To see less ads Register or Login ----- Daily Fantasy Sports games 18+

Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

A forum for discussion on Movies, Radio and Television programme topics whatever your viewing and listening pleasure.
Post Reply
MADCHESTER UTD
Grumpy Old Man
Posts: 2331
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 11:23
FS Record: Won DT WC 2018
Won DT weekender wk 2 18/19
Won TFE 18/19

Re: Great TV Series

Post by MADCHESTER UTD »

Tbf to Trampie, Hollywood has a history of anti Russian propaganda. Top Gun for example, great film but partly funded by the U.S Airforce (look it up for yourselves) for propaganda during the Cold War. Rocky IV was clean living good guy Rocky Balboa vs the evil, cold Ivan Drago. Clint Eastwood’s Firefox, another great film from the same era but anti Russian. Big fan as a kid of WWF and don’t have to be a genius now to look back at the likes of the Bolsheviks, sgnt slaughter etc were simply the bad guys in a propaganda tool vs American hero hulk hogan and hacksaw Jim “USA!” Duggan etc

Then you have the rewriting of history that goes on for example Haven’t watched the big budget Gary Oldham Churchill film yet but I bet it doesn’t mention that the allied forces including Churchill knew about Aushwitz as early as December 1942 yet did sod all to intervene.

User avatar
thebillfella
FISO Knight
Posts: 11409
Joined: 07 Dec 2006, 13:24
Location: Republic of Mancunia
FS Record: 6th FPL 19/20; 1st TFF StartXI 14/15; 8th TFFE11; 18th TFFE12; 1st FISO TFFE11&12; 1st FISO Full Draft 12/13,14/15,19/20,20/21; 1st Block14/15; 1st 5ASChampLge 12/13; 1st TFF Super614/15; 1st Spring17; 1st FISO Div Premx6, Cup, Mirror,Prem&H2H Champ 19/20

Re: Great TV Series

Post by thebillfella »


MADCHESTER UTD wrote:
Tbf to Trampie, Hollywood has a history of anti Russian propaganda.
So because Hollywood has done it in the past they must have done it again here?Come on guys, we're better than that.

If you're unsure about how something is portrayed then do your research. I (like Zim above) am a bit of a geek so looked into Chernobyl via non-Wiki sources and I've seen nothing to suggest the show distorted the truth for propoganda purposes.

User avatar
forestfan
FISO Jedi Knight
Posts: 36403
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:27
Location: Between Westeros and Nova Scotia
FS Record: FISODAS Champion Season 34!

Re: Great TV Series

Post by forestfan »

Yeah, pretty obvious that Hollywood paints Russia as the bad guys when they are/were America’s biggest adversaries (they’ve got a growing list of challengers for that title these days!) But this isn’t Top Gun, this is a well-researched docu-drama. If they had wanted to demonise the Russians they would have gone for the fake accents they have been (mostly) praised for avoiding.

Trampie seems to have made a few pro-Russian posts on different threads the past few days... maybe they’ve just announced an investment programme in Wales or something :wink:

User avatar
trampie
Grumpy Old Man
Posts: 3231
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:33

Re: Great TV Series

Post by trampie »

thebillfella wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 09:37
MADCHESTER UTD wrote:
Tbf to Trampie, Hollywood has a history of anti Russian propaganda.
So because Hollywood has done it in the past they must have done it again here?Come on guys, we're better than that.

If you're unsure about how something is portrayed then do your research. I (like Zim above) am a bit of a geek so looked into Chernobyl via non-Wiki sources and I've seen nothing to suggest the show distorted the truth for propoganda purposes.
You are totally missing the point, lol, nobody is saying that 'X' happened and the show was claiming 'Y' happened, the whole show did not seem to be balanced and showed the Soviets in a bad light, once the accident happened the Russians did a lot of good things [and there were many hero's] obviously some mistakes were made, the series did not seem to get this balance right.
The accident happened in the first episode so we had the rest of the series devoted to containment and dealing with the aftermath, the Russians did ok during that stage but to me it was not portrayed like that.

User avatar
Zimmerman
FISO Jedi Knight
Posts: 30211
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:42
Location: having a picnic at the Bear Mountain

Re: Great TV Series

Post by Zimmerman »

Couple of colleagues I have from former soviet countries say that it portrays the soviet mentality well.

