Actuakers
One of my all time favorites.
Konterr
Brilliant and touching
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
icoa9125
I too am a history teacher, specializing in postwar American history. This IS a glimpse into history - not the history of the Soviet Union but of the United States and the very worrying extent of the irrational hysteria about Communism in that period. I don't think it is very relevant to talk about how realistic this is as a portrayal of the USSR as the point is that this is a portrayal of a Communist takeover of the USA and that was just never going to happen, either by external invasion or internal subversion. To understand a film like this we are better off looking at domestic American politics and to the advantages this bogey- man (a negative mirror-image of what America was understood to be) afforded various groups, and the need for others (like film executives who were not from Anglo-Saxon Protestant backgrounds and who wanted a handy baton to beat Unions with) to present themselves as "100% American". There are lessons to be learned here but not about the USSR.
MartinHafer
I am a history teacher and I find a few of the comments about this movie disconcerting. While I am quick to admit that this film goes way overboard and is a good example of a propaganda film made during the so-called "Red Scare", the fears concerning Soviet domination were not unfounded--though some other reviews seem to indicate this. I remember the era and there were genuine reasons to be afraid--nuclear war seemed imminent and the Stalin years were a recent memory when the film was made, so I can see the context for RED NIGHTMARE (by the way kids, Stalin was bad...okay!). Now the likelihood of the US being invaded and everyone becoming "good little Commies" was incredibly remote to say the least, though the film did a good job showing some of the ways that a totalitarian Communist system would affect the life of a common man or woman. Of course, Jack Webb's deadly earnest delivery and style is incredibly dated when seen today--but back in 1962, the film probably did a great job of scaring the pants off the average viewer. Seen today, it's a quaint but interesting history lesson--showing insight into the thinking and fears of the average American. Because of this, I don't think just laughing the film off does justice to this well-made but a tad preachy short film.
Baroque
Jack Webb takes an average white American male, husband and father of two, into a vision of what America might be like under Soviet control.Heavy-handed and one-sided, this propaganda one-reeler has Jack Webb's thumbprints all over it. Rumored to have been bankrolled by a US Government agency (you pick one), this film runs almost like a right-wing answer to "The Twilight Zone", as if to confront TV pioneer Rod Serling's liberal-left musings.It may have shocked people in it's day, and will probably enthuse those who still look for Commies under the bed, but now, it's a camp classic, reminding us of how paranoid we were (and, by the way, how paranoid the Soviets were about the USA!).
frankfob
This film succeeds, and fails, on several levels. It doesn't succeed as a camp classic, like "Plan 9 From Outer Space," as it's too well made for that. It doesn't succeed as a straightforward piece warning of the dangers of Communism, as it's too simplistic and one-sided for that. What it does succeed at is as an insight into the mind of the hysterical right wing that dominated U.S. public life at the time--and still does today, in fact. This is the kind of film from "the good old days" that the Bush/Cheney/Ashcroft crowd yearns for: We're right, they're wrong. We're good, they're evil. We're anointed by God, they're sadistic, atheistic monsters. The main thrust of the film, though, isn't the usual "those godless Russky Commies are out to get us" paranoia. Its message is more insidious than that: the REAL danger is from INSIDE America, not outside, from the collaborators, the "America-hating liberals" who are chomping at the bit to do the Commies' bidding in their misguided efforts to "improve" American life (which, as the film implies, we all know is perfect anyway, and since perfection can't be improved upon, these people have to have something else in mind . . .). So we have to be watchful, we have to keep an eye out for people who might be dangerous, who don't act or think like good Americans do, who don't like our values, who want to harm us. We have to watch out for these people, and report them to the authorities, so we can safeguard our way of life, and . . .Some things never change, do they?
