The 10 best Russian movie villains

Hollywood has always looked to perceived and real enemies of America to fill the ranks of movie villains, and no enemy has been with us longer than Russia. Of course, the Nazis were undoubtedly worse, but we destroyed them relatively quickly. The Russians have been pointing missiles at us since the 50s! Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, well, those missiles were still pointed at us – it just wasn’t heard about as much.

After Vladimir Putin stifled Russia’s democratic impulses at the turn of the century, filmmakers felt justified in continuing to demonize Russians both here (the Russian mob was the villain in countless movies and TV shows) and abroad. With the Western world once again aligned against Moscow after its invasion of Ukraine, Hollywood will undoubtedly usher in a new era of Russian thugs and scoundrels. In the meantime, we recall 10 famous Russian villains from movies.

Rosa Klebb, From Russia with love (1963)

It’s not enough that Rosa Klebb (Lotte Lenya) is a former high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer. She also defected to the Bond world’s enemy organization, SPECTRE, as if the movie was saying you can’t trust those duplicitous Russians for nothing! SPECTRE’s plan is to play the Soviets and British off each other while luring Bond into a trap. It’s Klebb’s job to carry out the details, including the recruitment of an assassin—the strikingly blond and tall Robert Shaw—who accompanies Bond to Turkey (immortalized in glorious Technicolor).

Even by early Bond standards, From Russia with love, which depicts a fight between two half-naked gypsy women, is deeply … underdeveloped. The film presents Klebb as the antithesis of everything Bond values ​​in women. She is older, usually unattractive, rude and coded as a lesbian. Unsurprisingly, a beautiful young blonde (Daniela Bianchi) wins her over in the end.

Soviet Union, dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love a Bomb (1964)

Image used with permission of the copyright holder

One of the masterpieces of director Stanley Kubrick’s early career, Dr. Strangelove has become cultural shorthand for the insanity of nuclear war and the species that will create the instrument of its own extermination. Kubrick knows that only a wild black comedy can redeem material justice, and that’s why he takes aim at the entire global military-industrial complex.

The Soviet Union is nominally the enemy here, having created a “dead hand” doomsday device that will launch an ICBM attack on the United States even if Soviet command and control is removed, effectively destroying the entire world. But Kubrick directs his harshest criticism at the Americans, particularly war-crazed Air Force General Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden), who is trying to start World War II without Pentagon approval. Given the information that has come out in recent years about how close we actually came to nuclear war with the Soviets, the film now seems almost more terrifying than funny.

russian soldiers Red dawn (1984)

Ah, the early 1980s. Silly movie plots and nuclear tensions between superpowers were at an all-time high. President Ronald Reagan wasn’t exactly trying to de-escalate the rhetoric by calling the USSR an “evil empire” and the US a “splendid city on a hill.” And, well, you heard the president, guys. I have to protect that great city! At least that’s the feeling of John Milius’ militant film, which contains one of the most nonsensical premises a film has ever taken seriously. The Soviets and their allies invade the continental United States (with their conventional military, no less, somehow evading both American defenses and radar), and leave it to some Colorado teenagers (including Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) hiding out in the countryside to would take them all back.

To be fair, it should take place in an alternate reality, but more. Given that Hollywood was churning out a lot of content for and about teenagers at the time, existence Red dawn it makes a certain amount of sense. But much better movies have been made about teenagers saving civilization from the threat of World War II. Check it out War games (1983), A true Genius (1985), i The Manhattan Project (1986) instead.

Ivan Drago, Rocky IV (1985)

MGM/UA

Few movie stars embody the rah-rah decade of kicking and patriotism more than Sylvester Stallone. His smooth, rippling pectoral muscles were on best display during the 1980s in both Rocky and Rambo movies. Critics argued that the muscle heads of 80s action cinema were a direct response to the demasculinization many people felt from the United States’ loss in Vietnam. Movies like Rambo: First Blood Part II (also released in 1985), in which an invincible hero returns to the battlefield to rescue American MIAs, provided an opportunity to reignite the war on screen.

Rocky IV, in which the champion comes out of retirement to take on Soviet super-boxer Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) who was a steroid engineer, also gave viewers a visceral outlet. Americans couldn’t do much about the threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over their heads, but they sure could cheer when the Russian hulk hit the canvas. Little more than a 90-minute montage, the film became the personification of polished, flashy and serious Hollywood cinema of the 1980s indelibly influenced by MTV, then in its first surge of global popularity.

Loginov, Hunting for Red October (1990)

Paramount Pictures

Otherwise known as the movie where every actor who plays a Russian speaks in the accent they like. Seriously, where was the dialect coach on this one? Based on Tom Clancy’s 1984 mega-bestseller, The Cold War was almost over by the time John McTiernan’s film version hit the silver screen six years later, but it was a hit all the same.