User avatar
thebillfella
FISO Knight
Posts: 11409
Joined: 07 Dec 2006, 13:24
Location: Republic of Mancunia
FS Record: 6th FPL 19/20; 1st TFF StartXI 14/15; 8th TFFE11; 18th TFFE12; 1st FISO TFFE11&12; 1st FISO Full Draft 12/13,14/15,19/20,20/21; 1st Block14/15; 1st 5ASChampLge 12/13; 1st TFF Super614/15; 1st Spring17; 1st FISO Div Premx6, Cup, Mirror,Prem&H2H Champ 19/20

Re: Great TV Series

Post by thebillfella »

trampie wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 09:53
thebillfella wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 09:37
MADCHESTER UTD wrote:
Tbf to Trampie, Hollywood has a history of anti Russian propaganda.
So because Hollywood has done it in the past they must have done it again here?Come on guys, we're better than that.

If you're unsure about how something is portrayed then do your research. I (like Zim above) am a bit of a geek so looked into Chernobyl via non-Wiki sources and I've seen nothing to suggest the show distorted the truth for propoganda purposes.
You are totally missing the point, lol, nobody is saying that 'X' happened and the show was claiming 'Y' happened, the whole show did not seem to be balanced and showed the Soviets in a bad light, once the accident happened the Russians did a lot of good things [and there were many hero's] obviously some mistakes were made, the series did not seem to get this balance right.
The accident happened in the first episode so we had the rest of the series devoted to containment and dealing with the aftermath, the Russians did ok during that stage but to me it was not portrayed like that.
The build up to the accident was cleverly left until the last episode. It shows the Russian governing bodies in a bad light because quite frankly it was hard not to - Christ, it was their strictly-controlled propaganda machine that was a big part of the problem as people were too scared to speak out to correct the problem. They didn't deal with the aftermath as well as they could have because of this propaganda machine - trying to "control misinformation" by not revealing it to the wider world and trying to sweep it under the carpet before anyone in the western world found out so as not to look weak.

Only the Soviets had these types of reactors in the world - if they had been honest (or even open to discussion with the western world) then not only could combined minds have controlled the events after the accident quicker but arguably could have prevented the accident in the first place (the awareness of the flaw in this type of reactor would not have been hidden and could have been addressed as it has been since).

I actually think it showed some of the Soviet people in a good light - the scientists, divers and minors all doing what they knew had to be done knowing full well it would lead to their deaths.

User avatar
trampie
Grumpy Old Man
Posts: 3231
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:33

Re: Great TV Series

Post by trampie »

The British nuclear accident was largely our Governments fault and they tried to cover it up and put the blame on the workers, the guy that was said to have saved a complete disaster was never recognised for his efforts [he is dead now] and called our Government "a shower of bustards" for blaming workers when people have said it was our Government cutting corners, pressuring the workers to achieve more at a faster and faster speed and paying lip service to health and safety, the grandson of our Prime Minister recons it was a cover up at the highest level and the US would never have entered a joint nuclear venture with us if they had known about how our plants were running.
Our plant was a nuclear plant for nuclear weapons, Chernobyl and Three Mile Island were for making electricity, if our fire had got out of control God knows what would have happened, I think they tried blaming workers at Three Mile Island as well, you mentioned the divers in the show the British guy in our incident scaled the reactor building looked into the blaze below took a full dose of radiation and got water onto the fire, they had no idea what water onto the reactor fire was going to do, luck was on our side as it could have been half of England would have been wiped out.
No iodine tablets or evacuations with the British, they just tipped thousands of gallons of milk in the Irish sea, slaughtered a few chickens and advised people not to play golf in the area, how very British.

This Chernobyl series was an American/British production targeted at our audiences yet they never mentioned our problems, when its obvious the Russians would have been discussing what we did, yet we did not see that, hence why the series seemed biased against the Soviets.

User avatar
Maldini
Dumbledore
Posts: 6564
Joined: 07 Mar 2014, 18:32

Re: Great TV Series

Post by Maldini »

Why on earth would they mention those other incidents in a drama about Chernobyl called Chernobyl?

I’d step away from the keyboard if I were you mate. Your posts are getting more and more bizarre.

User avatar
trampie
Grumpy Old Man
Posts: 3231
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:33

Re: Great TV Series

Post by trampie »

Maldini wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 14:21 Why on earth would they mention those other incidents in a drama about Chernobyl called Chernobyl?

