get to watch this movie whenever I want to, over and over again, is that it has the special feature of an interview with director/producer Norman Jewison. It was fascinating to listen to him talk about the tension of making the movie during the height of the Cold War. He actually traveled to Moscow for a viewing of the movie in a Soviet Union theatre, and if ever art did influence life, this movie helped to bring a concept of common humanity to "both sides" through comedy and a corny, yet heart-warming message. I think that Norman Jewison is one special human being. He had a vision, and he took a tremendous screen play and influenced the world.

If you haven't seen this classic satire, don't waste another free afternoon or evening. It is more than 2 hours long, but it goes by really quickly. I feel pretty confident you will enjoy it tremendously. And if you have seen it, and feel the way I do about it, do yourself a favor and see it again!

I won't ever understand why this film, or Alan Arkin, didn't win the Oscar in 1966. I looked up my Oscar's history and found that the movie that swept every Oscar category that year was "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" It won best film and Richard Burton won best actor. I haven't ever seen it, and I am guessing that it too was a wonderful movie. I'll have to rent it some time. But somehow, I can't imagine it has endured the way The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming has. Ultimately, I tend to go more along with the Globes anyway.

Enjoy this audioclip of Alan Arkin as Lt. Rozanov, courtesy of Wikipedia: "Emergency - everybody to get from street!"