Abstract

A key theme of Cold War cinema in the US has been the projection of difference between Russians and Americans.These tendencies have continued to manifest in the latest strain of Cold War cinema. In this article, I examine two examples of recent Cold War film which also constitute part of another increasingly prominent format within popular cinema, the female-centred action thriller. Atomic Blonde (Leitch, 2017) is a stylised period piece which depicts a tough, street-smart American undercover agent outmanoeuvring and outlasting regressive, misogynistic KGB agents (along with their British counterparts) in Berlin. Red Sparrow (Lawrence, 2018) updates the setting to the modern day, but the familiar tropes of Hollywood’s imagining of Cold War Russia remain conspicuous: the state is omnipotent and all-controlling, its corrupt officials and security apparatus wielding their repressive power ruthlessly against civilians. One particular area of interest here is not just in the familiar forms of dehumanisation invoked to reinforce the inherent othering of the rival nation, but also in how Hollywood interpolates the ostensibly progressive image of the self-reliant female action hero in working to shore up perceptions of institutions such as the CIA.