Russian Communists Say "Nyet" To Indy
Alfred Hitchcock may have put it best: "It's only a movie."
But members of Russia's Communist Party are taking the latest Hollywood blockbuster, opening around the world after its debut at the Cannes Film Festival last week, a little more seriously.
They are calling for a nationwide boycott of the new Indiana Jones movie, saying it aims to undermine communist ideology and distort history.
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" stars Harrison Ford as an archaeologist in 1957 competing with an evil KGB agent, played by Cate Blanchett, to find a skull endowed with mystic powers.
Much as the Nazis were the foils of the intrepid archeologist in earlier films of the series, Russian spies are the villains against which Jones must engage in deadly battles to keep a magical object out of their clutches, to foil their plans of world domination.
It hit Russian screens Thursday.
Communist Party members in St. Petersburg said on a Web site this week that the Soviet Union in 1957 "did not send terrorists to the States," but launched a satellite, "which evoked the admiration of the whole world."
Photos: U.S. Debut For "Indy"
Moscow Communist lawmaker Andrei Andreyev said Saturday "it is very disturbing if talented directors want to provoke a new Cold War."
Photos: Indy Storms Cannes