<http://www.newstatesman.com/200711290033>Link
--Posted By johannes to <http://www.monochrom.at/english/2007/12/soviet-era-cowboy-films-have-inspired.htm>monochrom at 12/12/2007 05:19:00 PM
Stalin obsessed over John Wayne, while Brezhnev had a crush on Chuck
Connors. The Soviets had this thing about cowboy movies...
When I first moved to Moscow in the early 1990s, my friend Dasha gave
me a gift-wrapped video. "Watch this," she said. "It was made years
ago but it will help you understand our country." I assumed it was a
melancholy epic by Andrei Tarkovsky, with lingering shots through
rain-splattered windows, or perhaps a revolutionary classic such as
Battleship Potemkin.
When I unwrapped the paper and looked at the cover, I found a man in
a grubby white uniform surrounded by sand dunes. "White Sun of the
Desert," said Dasha. "It's a Soviet-style cowboy film. The best one ever made."
