user movie review

This is the third time my user review of Song of Russia has been rejected. They just say it doesn't follow the guidelines, but it won't say what guideline I have violated. It's very frustrating, because I don't know how to fix it. 

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Love Story Wrapped in Propaganda

The Song of Russia is a story of duty and love, played out just before Germany invaded the Soviet Union. John Meredith, played by Robert Taylor is a music conductor who loves Tchaikovsky and is on a tour of the Soviet Union. While in Moscow he meets and soon falls in love with Nadya Stepanova, played by Susan Peters, a young soviet woman, who happens to be an excellent classical pianist. Nadya has come to Moscow to ask Meredith to give a concert in her small village of Tschaikovskoye, where they have a music school. After four days of exploring Moscow together, Nadya falls in love with John, too. About a third of the way through the film, they get married, in a Russian Orthodox ceremony. When the war threatens Tschaikovskoye's region, Nadya knows she must go home. John's manager Hank Higgins, played by Robert Benchley, manages to get him a pass to Tschaikovskoye, but by the time he gets there the Germans have already destroyed and passed through the town.

That's the love story, but let us not forget that this is a propaganda film. It is meant to show the life of, not just Russian, but Soviet citizens as productive and happy. Remember, when this film was produced, the Soviet Union were America's allies in WWII.. Nadya's character, supposed to be a typical Soviet citizen, is grossly exaggerated. She does everything: she plays piano, drives a tractor, cooks dinner, teaches children how to make Molotov cocktails.

Susan Peters is very good as Nadya. Her dilemma is to choose between duty and love. And for her duty has the first priority. Robert Taylor is adequate as Meredith, in a less than challenging role. Most of his time on camera is conducting an orchestra, over, and over, and over, and over.... Nadya's father, played by Michael Chekhov, is the one actor whose performance stands out above the others. Her father, Ivan Stepanov, played by Michael Chekhov, continually talks to his tractor, which he names Golubchek.

The music is pleasant, but inevitably never satisfying. Academy Award winning composer Herbert Stothart adapted one Rimsky-Korsakov and 13 Tchaikovsky and works. That's a lot of time spent in the movie, and, frankly, I quit listening pretty quickly.

But this is a propaganda film, and however much it may have helped the soviets beat back the Germans, it boomeranged big time in America after the war. The House Un-American Activities Committee quickly condemned the movie as Communist propaganda. Ultra-conservative writer Ayn Rand testified before the Committee, as an expert witness, that the movie was Communist propaganda. remarkably, the movie's male star, Robert Taylor also testified before the Committee that the movie was Communist propaganda. He claimed that it was his contract with MGM and the War Production Board made him do it. He had a long history of criticizing Hollywood for it's Communist leanings, too long to be pertinent here. Make of that what you will, the Committee branded the film Communist propaganda. While the film was not officially banned, its writers Paul Jarrico and Richard Collins were both blacklisted."