For the first time in many a moon the evening national news, in this case NBC’s Saturday telecast, had no extensive reporting on the Covid pandemic. Snowstorms, a possible Supreme Court nominee, gun violence and even rumors of Tom Brady’s retirement pre-empted Covid updates.
Of course, Russia’s war mongering along the Ukrainian border commanded top attention on the newscast, so this is an appropriate moment to explore my film favorites of the movie industry’s obsession with Mother Russia, the Soviet Union and its people, wherever they may be:
Dr. Zhivago
Knight Without Armour
Potemkin
To Russia with Love
Ninotchka
The Scarlett Empress
Gorky Park
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Taras Bulba
Crime and Punishment
Anastasia (1956 Ingrid Bergman, Yul Brynner version)
Nicholas and Alexandra
Fiddler on the Roof
Yentl
Enemy at the Gates
Rasputin and the Empress
Hunt for Red October
Bridge of Spies
Reds
Stalin is Dead
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming
Moscow on the Hudson
Dr. Strangelove
Love and Death
The Way Back (2011)
The Rise of Catherine the Great
Anna Karenina (1935 Greta Garbo)
Anna Karenina (1948 Vivien Leigh)
