The Extraordinary Adventures Of Mr West In The Land Of The Bolsheviks
Originally released: 1924
A wonderfully baroque satire and a splendidly conceived Soviet
response to the capitalist ideology enshrined in Hollywood genre
films. Kuleshov's hero, a naive American captured by Russian
criminals and fed a vision of Communism in accordance with Russian
propaganda, parodies the Harold Lloyd persona which had enshrined the
success ethic. Yet the pastiche is strikingly affectionate, proof of
the heroic optimism which allowed propaganda to be inflected through
playfulness and alongside a frank admission of the continuing
existence of dissident opinion with the USSR. A marvellously
inventive film, superbly acted by Pudovkin, Barnet and the truly
extraordinary Kokhlova.
