Matthew Howe writes:
As TTAG has documented many times, Hollywood isn’t particularly friendly to civilian gun rights. Despite their utterly hypocritical reliance on guns and gunplay to line their own pockets they tend to vocally appose the right to keep and bear arms by the population as a whole. Yet, in 1966, Canadian director Norman Jewison (never known for his right-wing beliefs) made a film called The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming. It’s a cold war comedy about a Soviet spy sub which runs aground off the coast of Massachusetts. The Russian crew infiltrates the local community trying to steal a boat big enough to drag the sub off the sandbar. Hilarity and social commentary ensue . . .
Yet it’s the climax of the film, in which the submarine’s captain faces off against the gunned-up residents of Gloucester Island, that might just be the best example Hollywood has ever filmed showing the advantages of an armed civilian population. Was that the intent of the filmmakers, or a happy (for us) accident?
What would the Entertainment Industries Council have to say if this flick were made today? I’m guessing more exploding heads than Scanners.