Criticism of the USA in the Film Journalism of the USSR in the 1960s

The article presents the results of the study of artistic techniques and ideological approaches used by Soviet documentary filmmakers in the film journalism of the 1960s, devoted to criticism of the USA, its foreign and domestic policy, cultural and social sphere. The choice of the USSR’s main political opponent as the object of study is natural, since the most important specialists (R.L. Karmen, A.I. Medvedkin, Yu.V Mongolovsky, et. al.), authors of such significant films as “Sputnik Speaks” (1959), “Reason Against Madness” (1960), “The Law of Meanness” (1962), “Military Bases on Foreign Territories” (1965), “Friendship with a Hack” (1965), “The Movie Camera Accuses” (1967), “Sclerosis of Conscience” (1968), “The American Way” (1971), etc. Thanks to them, in a relatively short period of time, Soviet film journalism was enriched with new techniques and concepts aimed at effectively constructing the image of a political opponent and a political ally in the screen arts. The analysis has revealed the well-known genre fluctuations: the film-pamphlet and the film reportage, their aesthetics formed the basis of Russian film journalism of the 1960s. The trend reflected the tasks set for documentary cinema during the escalation of the Cold War. The images of enemy and ally played the main role, and film journalism as a synthesis of literary form (pamphlet, essay) and screen image took an important place here. The high frequency of Soviet documentary filmmakers’ treatment of the subject of American aggression in Vietnam testifies to the active use of the image of the USSR not only as a peaceful state, America’s opponent, but also as a victorious country in World War II. The treatment of the ideological confrontation between the USSR and the USA through the prism of the victory over Nazism explains the frequent motive of comparing the conquering foreign policy of the USA, its imperial ambitions with the foreign policy of Germany and its satellite countries in the 1940s. The Vietnam War as an actual and contemporary event of those years is used as the most significant argument of the ideological failure of the USA and its role as a world hegemon that chose the wrong path of historical development. At the same time, the sharp form of film journalism allows the authors to generalize the Vietnamese theme into an extended metaphor.

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