MovieChat Forums > xXx (2002) Discussion > Stop demonizing the Russians

Stop demonizing the Russians

posted 9 years ago by gss2
4 replies | jump to latest

Hollywood loves to beat on the Russians. XXX, Eastern Promises, Training Day, John Wick, The Equalizer, and many other films feature Russian mercenaries or mobsters as villains. If you count other peoples from Eastern Europe, you can add Taken, The Dark Knight, Lord of War, and The Drop, and the series Banshee to that list.

The U.S. government loves to beat on them too. Lots of shady stuff going on with NGOs like Freedom House and such encouraging color coded revolutions. I don't defend Putin at all, mind you, or what has happened in Georgia, Crimea, and the Donbas. However, if Russia is a snake, then the U.S. government has done everything it can to provoke it into striking. The British government has sheltered several high profile oligarchs after they have fallen out of favor in Russia. Two of the more notorious ones owned Chelsea FC. Do you really think that these people are any less ruthless than Putin in kind, if not degree?

I think we have a disconnect between fantasy and reality here. Russian mobsters exist, and they can be nasty. However, they commit crimes that are a drop in the bucket compared to what America's own citizens do. I want every person who reads this article to look at the FBI's most wanted list. Then check the US Marshalls List for each state. Check your local Sheriff's office. Those lists are packed with lots of Blacks, a good number of Hispanics, a few Asians, and very many native born, white Americans. I guarantee that you will find very few Russians. Simeon Mogilevich, a crooked financier, is the only one who comes to mind as a wanted Russian fugitive in the FBI list. I haven't seen anyone else from anywhere in Eastern Europe on one of those lists for a very long time.

Why is this? Because Russians, statistically speaking, do not cause much crime in America. Native-born Whites, American Blacks, and Hispanics of various origin cause almost all (99.99%) crime in America. I would venture to say that Eastern European immigrants are some of the most law abiding and hardest working of all Americans.

Call me racist or nationalist or whatever, but I swear to god that I am telling it as it is. Look in the mirror first before you condemn a group of people for their leadership or for the spaces of a few.

[–] SorroVV 8 years ago

It's simple: Cinematograph is a policy

Born2Burn

[–] SorroVV 8 years ago

Decent actor Csokas plays cliche-ish one-dimensional Russian with thick accent and goofy looking facial expression. Dumb and evil.
Plain and stupid.
Looooool! :-)

Born2Burn

[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

I think the reason you see so many evil Russians is because Hollywood is just looking for an easy villain stereotype to throw in a movie, and not necessarily because of any specific vendetta against Russia.

Nazis are a common choice. No one is going to defend the Nazis and they are seen as a very black and white villain, so its easy to throw a couple guys in SS uniforms into your movie and instantly get recognizable and hated villains.

Russia is just an updated version of that stemming from the Cold War and the decades of rocky relationships between USA and Russia/USSR. If you throw a sketchy looking Russian gangster guy into a movie like this, you instantly have a recognizable villain. If you throw a random hispanic guy in that role, its less clear if he is a good guy or a bad guy.

Its a combination of laziness in building original characters and capitalizing on known stereotypes and stories already ingrained in the audience.

[–] holly61 (955) 7 months ago

Slavic people are generally more crime prone than other whites. Most Whites are well behaved. Slavic people have more of a penchant for crime and that's just the way it is which is what makes Russians as well as other slavs so troubling.