The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!

A Soviet submarine comes too close to the American coast and runs aground. To get the boat off, the commander has to find a vessel; a small party goes ashore. There is a small town on the island. The sailors knock at a house and present themselves as Norwegian seamen. Nobody believes them. The word spreads and grows by the hour: first a submarine, then a landing, then war. The townspeople arm themselves and a mobilisation begins that nobody understands. Norman Jewison directs. Carl Reiner, Eva Marie Saint, Alan Arkin and Brian Keith are in the cast. The film was made in the middle of the cold war and makes both sides equally ridiculous. Alan Arkin entered cinema with it and was nominated for an Oscar for the part. It was nominated in several categories at the Oscars, best picture among them. The matter the narrative builds is panic; nobody knows what is actually happening and those deciding have the least information. Its best sections are the townspeople arguing among themselves; the comedy comes out of the crowd scenes. The ending is conciliatory and carries a direct message. Its limit is length; the narrative is long and some sections repeat. Who it is for: anyone curious about classic ensemble comedy and the cold war period. Who it is not for: it is long, the humour has dated, and the ending is too optimistic.