Caveat: as ridiculous as it now seems, what follows was very real to me during my formative years. In not-so-subtle ways, what you are about to see shaped my world view.
On my eight birthday my parents ordered “Wrestlemania” from Pay-Per-View television. The party consisted of my buddies and I sitting around and jeering at wrestlers like Nikolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik, from the USSR and Iran respectively. It was a classic struggle of good versus evil and each blow to the evil ones resonated with us. This video opens as the Soviet National Anthem is interrupted by our good guy, Hulk Hogan. On other occasions Volkoff would slowly sing “his” national anthem while the crowd verbally assaulted him.
A few points of interest:
- In real life, Volkoff is Croatian
- His tag team partner is Canadian, but was billed as a Russian. He never spoke.
- Volkoff soon partnered with the Iron Sheik. They were attacked in a parking lot by pro-American fans
- One of the announcers later became the Governor of the State of Minnesota!
You have to see this:
Somewhat to my chagrin, the following video would have got me “all pumped up” 25 years ago. Listen to the lyrics and find out why…
When Ronald Reagan passed, Slate magazine wrote an article about the relationship between the Cold War and professional wrestling. Please read Hammers, Sickles, and Turnbuckles. Soviet wrestlers mourn Ronald Reagan
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Throughout the Cold War, and to an extent still today, Americans felt that they had an enemy within their borders as well. African-Americans, especially those who were particularly outspoken or “uppity”, were likewise seen by many as a threat. In Rocky I and II, our American hero Rocky Balboa (who was our rags to riches story) defeated Apollo Creed (who was akin to Muhammad Ali in his audacity). In Rocky III, Rocky defeats an even more audacious Black man played my none other than Mr. T (who killed Rocky’s manger, Mickey). By the time Rocky IV rolls around, Creed and Balboa are friends who have united against a new enemy, Ivan Drago. You guessed it, he’s a Soviet. Drago’s symbolic evil is represented by his blatant steroid abuse, his underhanded tactics in the boxing ring and, ummm, that he killed Apollo Creed in a fight.
So, our hero, Balboa, GOES TO THE USSR to avenge his best friend’s death. Balboa, after training hard in Siberia while eluding the KGB following him in a Mercedes, wins the fight in a true barn burner. At the end of the film, as the real life Cold War comes to an end, Balboa tells a stadium full of Russians (who by this time he won over and they are cheering wildly for him!) tells the crowd that we can all get along. Poetic.
Here’s Apollo’s last fight (from Rocky IV). The introduction matters most:
And here is Rocky’s Final speech, given to the Soviets on Christmas Day 1985 (just months before Gorbachev announced the glasnost and perestroika policies). Either control your emotions or get your tissues out.
In 1982, nine years after US troops left, Sylvester Stallone, in the Film Rambo (yes Rambo), dealt with his Vietnam War Syndrome by laing siege to a town. This film was released the same year that the Vietnam War Memorial in DC was unveiled. Between Stallone and artist Maya Lin (whose parents fled from China in 1949 when Mao Zedong’s Communists took control of China), the US was able to overcome “Vietnam Syndrome”. This is seminal scene from the end of Rambo I. It is a MUST watch:
In Rambo II, John Rambo went back to Vietnam to find all of the prisoners of war and, in the process, won the war singlehandedly (yes, he also found and saved the POWs). You heard me right: he defeated an entire nation full of Commies with his own two hands. See it for yourself:
I regret to inform you that the fourth Rambo film, the first in two decades, is scheduled to be released in 2008. This time it seems that he will pacify war-torn Burma. You don’t have to watch this per the assignment but, should you be interested, here’s the trailer:
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Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA was deemed to be a patriotic anthem of epic proportions. A whole generation heard this song and felt damn proud to be American (which, of course, was a reminder that we were, by extension, superior to the Soviets). Alas, the twist is that this song is one of protest–protesting the fallout of the Vietnam War, protesting the receding economy, protesting empty promises, etc. Read the lyrics here.
Along the same lines, John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses” made us all proud to be Americans. We heard the part that we wanted to hear, this being the chorus and the groovy beat, and we ignored the lyrics.
Last but not least, a more well-balanced perspective, in respectful memory of the late Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a video montage to the Sting song, Russians (lyrics here):
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Note: in any of the above videos are not available on the website (you know YouTube…) please simply search for them at www.youtube.com (it won’t be hard to find). Sorry for any inconvenience.
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Your assignment is to use evidence from the above as a means to constructing an essay which clearly describes how film and music illustrate how propaganda helped Americans to cope with the insane (MAD) mentality of the Cold War in the 1980’s.
A well-organized one page, single-spaced Times New Roman font will suffice.
20 Point Rubric:
___/5 Organization & Clarity of Style
___/10 Use of Evidence (demonstrate that you have watched the videos)
___/5 Analysis (demonstrate that you have thought about the videos)
