Eastern Europeans in Hollywood films

[sonicyouth]

Is it just me, or do many of the big Hollywood spy thriller movies have the enemies cast as eastern europeans, particularly Russians? I was watching 15 Minutes (De Niro, Burns) the other night and the 'bad guys' were a Russian and a Czech. I can't think of any others off the top of my head except for Boris in GoldenEye, but I'm sure there's plenty of films I've seen where eastern europeans have been chosen to play the evil characters.

And on an amusing note, the movie kept referring to the Czech guy in 15 Minutes as from Czechoslovakia. Don't films care about these factual inaccuracies? Made me chuckle, anyway...

 

[xane]

Prior to the fall of communism, the bad guys always came from eastern europe, way back since From Russia With Love, since that was the archetypal enemy of the western world, the modern day nazi.

Now communism only exists in a few nutcase countries (North Korea, Cuba, Hackney, etc) but the bad guys are instead from the "emerging democracies" that are plagued by gangsters and organised crime similar to America circa 1920, coincidently they are the same countries

The only alternative "bad guy" is the islamic extremist, and that's starting to become a bit political.

I predict China/Korea will soon take over as the bad guy factory, as with the last James Bond film.

 

[Furr]

But china are now the good guys!

 

[xane]

No, I mean now that the Chinese leadership has changed and the country looks like it will slide to a more democratic and more open market, so those who previously benefitted from the corruption of the old system will be forced out.

Much the same as happened in Russia.

Eventually one of them may end buying a Premiership Football Club

 

[Memphis2K]

wasn't the bad guy in xXx a Russian or from one of the former Soviet states?

but imho the Brits always make the best bad guys (whether they play British or not)