Russians of Marvel (June Post)

 Yesterday evening, my family and I streamed Marvel's newest Avenger movie, Black Widow. 

First, I will say that I have never disliked a Marvel movie. Some stories or characters are not my favorite, but the movies are still great. I will never say no to a Marvel movie.  Black Widow was not an exception - I loved the movie. 

Without giving too much away, I have to provide a bit of background on the plot. Essentially, there are Russian villains (like any action movie ever...) who capture orphan girls and take away their free will. These women are called "Widows", and they are elite assassins. The point is that these Russians, led by Dreykov, are terrible people. 

Another note is that everyone besides Scarlett Johansen has a Russian accent in the movie. 

My Mom is actually fluent in Russian. She impressively translated the Russian dialogue before the subtitles appeared. Annoying as it was, she was trying to help my younger sister Michaela learn the language. Michaela is currently learning Russian for fun. 

With all of the Russian spoken around the house and the talk about Russian culture, I have learned a bit myself. First, I know that not all Russians are trying to take over the world. Action movies tend to play off of our fear of communist Russia. They did the same with the Middle East in the 2000s. The villian tends to be from a country that we, the United States, are in conflict with. 

So, as I was sitting on the couch watching this movie, I was thinking about all of the movies I have seen with Russian villains. To save myself from listing them all, I basically came up with almost every single action movie I have seen. That is, in fact, a lot of Russian villains.

I relized that my concern was not that the movie-makers were using Russians as their villains. That in itself is okay. But, the villains are shown with little dimension. They all want to take over the world. They all are self-interested. Even in Black Widow, they were either completely good or completely bad. There was no in-between. And, the actors all have terribly overdone Russian accents that hardly sound authentic. 

I think that we as viewers have to keep these facts in mind - Russians, for the most part, are very normal people. They are not all good, all bad, etc. They are not all villains. This seems obvious, I know. But, when influencial movies all seem to portray the same thing about Russians, we have to be the ones to remember that they are not Marvel villains. 

Anyway! If you know of an action movie that does not protray Russians as the villains, let me know. I'd love to watch it! Also, go watch Black Widow - definitely worth it.