I’d step away from the keyboard if I were you mate. Your posts are getting more and more bizarre.
Because you can bet your bottom dollar the Russian authorities/KGB etc would have been discussing what we did in the West, the series showed plenty of scenes of officials in meetings yet no mention of our incidents, not very realistic and it would have been salient to have referred to our issues unless they wanted to just show the Russians in a bad light.

User avatar
thebillfella
FISO Knight
Posts: 11409
Joined: 07 Dec 2006, 13:24
Location: Republic of Mancunia
FS Record: 6th FPL 19/20; 1st TFF StartXI 14/15; 8th TFFE11; 18th TFFE12; 1st FISO TFFE11&12; 1st FISO Full Draft 12/13,14/15,19/20,20/21; 1st Block14/15; 1st 5ASChampLge 12/13; 1st TFF Super614/15; 1st Spring17; 1st FISO Div Premx6, Cup, Mirror,Prem&H2H Champ 19/20

Re: Great TV Series

Post by thebillfella »

You do realise they were nowhere near the seriousness of the accident at Chernobyl don't you?

And as Maldini say neither had any relevance or lessons to be learned for Chernobyl. And thus the omission of reference to either in Chernobyl does not in any way imply anti-Soviet propaganda in the eyes of anybody bar those hunting for confirmation bias?!!!

MADCHESTER UTD
Grumpy Old Man
Posts: 2331
Joined: 09 Jul 2015, 11:23
FS Record: Won DT WC 2018
Won DT weekender wk 2 18/19
Won TFE 18/19

Re: Great TV Series

Post by MADCHESTER UTD »

thebillfella wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 09:37
MADCHESTER UTD wrote:
Tbf to Trampie, Hollywood has a history of anti Russian propaganda.
So because Hollywood has done it in the past they must have done it again here?Come on guys, we're better than that.

If you're unsure about how something is portrayed then do your research. I (like Zim above) am a bit of a geek so looked into Chernobyl via non-Wiki sources and I've seen nothing to suggest the show distorted the truth for propoganda purposes.
As I’ve said I’ve only watched 15 mins of Chernobyl and I’ve never researched it before (though obviously knew that a massive nuclear disaster happened) so I’m not saying the Sky Atlantic version is biased/anti Russian propaganda, I’m just stating the fact that the West has a history of it before so Trampie has the right to be dubious. And for balance, I’m sure the Russians are just as guilty of anti U.S propaganda via TV/movies too.

One of my mates at work is going to Chernobyl this year on holiday😳 not an obvious destination but interesting to visit I imagine.

User avatar
forestfan
FISO Jedi Knight
Posts: 36403
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:27
Location: Between Westeros and Nova Scotia
FS Record: FISODAS Champion Season 34!

Re: Great TV Series

Post by forestfan »

Yeah, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea etc... probably not only put out anti-US propaganda, but almost certainly completely block things with a pro-Western perspective.

User avatar
thebillfella
FISO Knight
Posts: 11409
Joined: 07 Dec 2006, 13:24
Location: Republic of Mancunia
FS Record: 6th FPL 19/20; 1st TFF StartXI 14/15; 8th TFFE11; 18th TFFE12; 1st FISO TFFE11&12; 1st FISO Full Draft 12/13,14/15,19/20,20/21; 1st Block14/15; 1st 5ASChampLge 12/13; 1st TFF Super614/15; 1st Spring17; 1st FISO Div Premx6, Cup, Mirror,Prem&H2H Champ 19/20

Re: Great TV Series

Post by thebillfella »

A whole new / different topic! Shouldn't be used to confuse / divert from that fact that Chernobyl (the TV series) is actually quite good and (for the most part) based on accepted facts from the chief Soviet scientist rather than anti-Soviet US/UK propaganda!!!

User avatar
admin
FISO Administrator
Posts: 12121
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 17:29
Location: Fantasy Sports Forum
FS Record: Won TFFO, 2nd/3rd TFF, Won BFF, Won FLGolf
Contact:

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by admin »

The actors could have made an effort with a Russian accent couldn't they?

User avatar
forestfan
FISO Jedi Knight
Posts: 36403
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:27
Location: Between Westeros and Nova Scotia
FS Record: FISODAS Champion Season 34!

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by forestfan »

admin wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 22:10 The actors could have made an effort with a Russian accent couldn't they?
The producers made the decision not to force them to, as they felt that “cliched” fake accents would take away from the authenticity of the actors’ performances.

