As the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine continues and anti-Russian sentiments are boiling over, Americans have found themselves hearkening back to the moral and narrative frames that defined Cold War-era cinema to make sense of this moment and our role in it. From Red Dawn to Rocky IV, Hollywood depictions of the pitched battle between the scrappy, freedom-loving West and the cold, monstrous Other in the East made for great movie watching, but it also had curious and long-lasting effects on the American psyche.

In the latest installment of Art for the End Times, Lyta speaks with writer and media critic Adam Johnson about some of their favorite ‘80s Cold War action movies, how they shaped the ways we think, how they’re problematic, and how sometimes we like them anyway. Adam Johnson is the cohost of Citations Needed, “a podcast on the media, power, PR and the history of bullshit,” and author of The Column on Substack.

Pre-Production/Studio/Post-Production: Dwayne Gladden

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Transcript

The transcript of this podcast will be made available as soon as possible.

This post was originally published on The Real News Network.