In 1980s Romania, thousands of Western films smashed through the Iron Curtain opening a window into the free world for those who dared to look. A black market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the masses and sowed the seeds of a revolution.... (Full plot summary below)
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In 1980s Romania, thousands of Western films smashed through the Iron Curtain opening a window into the free world for those who dared to look. A black market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the masses and sowed the seeds of a revolution.
Leave your thoughts about Chuck Norris vs Communism.
| Alternative LensJennifer HeatonChuck Norris vs. Communism shines a light on a little known part of history and illuminates how the power of cinema can inspire a nation ... |
| The Herald (Scotland)Alison RowatIlinca Calugareanu's documentary does a superb job of tracing how the movement grew from a few film lovers to almost an entire nation, rebelling in one of the few ways they could, one Chuck Norris film or Dirty Dancing at a time. |
| PopMattersCynthia FuchsThe film shows protestors in the street, news footage of the effects of watching "those video tapes". The archival footage is inspiring, now, much as the fiction movies were inspiring, then. |
| Deseret News (Salt Lake City)Josh TerryChuck Norris has a lot going for it, but its most powerful effect is to remind us of the simple freedoms we enjoy. |
| ClarínDiego MatéThe playful title barely conceals the interest of the subject: the clandestine viewing of films banned by communism... for many represented a subtle act of resistance. [Full review in Spanish] |
| User ReviewJohn TA look into what life was like behind the Iron Curtain. It is insane the control these communist countries had on the daily lives of their citizens. Anybody that bitches about the USA does not understand that this still is the greatest country on earth. Everyone, young and old, should watch this documentary. You'll appreciate the freedom that we often take for granted. |
| User ReviewBill GBrilliant documentary. The further we get from Christmas Day 1989 and the execution of the idiotic but murderous Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, the more laughable the Romanian revolution appears. But watch out! Films like this remind everybody that utopians play for keeps, and if you disobey or even disagree with them, you get denounced. Then silenced. Then shot. Irina Nistor is one of Romania's heroines. "But all I really wanted to do was see American movies," she said. In that simple statement, we hear the voice of everyone who wants to be free: free to think, to say anything that anybody considers offensive, to gather and watch stupid movies-even good movies if they're available. |
| User ReviewMatt GLighthearted documentary about two groups of people; one that brought and translated Western films into Romania during it's cultural lockdown, and the second group, interviews with the regular people who watched these films covertly. Very light fare for something related to what went on behind the iron curtain. |
| User ReviewIoana ?One personal documentary coming right up! |
| User ReviewAllan CAbsolutely brilliant documentary that celebrates the heroic underground of 1980s Romania where a small group of people began a blackmarket for dubbed American films, ranging from "The Terminator" to "The Blue Lagoon" to "Bloodsport" to "9 1/2 Weeks" to "Rambo" to "Pretty Woman" to "Long Wolf McQuade," and athough motivated by money and greed ended up giving the repressed population of Romania a glimpse into the forbidden western world and may have inadvertently helped to overthrow the totalitarian communist regime. I haven't seen a film that made me feel proud to be an American in a long time and maybe it took a director from a foreign country to make me appreciate the the small things that we as American often take for granted. In terms of filmmaking, director Ilinca Calugareanu mixes interviews with people who grew up watching these forbidden films and the people involved in the smuggling in the films. The documentary also uses some very well made reenactments of tension filed border crossings with contraband tapes, recruitments of the one woman who dubbed every single film that hit the Ramian underground VHS blackmarket, and most brilliantly, the groups of people watching "Rocky" or "Rambo" and being utterly inspired. |
