The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (Template:Lang-ru) is a 1924 film by Soviet director Lev Kuleshov. It is notable as the first Soviet film that is explicitly anti-American.
Plot
While the film itself mocks American ignorance of the Soviet Union, ironically it mimics the techniques used in American cinema of the time.
Mr. West (a stereotypical American, whose first name isn't given and who is played by Porfori Podobed), a YMCA president, is planning a trip to the newly-founded Soviet Union to spread the idea of the YMCA. His friends, however, warn him that the Soviet people (whom they refer to solely as Bolsheviks) are savage, and wear primitive rags and fur for clothing, as portrayed in American magazines of the time. He takes a cowboy named Jeddie along for protection (apparently a Russian misconception of American society of the time, played by Boris Barnet).
However, on arriving in the USSR he is captured by a group of Bolsheviks led by a run-down Countess (played by Aleksandra Khokhlova, and somewhat ironically due to the anti-imperialist notions of Bolshevism), who confirm his worst fears about what the Soviet people are like.
However, they eventually release him and he takes a sightseeing tour of Moscow, where he sees that the Soviet government left cultural landmarks such as Moscow University and the Bolshoi Theater intact during the Russian Revolution of 1917, and decides that these Russians must not be so savage after all. He then converts to Communism wholeheartedly, even asking his wife to hang a portrait of Lenin in their home.
Credited Cast
- Porfiri Podobed - Mr. West
- Boris Barnet - Jeddy - the cowboy
- Aleksandra Khokhlova - The 'Countess'