User avatar
gutshot
Grumpy Old Man
Posts: 4816
Joined: 07 Aug 2013, 22:19
Location: Southport
FS Record: Solid

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by gutshot »

Excellent series.

User avatar
Tacalabala
FISO Knight
Posts: 19010
Joined: 07 Sep 2008, 01:03

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by Tacalabala »

If you'd listened to the accompanying podcast with extensive interviews of the director and writer behind the show.... but I don't think you'd like to. In fact, I'm surprised to hear you've been able to watch the show, as I can't fathom why a committed communist would subscribe to Sky. I'm assuming you have watched, and not based your opinion on conjecture.

User avatar
Arch Stanton
FISOhead
Posts: 630
Joined: 07 Aug 2006, 17:07

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by Arch Stanton »

I absolutely loved Chernobyl. I usually watch things in blocks but actually watched this week by week because I couldn't wait for the whole thing to finish before I started to watch it and even found it hard to wait in between. I was amazed to find out that it was written by the writer of not only Hangover 2 and 3 but also Scary Movie 3 and 4.

I never got the sense it was anti Russian, certainly not critical of the Russian people many of whom are portrayed as self sacrificing heroes. It is critical of the state but again it seemed like that was because some of their actions deserve to draw criticism.

I thought it tried to be as accurate as possible so it would be a bit strange if all that effort was put into a program just for the purposes of Anti Russian propaganda. Also, it is the Russia of the past, there has been loads of political and social change since then so any propaganda value would seem limited.

As to how accurate it is, I am not sure as I am not Russian. I read this series of tweets from a guy who claims he is and he seemed to think it was very accurate.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SlavaMalamud ... 3297265664

User avatar
thebillfella
FISO Knight
Posts: 11409
Joined: 07 Dec 2006, 13:24
Location: Republic of Mancunia
FS Record: 6th FPL 19/20; 1st TFF StartXI 14/15; 8th TFFE11; 18th TFFE12; 1st FISO TFFE11&12; 1st FISO Full Draft 12/13,14/15,19/20,20/21; 1st Block14/15; 1st 5ASChampLge 12/13; 1st TFF Super614/15; 1st Spring17; 1st FISO Div Premx6, Cup, Mirror,Prem&H2H Champ 19/20

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by thebillfella »

Russia to make its own show about Chernobyl that implicates the US

"There is a theory that Americans infiltrated the Chernobyl nuclear power plant," he told the paper. "Many historians do not rule out the possibility that on the day of the explosion, an agent of the enemy's intelligence services was working at the station."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe ... z9zsGXlMCc

There has been plenty of praise in Russia for the authenticity of Chernobyl.

Izvestia newspaper declared it a more 'realistic' portrayal of the era than most Russian films manage. There's also admiration of how the series conveys the heroism of ordinary people.

But there's been a crescendo of criticism, too. One columnist declared the show a plot to undermine Russia's current atomic agency. Others called it American 'propaganda', blackening the image of the USSR and exaggerating the callousness of the Soviet response.

No-one disputes that it's got people talking. They're been busy sharing their own Chernobyl stories on social media, with younger Russians often hearing them for the first time. So one Twitter user thanked the series for 'giving us back our history.'

In the end, as one commentator concludes, the main reason for the backlash is likely a feeling of shame that it was the US that told the tale of Chernobyl, not Russia itself.

User avatar
murf
FISO Viscount
Posts: 109449
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:28
Location: here
FS Record: Once led TFF. Very briefly.
Contact:

Re: Chernobyl and the anti-Russian slant

Post by murf »

It was my comment on that Russian version which started all this (think that got left on the original thread).

Accidental troll food

User avatar
jimmy ching
Dumbledore
Posts: 9549
Joined: 13 Oct 2005, 18:28

Re: Great TV Series

Post by jimmy ching »

forestfan wrote: 09 Jun 2019, 19:06 Yeah, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea etc... probably not only put out anti-US propaganda, but almost certainly completely block things with a pro-Western perspective.
I was in Czechoslovakia during the aftermath of the Velvet revolution. Russian soldiers were still on the street. We were staying in a students complex. Bang next to the campus was a massive radio blocking tower. Says it al really.

View Latest: 1 Day View Your posts
Post Reply

Return to “Movies, TV & Radio”