Mediaboss Marketing

By Alexandru Ionita/Amazon Prime Video.

In a hushed tone, Channing Tatum urges me to watch as much propaganda as you can possibly find. After a beat, he lets out a laughbut really, hes serious.

Tatum stars and is executive producer of Amazons Comrade Detective, an eerily timely satire of Romanian Communist propaganda. Created by Brian Gatewood and Alex Tanaka, with director Rhys Thomas, the six-episode cop drama was brought to Tatum when he asked the creative team to give him their worst idea. As he explains, When you try to find something that is not working, you figure out whats cool about it, and you can find some really hidden gems.

The initial idea, Gatewood says, was to take actual Communist propaganda and dub it with English dialoguelike a TV version of Woody Allens Whats Up, Tiger Lily? When obtaining the rights to Cold War-era television proved difficult, they decided to film their own faux propaganda, complete with a strong 80s aesthetic.

After filming with Romanian actors, they dubbed the series with the vocal talents of an all-star cast. Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (dubbing for actors Florin Piersic Jr. and Corneliu Ulici) star as the loyal Communist cops; other voices include Jenny Slate, Jason Mantzoukas, Nick Offerman, Mahershala Ali, Chlo Sevigny, Jerrod Carmichael, and Fred Armisen, to name a few. The series begins with footage of Tatum and author Jon Ronson, who present the series as a recently unearthed archival treasure.

After delving deep into the archives of Cold War propaganda, Gatewood and Tanaka took inspiration from hits like the Czechoslovakian classic Thirty Cases of Major Zeman. When creating their homage to shows created behind the Iron Curtain, Rhys explains, We werent going in with the mindset that we were Westerners making fun of Communism. We always tried to make sure that, no, no, were the Communist filmmakers.

As Gateway says, We grew up in the 80s, watching Red Dawn and Rocky IV and all these filmsnot really knowing as kids that we were essentially watching propaganda. Tatum recalls a youth where every movie had a Russian bad guy. Showing the reverse, though, is both hilarious and really poignant right now.

The series effectively satirizes both Communism and capitalism while maintaining expertly stylized cinematography, replicating a time when propaganda was overt and clear. Now, of course, such machinery has grown more sophisticated; the shows creators note that propaganda has become more obscured, subliminal, and subtle. Gatewood hopes the show will help viewers reflect more on the power of propaganda, and how its seamless in society todayeven as they enjoy a comedic cop thriller populated by characters who say Monopoly is dangerous, think baseball is boring, and have nightmares about young children chanting, I want my MTV.

Gordon-Levitt compares the series to ideas media theorist Neil Postman presented in his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death, which examines the negative effects of television on politics. What [George] Orwell feared were those who would ban books, Postman wrote. What [Aldous] Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism . . . In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

At the end of the book, Gordon-Levitt explains, Postman does say, look, the way to deal with this is to just get people to understand it. Television doesnt have to be harmful if people [are] aware of the way it is manipulative, if they were aware that you literally cant communicate well-reasoned arguments and ideas through television by virtue of the medium.

Comrade Detectives second day of shooting in Romania was November 9, the day after Donald Trump was elected presidentwhich further fueled the teams ambitions for the series. It was such a weird thing, to walk on set and have them do Communist propaganda, Rhys says. The election results definitely, to me, solidified what were doing. It focused us in a different way. Not that it changed much, but there was a slightly different energy towards what we were doing.

The Romanians on set asked the American producers how they could let Trumps election happen. Theyre so used to propaganda, Gatewood says, that they couldnt understand how a majority of Americans had been duped by propaganda masquerading as something elsefake news, senseless slogans about making our country great again, and the rampant proliferation of alternative facts.

Neil Postmans solution was to promote understanding through exposure. And while Gordon-Levitt doesnt see Comrade Detective as a direct parallel to what Postman suggests, he does think that satirizing propaganda is a great way to draw attention to it. In hindsight, you can look back at the way that propaganda worked and see, oh, well, those same mechanisms are still in place. The same things are happening. They have different flavors now . . . They are different labels that get demonized, but theyre still the same kind of finger-pointing used to the advantage of power-grabbers. As Rhys adds, Looking at old propagandas probably a useful exercise. But its too late.

All we can do now, then, is laugh in our misery. Tatum suggests that while Comrade Detective does open up a thoughtful discussion on propaganda, at heart, it really is a comedy: Theres a lot going on way underneath it, but on top theres just entertainment . . . Im thinking of Make Em Laugh, the classic Singin in the Rain song his co-star Gordon-Levitt memorably performed on Saturday Night Live. You gotta make em laugh, and make people listen, and keep them entertained . . . [and] I just really wanted to do a TV show that showcased the fashion in Romania in the 80s.

I think every parent has that moment where theyre like, Oh, maybe this was a bad idea; we dont know how to do this, Tatum says.

Channing Tatum, photographed on the back lot at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California.

For a while Im going to try to make movies that, even if they dont make a dollar, Ill still be so proud to be a part of them that it wont matter, Tatum says.

The July 2015 cover of Vanity Fair.

PreviousNext

I think every parent has that moment where theyre like, Oh, maybe this was a bad idea; we dont know how to do this, Tatum says.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

Channing Tatum, photographed on the back lot at Warner Bros. Studio in Burbank, California.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

For a while Im going to try to make movies that, even if they dont make a dollar, Ill still be so proud to be a part of them that it wont matter, Tatum says.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

The July 2015 cover of Vanity Fair.

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz.

Originally posted here:
What the Hell Is Comrade Detective - Vanity Fair