Re: You bring up good points about Hollywood's idiocy generally. I don't disagree.
Cannoli Send a noteboard - 31/05/2010 07:08:36 AM
I do disagree with your statement that "about anyone who isn't black could pass for some kind of 'Russian'". There is a much larger degree of homogeneity in the Russian Federation than in the US or many Western countries.
I got the impression that there were lots of orientals in the eastern part.Of course, James Caan doesn't play an Italian (as your signature states - I'm sort of confused why you would say he was).
Santino Corleone is pretty much an Italian name. In the film, his biological father is shown as being an immigrant from Italy, and his parents' names are Vito & Carmella. I gotta go with "Italian" for him. Sorry. I think that to some extent, some of the roles for Americans tend to work because Americans are such a mixed bunch that you can have someone with a Polish last name who looks Italian, or an Irish last name who looks Swedish, etc.
Except when such movies detail the lives of immigrants from a more ethnically homogenous country. Such as "The Godfather" (Marlon Brando, James Caan, Eli Wallach & Abe Vigoda as Italians)or "Scarface" (Al Pacino, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia & F. Murray Abraham as Hispanics).For the record, it pisses the Hell out of me that the tanks in Patton were almost exclusively Pershing and (ironically) Patton tanks. When I was 10 I loved the movie but as I read more about World War II and started trying to identify the tanks, I realized something was wrong.
I hate it whenever there is a WW2 movie and you can tell the German tanks are just Russian tanks with gray paint. Even when they try to make them look German, you can tell because the turrets sit so far forward. Finally, why would illicit passport deals be brokered in a shady alley in the first place? Some minor government bureaucrat would invite people into his office (or a restaurant) and do it by the light of day. Corruption is a major problem in Russia, and the lack of any interest in doing anything about it is evidenced by how brazenly it is done.
THAT I would guess to be a sop to American audiences who might not believe that level of corruption exists, as there has always been a vast blind spot in the US, particularly in the entertainment industry, towards the reality of Russia's shortcomings. It goes all the way back to WW2 when Hollywood was the willing propaganda tool of the USSR-allied government, with works like "Mission to Moscow" and such.
Cannoli
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
Iron Man 2 discussion thread
- 05/05/2010 03:29:07 PM
790 Views
Perpetuates Hollywood's complete idiocy with respect to anything Russian.
- 07/05/2010 06:28:12 PM
466 Views
I don't imagine I need to tell you they do the same with most other cultures. *NM*
- 08/05/2010 01:03:22 AM
182 Views
I know. On the other hand, as movies become more global they should improve on that.
- 08/05/2010 04:32:09 AM
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Why don't they just do like Team America and Durka Durka their way through the language. *NM*
- 09/05/2010 05:56:14 PM
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Hollywood? Her character was named and introduced in Tales of Suspense in 1964.
- 08/05/2010 02:18:49 AM
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Yeah, because Hollywood invented Vanko, Natasha, and Chekhov. 
*NM*
- 08/05/2010 04:39:37 AM
230 Views
*NM*
- 08/05/2010 04:39:37 AM
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Re: Perpetuates Hollywood's complete idiocy with respect to anything Russian.
- 08/05/2010 11:55:57 AM
613 Views
You bring up good points about Hollywood's idiocy generally. I don't disagree.
- 08/05/2010 02:12:10 PM
430 Views
Re: You bring up good points about Hollywood's idiocy generally. I don't disagree.
- 31/05/2010 07:08:36 AM
384 Views
insert Arab or Muslim where you have Russian and then you know how i feel. *NM*
- 11/05/2010 05:33:04 AM
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Or insert German and replace everything else in the rant with "they are Nazis!!!!111!!!1" 
*NM*
- 05/06/2010 02:24:26 AM
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*NM*
- 05/06/2010 02:24:26 AM
166 Views
Re: Perpetuates Hollywood's complete idiocy with respect to anything Russian.
- 21/05/2010 06:41:04 PM
392 Views
Stupid villains. Really, really stupid villains.
- 08/05/2010 05:21:45 AM
441 Views
This was the same villain pattern as Batman 2
- 08/05/2010 11:20:53 AM
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Batman Returns or The Dark Knight?
- 08/05/2010 09:20:24 PM
396 Views
Re: Stupid villains. Really, really stupid villains.
- 09/05/2010 04:41:49 PM
423 Views
I didn't really mind Vanko wanting Stark dead, although it was pretty silly.
- 09/05/2010 05:29:32 PM
384 Views