Chuck Norris vs. Communism

A documentary about the magic of film and the power it has to change lives.

This is a strange film where the Romanian government sees the hidden messages in cartoon balloons and images of grocery stores, which obviously were never intended by the creators. This is both a commentary on political suppression, but also (inadvertently) a critique of artistic criticism. So many see so much in books and film that the creators clearly never meant.

The focus of the film is on the subculture of people who watched VHS tapes smuggled in to Romania, giving them glimpses of Western culture (primarily American). It seems they were especially drawn to action films and the movies coming out of the Cannon Group. Exactly why this is, I do not know.

But we also get to meet Irina Margareta Nistor, the woman who dubbed more than 3000 of these tapes. The translation of the swear words is pretty funny, and not completely isolated. Anyone who watches a movie in a foreign language they can understand will notice the subtitles are almost always a bit off.