Soviets don’t like ‘Rocky’

Press, 25 January 1986, Page 11

Soviets don’t like ‘Rocky’

NZPA-Reuter Washington The director of the United States Information Agency, Charles Wick, said yesterday that Soviet leaders were outraged over anti-Soviet Hollywood films like “Rocky IV.” On the recent rash of chauvinistic, anti-Soviet United States films like “Rocky IV,” “White Knights” and “Red Dawn,” Mr Wick said of his Soviet counterparts: “They expressed outrage.” “They felt that these movies in some way reflected the attitude and posture of the American Government,” he said. Mr Wick said he had told the Russians that this was not so and pointed out there were any number of Soviet films which painted the United States in a distorted light. “Amerika,” the television movie that Moscow wanted killed, has survived political pressure and the production will go ahead. “In light of the inherent dramatic quality of the material, the decision to present ‘Amerika’ was an easy one,” said the president of A.B.C. entertainment, Mr Brandon Stoddard. Political pressure suggested otherwise. The Soviet Union wanted the project cancelled in the name of detente, then a Reagan Administration official said production should go ahead in the name of freedom.