War Movies Blog

While 1960s were rather bad times for American cinema, stuck between disaster movies and musicals, war movies were doing just great, mostly due to Cold War tension and the World War 2 nostalgia. Ice Station Zebra is one of the shining examples of that theory - thriller set aboard the nuclear submarine travelling to North Pole area in secret mission.

Cold War was a time in which, seemingly, nothing was going on - both sides were building up their arsenals, improving their offensive and defensive capabilities, but there were no direct fires shot. But that was just the public side of the conflict - backstage Cold War was constant struggle, on both sides, not to go an inch too far and start the open conflict. But also it was constant struggle not to show your secrets or weaknesses, which lead to paranoia and situations like the one showed in K-19: The Widowmaker.

In 1970s Poland was still in the Warsaw Pact, the zone of Soviet influence, which was in a way form of occupation (Soviet army was present in all the countries of Warsaw Pact). This situation combined with repression towards the citizens lead to the birth of Solidarnosc (Solidarity), which in 1981 changed the face of Eastern Europe, and later the whole world.

What is the best way to present a thriller about genuine danger that could end all life on Earth within hours? Yes, you guessed it - by using Matthew Broderick as boy-genius and home-grown hacker and Ally Sheedy as girl-next-door, who for some unknown reason decides to hang around with him. Well, it wouldn’t be my personal choice, but obviously back in 1983 this was the best that Hollywood could do.