Perhaps with the introduction of the then Soviet Prime Minister Mikhail Gorbachev loudness (meaning “openness”) i perestroika (“reconstruction”), and with the Berlin Wall in pieces, the story of Russian sub-commander Ramius (Sean Connery) who defected to the West rang even truer. Or maybe it was just a chance to see Connery at the last peak of his glory. The main villain in this one is a Soviet spy on a submarine, Loginov (Tomas Arana), who… ah, who cares. The film features Connery in top form and a young Alec Baldwin as the first of many Jack Ryans.

Xenia Onatopp, Golden eye (1995)

The James Bond franchise began plotting the end of the Soviet Union six years earlier when Bond (Timothy Dalton) turned to another standard ’80s villain, a Latin drug lord, in License to kill (1989). But after a decade of being banned from filming in the USSR, there was no way the franchise was going to pass up its chance to have the new Bond (Pierce Brosnan) drive a tank through St. Petersburg, even if the Cold War is over.

The main villain in Golden eye is Bond’s former military colleague 006 (Sean Bean), but the secondary villain is the infamous Russian agent Xenia Onatopp (Famke Janssen), whose most striking talent is the ability to squeeze a man to death between her thighs. The 1990s may have seen Bond struggle with more progressive gender impulses – casting Judi Dench as M, for example – but Onatopp proved there’s a way to go.

Egor Korshunov, Air Force One (1997)

Harrison Ford’s last big hit made from original material (ie no Star Wars or Indiana Jones), Air Force One he plays US President James Marshall, a former Vietnam combat veteran and Medal of Honor winner who proves he can still be strong despite all the boring stuff that keeps him working in the Oval Office. Ford hadn’t yet entered the phase of his career where viewers noticed he never smiled, and what would eventually be seen as stiff and humorless was still appreciated here as committed and serious.

Of course, every action hero needs a good adversary, and Gary Oldman built serious villain credibility by playing inept characters like Sid Vicious, Lee Harvey Oswald, Dracula, Beethoven and that psychopath who screams “Evvverrrryyyyone!” in Professional (1994). Here he plays a Russian terrorist, Egor Korshunov, who hijacks Air Force One in an attempt to restore the good old days of totalitarianism. And his plan might have worked too, except, you know, HARRISON FORD IS THE PRESIDENT.

Viggo Tarasov, John Wick (2014)

The film that introduced the legend has the title character (Keanu Reeves) going all-in against the Russian mob after the son of a crime boss (Alfie Allen, channeling his Theon Greyjoy from Game of Thrones into an even slimier coward here) famously steals his car and kills his dog. The dog is the last gift from his beloved, recently deceased wife (Bridget Moynahan), and its cruel murder unties Wick from everything he has left in the world, freeing him to embark on an epic revenge spree the likes of which won’t be seen again until, well, the sequels. The son — empty and ignorant — doesn’t know about Baba Yaga (Wick’s nickname, loosely translated from Slavic as Specter) that he freed. But his father, Viggo (Michael Nyqvist), does, forcing him to send legions of minions, along with an underground network of New York assassins, to suffocate Wick for good. Not that it helps. Everyone knows you can’t kill the Boogeyman.

Aleksandar Bremovič, Atomic blonde (2017)

atomic blonde, starring Charlize Theron as a super-spy caught up in late 80’s Cold War intrigue, it’s set in Berlin, not Russia, but rest assured, bad Commie boys threaten our hero the whole time! Among them is Soviet agent Aleksander Bremovych (Roland Møller), who really thinks like a Russian villain like beating a guy to death with a skateboard. At the center of the event is David Percival (James McAvoy, radiating charisma), who may or may not be part of the Russian team. It’s all kind of hard to figure out, but it doesn’t matter given the style that’s on display. The film is like a fever dream from the 1980s, pulsating with neon and a perfect soundtrack of synth classics. Director David Leitch worked as an uncredited director on John Wick and it shows. The long sequence in which Theron fights Stasi thugs in a stairwell is one of the most impressive staged fights ever.

General Dreykov, black Widow (2021)

Early on, Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), watches Moonraker (1979) – not one of James Bond’s most acclaimed releases – almost as if signaling to viewers not to expect anything big this time around. Of course, with Moonraker-esque climax during which our heroes infiltrate a fortress above the clouds, black Widow is one of Marvel Studios’ lesser-heralded entries. Not that the film doesn’t have its pleasures, chief among them being the cast, which includes many Americans and Brits who speak Russian accents competently (the dialect teacher was clearly on point in this one).

Since even our heroes are morally compromised by their espionage exploits over the years, the film is technical full Russian villains, including Natasha herself, who is responsible for the heinous act for which she feels guilty. But worst of all is General Dreykov (Ray Winstone) who runs the Black Widow program that enslaves young Russian girls and turns them into killers. Although Dreykov’s real crime seems to be that—unlike the Red Warden, Natasha’s lovably twisted super-soldier stepfather (David Harbour)—he’s incorrigible as a father.

Editor’s recommendations

Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn

Links: The 10 best Russian movie villains – Tekmonk Bio, The 10 best Russian movie villains – Kungfutv, The 10 best Russian movie villains – Blogtomoney