Indiana Jones vs. the Communist Party

What happened

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull took in $151 million domestically and a total of $311 million worldwide at the box office over the weekend, making it the second biggest Memorial Day weekend opening ever. (AP) But members of Russia’s Communist Party are offended by the way Russians are portrayed in the film, and are calling for a nationwide boycott of the movie. (AHN)

What the commentators said

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Someone really “needs to explain the difference between a documentary and fiction to the Communist Party," said the blog Mama Pop. What are they so worried about? “Steven Spielberg doesn’t get to create international policy.” Everyone needs to just “lighten up” and “take it easy”—after all, it’s “just a movie.”

“Is Indiana Jones trying to start another cold war?” said the blog 2snaps. It’s not surprising that “people are getting tired of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas,” they’re “out of touch with the times.” Do they “think it is the 1950s, and people are still scared by the Communist threat”? But the Communist Party really has nothing to worry about—American kids don’t “have the attention span to pay attention to a movie enough to be scarred.”

But “America has taken Jones to heart,” said Guy Adams in The Independent. “Many members of the sell-out crowds across the country were wearing leather jackets and battered hats, in tribute to Harrison Ford’s battle-scarred action hero.” But because of the Communist Party’s complaints that the movie is “insulting and historically inaccurate,” Paramount and George Lucas now “face political difficulties” in Russia, “one of the lucrative markets they still hope to crack.”