Thursday, December 31, 2015

Did Chuck Norris Bring Down Communism?

Chuck Norris. YouTube

Lewis Beale, Daily Beast: How Chuck Norris Helped Bring Down Communism

At a time when travel and video players were illegal in Romania, smuggled Chuck Norris tapes gave people a window to the West.

In the 1984 Chuck Norris film Missing In Action, there’s a scene in which Norris, as a former POW who has returned to Vietnam looking for MIAs, is captured and strung upside down by Vietnamese soldiers. One ties a bag over his head with a rat in it. But when the bag is untied, they discover that instead of the rat chewing Norris’ head off, it’s Our Hero who has killed the rat by biting into its neck.

In Soviet-era Romania, they loved scenes like this.

WNU Editor: Growing up I had my share of watching "banned" western movies. And yes .... they did have a huge impact throughout the eastern bloc. People quite often were more focused on the cars, clothes/fashion, homes, and how people interacted than on what the movie was all about.

Update: Speaking of Chuck Norris .... Top 100 Chuck Norris Jokes - Facts

4 comments:

Jay Farquharson said...

WNU Editor,

What's that old Russian joke from the '90's?

What did Capitalism do in a year that Communism couldn't do in 70 years?

Make Communism look good.

Bob Huntley said...

I was in a sports store in Sherway Gardens, Mississauga long ago, before the fall of the Soviet Union, when there were international hockey games going on and the team from Czechoslovakia was in town. Some of the players were in the store and the store clerk apparently was from Czechoslovakia. I over heard part of their English
conversation which was quite short. The clerk recognized one of the players and said "Hockey. Hello. Lots of stuff eh?" the hockey player simply nodded.

When I told that to a friend with Russian back ground she told me her brother was an architect in Russia. He had designed what at one time was the largest shopping mall in Russia. He came over for a visit and she showed him Eaton's Centre and he was blown away.

A friend of mine was in junior hockey and ended up going to Europe for an international tournament. The team looked after equipment but the players still carried large hockey bags full of blue jeans to sell in countries where they weren't available.

Harold Ballard staunchly refused to let Russia play in the Gardens and in doing so he failed the West.

A lot of things led to the downfall of the Soviet Union including hockey and information. Given the net today I think the Soviet Union would have fallen earlier.

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