Why Rocky IV is the perfect Cold War movie

[THREAD]

The movie perfectly captures America's overinflated sense of exceptionalism...

... and how that could lead to America's downfall

It suggests that while the Soviet Union's economy was backwards...

... the government poured money into certain "status" projects, namely international sports competition

In contrast to "austere" Soviets, Americans had extravagances like (creepy) personal robots...

... I mean REALLY creepy robots (we're ALL Apollo in this scene)

A center piece of the movie is a song that accurately uses and describes the concept "rivals" in international relations (and pretty much sums up the Cold War)

There's the scene with Rocky in the car (okay, this has nothing to do with the Cold War. It's just an AWESOME scene)

Speaking of good use of music, the movie has probably the best use of a national anthem to build drama (+1 for Soviets/Russia)

But for everything the movie does to capture the Cold War zeitgeist, its best feature is accurately predicting the Cold War's "peaceful end"

Indeed, some have gone so far as to claim that the Cold War ended peacefully BECAUSE of Rocky IV (h/t to @BillSimmons back in his "Page 2" days)

http://www.espn.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/011207

This is a thesis expanded upon () a few years later (h/t @CollegeHumor). https://www.cbssports.com/general/news/watch-what-if-rocky-iv-actually-happened/

While the "Rocky I" won Oscars and "Creed" won acclaim, "Rocky IV" won the Cold War!

So much more to unpack about this movie, but you get the idea.

If you need a relatively brief and highly entertaining take on the culture of the Cold War, can't do better than Rocky IV!

[END]

P.S. h/t @jimgolby for prompting this thread https://twitter.com/jimgolby/status/1318678813635739652