{"id":11020,"date":"2015-10-20T17:51:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-21T00:51:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/independentlens\/?post_type=films&#038;p=11020"},"modified":"2022-03-03T15:52:51","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T23:52:51","slug":"chuck-norris-vs-communism","status":"publish","type":"films","link":"https:\/\/dipsy.pbs.org\/independentlens\/documentaries\/chuck-norris-vs-communism\/","title":{"rendered":"Chuck Norris vs Communism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In communist Romania, thousands of Western films on bootleg VHS tapes \u2014 mostly Hollywood action movies \u00a0\u2014 were smuggled behind the Iron Curtain, opening a window into the free world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under President Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu, Romania was culturally isolated and ideologically censored. Images of life outside its borders were cut off and TV was reduced to propaganda bulletins. From the drab concrete housing blocks to the food ration lines, the threat of surveillance prevented people from stepping out of line. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But in the mid-1980s, under the nose of the Securitate, Ceau\u0219escu\u2019s secret police, thousands of Hollywood films were smuggled into the country by an underground operative named Zamfir, and they were all covertly dubbed by Irina Nistor, a courageous translator whose distinct voice captivated the nation and became a symbol of freedom. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As we see through evocative re-creations in <\/span><b><i>Chuck Norris vs Communism<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a network of secret screening rooms sprung up across Romania as families, friends, and neighbors gathered to watch action heroes like Norris, Van Damme, and Stallone, along with romantic comedies, dramas, and Hollywood epics. While the stories captured the imagination, it was the lavish settings and backdrops that mesmerized the audience. The films offered Romanians glimpses of the abundant West, which prompted the regime to clamp down on the clandestine screenings, casting an atmosphere of ever-present danger and suspicion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ilinca Calugareanu\u2019s film brings us to a time and place when films that were made for entertainment also helped spark the coming revolution.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In communist Romania, thousands of Western films on bootleg VHS tapes \u2014 mostly Hollywood action movies \u00a0\u2014 were smuggled behind the Iron Curtain, opening a window into the free world. Under President Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu, Romania was culturally isolated and ideologically censored. Images of life outside its borders were cut off and TV was reduced to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":11055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"topic":[1247,1261,1225],"class_list":["post-11020","films","type-films","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","topic-cinema","topic-human-rights","topic-politics-and-government"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chuck Norris vs Communism | Documentary about Hollywood Movies behind the Iron Curtain | Independent Lens | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chuck Norris vs Communism travels to 1980s Romania, where thousands of Hollywood VHS tapes slipped behind the Iron Curtain, opening a window into the West.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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