Cold War Cinema

The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss Grigory Chukhray's 1959 war drama Ballad of a Soldier.  Alyhosha is 19-years-old private on the Eastern Front during the Great Patriotic War (A.K.A. World War II). After destroying two German tanks, Alyosha, played by Vladimir Ivashov, is rewarded with a short leave to return home to see his mother and repair her roof. Over the next six days, the young soldier travels home across the countryside, often crossing paths with his countrymen in both mundane and profound ways: A one-legged soldier running from his wife, the wife of another private, found living with another man, and a tender vagabond girl, Shura (Zhanna Prokhorenko), who he meets while hiding out in a rail car. Throughout his quiet picaresque, Alyhosha learns about the sacrifices and tenderness of a nation torn apart by war. Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we discuss:  The film's treatment of individualism versus collective responsibility.  The train as a metaphor in both the Soviet and US contexts.  The Soviet romance versus Hollywood romances.  The Soviet treatment of nature and rural spaces in this film and others.  _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:  Paul recommends the film The Best Years of Our Lives (1946, William A. Wyler) and the book The Foreign Film Renaissance on American Screens 1946–1973 by Tony Balio. Tony recommends the book Peasants and Capital: Dominica in the World Economy by Michel-Rolph Trouillot Jason recommends the film The Forty-First (1956, Grigory Chukhray). _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.  For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.  Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com  _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian  Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).  Happy listening!

In this bonus episode of Cold War Cinema, Jason Christian is joined by the independent filmmakers Eric Marsh and Christopher Jason Bell, to discuss the films and legacy of the British filmmaker and media theorist Peter Watkins, who died on October 30, 2025, one day after his nintieth birthday. Watkins stands apart in film history for his bold cinematic vision, his innovations of the pseudo-documentary, and for his unflinching cinematic attacks on the mass media and authoritarian states. For these reasons and others, he has never been given his due in the academy or in popular culture. We discuss why this radical filmmaker is so important to us personally, and why his legacy should—and probably will—continue to grow.  _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:  Eric recommends the film Bisbee '17 (2018, Robert Greene). Christopher recommends the film Revolution Selfie (2017, Steven de Castro). Jason recommends the book Future Revolutions: New Perspectives on Peter Watkins (2018, various authors). _____________________ Find Eric Marsh's films here.  Find Christopher Jason Bell's work here. Find our previous interview with Christopher Jason Bell here.  Jason's essay on Punishment Park (1971) is found here. And his short piece on Privilege (1967) is here. (Scroll down.) _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.  And for more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.  Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com  _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian  Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).  Happy listening!

"They're here already! You're next! You're next! You're next!" The Cold War Cinema team returns to discuss the 1956 sci-fi classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Something is off in the sleepy little town of Santa Mira, California. As residents begin worrying that their family and friends no longer seem to be who they say they are, Dr. Miles Bennell and his former flame Becky Driscoll slowly uncover an alien plot to replace every person on earth with otherworldly duplicates. Directed by Don Siegel (Riot on Cell Block 11, Dirty Harry, Escape from Alcatraz) and written by Daneil Mainwaring (Out of the Past), and with uncredited work by blacklisted screenwriter Richard Collins (Song of Russia), Invasion explores myriad maladies in midcentury American culture.    Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein as we discuss:  The many complicated—and often contradictory—political allegories often read into the film from both the left and the right, including anti-communist and anti-conformist messages. The political and discursive handwringing done by Invasion's creative team to distance themselves and the film from its most potent politics. Invasion's other formal and narrative critiques of psychoanalysis, middle-class nuclear family values, professional expertise, and the Hollywood studio system. Why movies are not riddles to be solved. _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:  Paul recommends Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982, Tommy Lee Wallace). Tony recommends, The Burbs (1989, Joe Dante). Jason recommends No Down Payment (1957, Martin Ritt). _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.  For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.  Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com  _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian  Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).  Happy listening!

This week on Cold War Cinema, we look at Boris Barnet's Poet (sometimes refered to as The Poet), a 1956 feature about the role of art and literature in war and revolution.  Join hosts Jason Christian, Tony Ballas, and Paul T. Klein for a broad-ranging conversation about the film and the politics of form and style. Throughout, we consider: The challenges of context-dependent domestic filmmaking and international spectatorship How film narrative and aesthetic modes like Socialist Realism participate in the construction of national myths, imaginaries, and ideologies Barnet's dynamic use of framing, blocking, color, and light to advance Poet's plot and politics _____________________ We love to give book or film recommendations on the podcast, so here are ours for this episode:  Paul recommends A History of Russian Cinema by Birgit Beumers. Tony recommends, The Common Wind: Afro-American Currents in the Age of Haitian Revolution by Julius S. Scott. Tony emphatically does not recommend Literature and Revolution by Leon Trotsky.  Jason recommends Miklós Janscó's 1967 Hungarian war film, The Red and the White.  _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.  For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.  Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com  _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian  Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).  Happy listening!

"Are you waving the flag at me?" The Cold War Cinema team returns to look at Samuel Fuller's 1954 noir masterpiece, Pickup on South Street, with special guest Stephen Gillespie, film critic and cohost of The STACKS and I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things. When small-time thief Skip McCoy picks the wrong pocket on a busy subway car, he quickly becomes the most popular lowlife in town, trailed by crooked cops, the feds, and a Communist spy ring.  Join Stephen and hosts Jason Christian and Paul T. Klein as they discuss: Why J. Edgar Hoover hated this movie. How the film makes sense of Cold War paranoia through its critique of American ideological systems  Pickup on South Street's depiction of the down-and-out and three-time losers that populate America's urban landscapes, and how the film suggests they got there. Writer-director Samuel Fuller's provocative and ultimately idealist politics _____________________ Each episode features book and film recommendations for further exploration. On this episode:  Stephen recommends Samuel Fuller's film Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972) and Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret (2011). Paul recommends Samuel Fuller's film I Shot Jesse James (1949) and Peter Brooks' book The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of Excess. Jason recommends Samuel Fuller's film Shock Corridor (1963) and J. Hoberman's book An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War. Check out Stephen Gillespie's two podcasts, I'm Thinking of Spoiling Things and The STACKS, and read his reviews of films and video games at Step Printed (stepprinted.com). Find him on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/stephenage/. _____________________ Like and subscribe to Cold War Cinema, and don't forget to leave us a review! Want to continue the conversation? Drop us a line at any time at [email protected]. To stay up to date on Cold War Cinema, follow along at coldwarcinema.com, or find us online on Bluesky @coldwarcinema.com or on X at @Cold_War_Cinema.  For more from your hosts: Follow Jason on Bluesky at @JasonChristian.bsky.social, on X at @JasonAChristian, or on Letterboxed at @exilemagic.  Follow Anthony on Bluesky at @tonyjballas.bsky.social, on X at @tonyjballas. Follow Paul on Bluesky at @ptklein.com, or on Letterboxed at @ptklein. Paul also writes about movies at www.howotreadmovies.com  _____________________ Logo by Jason Christian  Theme music by DYAD (Charles Ballas and Jeremy Averitt).  Happy listening!