Mission to Moscow [DVD] [1943] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Wow!

History has not been kind to Stalin - we are finally seeing him for the brutal despot he was (arguments to necessity aside, the human cost for his vision of the Soviet Union far exceeded the claims of even his harshest critics).

And history has not been kind to Ambassador Joseph Davies either.

"Mission to Moscow" is classic propaganda, a Hollywood effort to bring Americans around to supporting FDR's desire for a WWII U.S. partnership with the Soviet Union. Seen from 60 years further on and the advantage of hindsight (as opposed to the real worry and uncertainty of the day), this movie is both a hoot and a tragedy. In getting this film made, FDR showed why no one in recent American history can top him as our American "Prince." The film's narrative of world events is so simplistic, so wrong, and so manipulative as to be nothing less than grossly offensive, condescending, and extraordinarily cynical. The stereotyping is so extreme as to be racist, the pro-Soviet angle so extreme as to be... well, is there a word that means "so naive as to defy any explanation of reality"? "Capitalism" is an opportunistic, amoral enemy; FDR's Republican opponents are God-less atheists. The movie is one long visit to a Russian Alice's Wonderland - a surreal 123 minutes of agitation-propaganda (I need to recheck the credits to see if Stalin supplied someone from his Agit/Prop Ministry to advise the producers/director...)!

The dupe for the the rest of history in both print and film is clearly Ambassador Joseph Davies. If he truly believed what he wrote in his memoirs, he must rank as one of the most clueless men in (modern) history. FDR picked well - Davies sees himself as a humble public servant whom FDR wisely entrusts to be the President's eyes and ears in the Soviet Union. But Davies is actually nothing like his self-perceived image. He is ultimately ill-prepared to be an objective observer, as his arrogance, ignorance, and self-righteousness make him FDR's perfect fall guy. Davies must be the most thoroughly "played" public official in U.S. diplomatic history. Despite his claims of being an impartial, objective observer, Davies was nothing more than a tool who saw what he was told to see and reported what he was told to report.

For me, the four best moments in the film come from a) Davies - chiding his embassy officials for criticizing Soviet bugging of foreign embassies (after all, how will the Soviets learn to trust us unless they can listen to our most private conversations and see we mean them no harm), b) from Davies again - helping the officially atheist Soviet Union is the Christian thing to do, c) from Bukharin (during the Purge "show trials" section) - waxing (ultimately ironically) poetic about the meaning of facts and reality, and d) the closing song - which ever-so-helpfully cites Genesis and reminds us that we are, in fact, our brothers' keepers. I wanted to pause the movie and see if there was a Lincoln Brigade in the area willing to accept my enlistment!

The naiveté of the 1930s was sad, but understandable and thus, perhaps excusable. The willful arrogance of Davies is none of these. Thus, the movie and the irony of it all is pathetic, but perversely delicious. Given the myriad domestic and international difficulties Roosevelt faced (or believed he faced) in seeing the war through to a favorable U.S. outcome, I suppose FDR felt justified pulling no punches and using whatever tricks up his sleeve to do whatever he saw necessary. "Mission to Moscow" (both the memoir and this movie) helps us to understand just how far FDR was willing to go in deceiving the American electorate to accomplish just that.

Even though the "puppet" is deaf, dumb, and blind (and Davies was abundantly blessed in all three categories), it is the truly gifted "prince" who ensures blame falls on the puppet and not on the puppet master. And in the 60 years since FDR's monumental effort to deceive the U.S. public with regard to the Soviet Union, he still looks good - FDR's legacy remains intact. Davies, on the other hand, will be remembered as the consumate tool and the complete fool. Yes, Machiavelli would have been very proud of Mr. Roosevelt.

And is that Confucius in the role of Kalinin...?

It's pro Soviet, from the book written by our Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph Davies, 1937-39. It's fictionalized, psuedo-docudrama. Unless you believe the Soviet show trials, which Davies witnessed, & killed & imprisoned millions were fair & just. I'm not sure that Ambassador Davies himself believed everything he wrote. But he was a minion of Franklin Roosevelt & FDR got what he wanted. Perhaps there was method to FDR's madness. Long range, before the war, FDR might have figured that one day we would be fighting the Nazis. Having an ally in the east tying up Hitler seemed like a good idea. That was a bumpy ride for five years until we entered the war. It included the Soviet non-aggression pact with Nazi-Germany & the invasion of Finland, an independent, free nation. FDR never figured out Stalin. For the man that handled everyone he never got Stalin. Churchill knew & later Harry Truman immediately knew he was a man you could not do business with. Warner Brothers was prevailed upon to make a movie based on Davies book. It starred Walter Huston & is very good. It is the subject which we view today as maddening. What was seen by many as a patriotic act by Warner Brothers, in 1942 was seen as treasonous five years later by a very hypocritical Congress. Life in the Soviet Union was not couragous & glorious as portayed in the movie. It is however an important & informative propaganda piece viewed from the distance of so many years. Nazi Germany does not exist. The Soviet Union does not exist & The British Empire does not exist. In many ways neither do we. The movie has a little extra by the real Joseph Davies. I'm so glad the dvd is finally being released.

As has been thoroughly substantiated by now-open Soviet police archives, this movie is the moral equivalent (or maybe immoral equivalent) of The Birth of A Nation, which glorified the KKK. Exceeded only by Mao (who had more people to work with), Stalin's reign of terror reveled him to be a severe paranoid possessed of a ruthlessness that is breath taking to contemplate. I am frankly appalled at the number of people who think highly of this ultimate Thug (in the real sense of the word, a dedicated member of the cult of death). His own hacks killed him because they knew he was planning another purge (at which THEY would have been toast) and an invasion of the West, which would have led to the utter destruction of half the world (their half at the time).

The Left has long dominated Hollywood--this whitewash, which in the end turns Bukharin (now redeemed by the new Russia) into a traitor and Stalin into a wee nebbish of a fellow,this whitewash is appalling. I use it in the history classes I teach as the essence of a cover up , exceeded only by The Triumph of the Will.