In the first half of the 1960s, Cold War tensions peaked. The Cuban crisis almost turned into a nuclear war, the USSR on the one hand and the USA on the other constantly participated in some wars and conflicts, but indirectly, already supporting one of the warring parties. It seemed that an open conflict between the two superpowers was imminent, but luckily we managed to get by without it. Those Cold War dangers were probably best parodied and satirized by Kubrick in his masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove”, and Canadian Norman Jewison also decided to parody these not-so-pleasant moments in reality. A year earlier, he became famous with the depression drama “Cincinnati Kid” with Steve McQueen, and in the next twenty years, Jewison became one of the leading Hollywood directors.
He had a total of seven Oscar nominations, including three for best director (In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof, Moonstruck) and four times for best film, since he was also the producer of all his films. He earned his first nomination for the best film precisely for this war comedy / parody / satire, which had a total of four nominations. Hal Ashby was nominated for editing, later also a respected director (Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Coming Home, Being There), who received the only Oscar for editing “In the Heat of the Night” the following year. William Rose was nominated for the adapted screenplay, who also received the only Oscar the following year for “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, while Alan Arkin was nominated for the main actor, but he had to wait another 40 years for his only Oscar and the role of the grandfather in the iconic comedy “Little Miss Sunshine”.
Arkin is the commander of a Soviet submarine that ran aground on the fictional Gloucester Island, located somewhere in New England. In order to avoid an international incident and tensions, the crew will go to the coast incognito in search of an engine that would push them out to sea, and they will reach the house where the writer Walt Whittaker (comedian Carl Reiner who won even 11 Emmy awards) with his wife Elspeth (Eva Marie Saint), nine-year-old son and daughter. The news that the Soviets are planning an invasion of this otherwise peaceful, typical American island will quickly cause complete chaos and panic among the local population.
Although the Soviet submariners do not really have any plans involving invasion and war action, it will turn into a true comedy of confusion. The locals will arm themselves and organize into local militias, there will also be fights and arguments, and from a not at all funny and pleasant situation in theory, Jewison managed to make a humorous, entertaining, anti-war film. It took a lot of courage at the height of the Cold War to actually make such a film in which the Soviets are not actually portrayed as classic villains, and although today “The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming” may seem a bit archaic, Jewison’s intention to show that Americans and Russians, if they wanted to, could live together in peace and that they are not really that different at all.