Movies - Amerika

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	Movies - Amerika

Amerika -- suggesting a Russian name for the United States -- was an American television miniseries that was broadcast in 1987. It starred Kris Kristofferson, Mariel Hemingway, Sam Neill, Robert Urich, and a 17-year-old Lara Flynn Boyle in her first major role. Amerika was about life in the United States after a bloodless takeover by the Soviet Union. Not wanting to depict the actual coup, ABC Entertainment president Brandon Stoddard instead chose to set the action of the miniseries ten years after the event, focusing on the demoralized American people a decade after the Soviet conquest. The intent, he later explained, was to explore the American spirit under such conditions, not to portray the conflict of the Soviet takeover.

Described in promotional materials as "the most ambitious American miniseries ever created," Amerika aired for 14-1/2 hours (including commercials) over seven nights, and reportedly cost $40 million to produce. The program was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, and at various locations in Nebraska -- most notably the small town of Tecumseh, which served as Milford, Nebraska, the fictional setting for most of the action of the series. Donald Wrye was the executive producer, director, and sole writer of Amerika, while composer Basil Poledouris was hired to score the miniseries, ultimately recording (with the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra) eight hours of music -- the equivalent of four feature films.

Genesis

Although claims have been made that Amerika was produced partly in response to the 1983 television film The Day After
-- which some critics felt was too pacifist and did not portray the consequences of a possible loss of American freedom -- Stoddard dismissed this view, pointing instead to a column in the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner written by attorney (and later, television personality) Ben Stein. Stein's column appeared a few weeks before The Day After aired. He wrote, in part:

:...since my dear friends at ABC-TV have made a TV movie very rightly describing the terror of an atomic attack on America, perhaps they might consider something else. Perhaps they might make a TV movie about...what life in the United States would be like if we lived under Soviet domination. Here is the idea: Let's have a movie called "In Red America." It would be about a few days or weeks in the life of several American families after the Soviet Union had taken over America.

Stoddard acknowledged that Stein's remarks provided the inspiration for the series, and Stein apparently wrote an outline or story treatment for Amerika, although he was otherwise not directly involved.

Controversy

Amerika arrived amid much controversy. Many critics and viewers felt it was too long and unrealistic, a number of people argued that it would be damaging to Soviet-American relations, and a spokesperson for the United Nations even objected to the U.N. being depicted as an occupying force under Soviet control. Some conservatives felt that Soviet brutality was greatly underplayed; conversely, a number of liberals dismissed the entire miniseries as right-wing paranoia. At various points, the program was scrapped, delayed, and rewritten.

For their part, the Soviet Union threatened to shut down the ABC News Moscow bureau, although this threat was not carried out and indeed seemed to strengthen ABC's resolve regarding the miniseries. "We’re going to run that program come rain, blood, or horse manure," said ABC president John B. Sias, after the still-to-be-aired Amerika had generated more controversy and viewer response than any other ABC program before or since, including The Day After.

Amerika was preceded by an ABC special addressing the considerable controversy prior to its airing (The Storm Over Amerika), and was followed by an "ABC News Viewpoint" panel discussion moderated by Ted Koppel, with Brandon Stoddard, Donald Wrye and several others addressing the issues surrounding the miniseries, along with questions and comments from a live studio audience in Minneapolis.

Social Criticism

Amerika criticized American society in the 1980's, implying that apathy and an unwillingness to defend freedom on the part of many citizens made the Soviet takeover rather easy. At one point, a key Soviet official observes that their plans for conquering the United States succeeded far beyond their wildest dreams, because once the nation had been defeated, Americans turned inward, not caring about national issues, seeking only to retain a piece of the prosperity that had once been theirs. "It (the Soviet coup) worked because you lost your country before we ever got here," says the Soviet leader. "You had political freedom, but you lost your passion ... How could we not win?"

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Movies - Amerika

Genesis

Controversy

Social Criticism

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