Freedom front and center in our No. 2 of America’s Most Patriotic Movies Ever!
An immigrant’s view of his frightening new freedom is what makes Moscow on the Hudson No. 2 on BestEverBuzz’s America’s Most Patriotic Movies Ever.
A bit of a sleeper, the 1984 film surprisingly has comedian Robin Williams in a largely dramatic role as a Soviet defector struggling to survive and appreciate his newfound freedom in bustling, gritty New York.
BestEverBuzz is nearly to No. 1 in our Patriotic Movies July 4th countdown, with two each day concluding here on July Fourth – with No. 1 being unveiled later today.
We hope our July 4th countdown of America’s Most Patriotic Movies Ever stirs your own sense of patriotism, lights your July 4th fireworks and inspires you to see these movies in a new light – or maybe see them for the first time.
After the countdown we’ll reveal five more patriotic movies that barely missed the cut. As for those that did make the Top 10, here are links to No. 10, to No. 9, to No. 8, to No. 7, to No. 6, to No. 5, to No. 4 and to No. 3.
Now let’s look at BestEverBuzz’s No. 2 of America’s Most Patriotic Movies Ever!
- Moscow on the Hudson (1984)
You’ll laugh, and you may just cry, in this comedy with sharp yet endearing edges starring funny man Robin Williams as a Cold War-era Soviet defector struggling not to drown in the spinning whirlpool of freedom in New York.
Set against the suffocating oppression of his KGB-infested life back home in Moscow, the lonely immigrant’s emotional battle to navigate an open ocean of opportunity in America is made all the more moving by Williams’ best dramatic performance ever.
Just when the bruised and emotionally battered Williams is about to give up on America, he sees the light – which just may be from a Fourth of July sparkler. It is the most poignant, patriotic scene ever on film.
There’s never been a more honest, more heartwarming, more patriotic take on an immigrant’s jump into the deep end of liberty. It should be mandatory viewing at the border, and certainly deserves better than critics gave it at RottenTomatoes.com.
With a hard-won Russian dialect and an affecting air of the oppressed about him, you’ll actually believe Robin Williams is Russian.
Moscow on the Hudson also features a sweet, sexy breakout performance by Maria Conchita Alonso; the ultimate tragic clown in Elya Baskin, himself a Latvian defector; and a comic turn by Moscow-born émigré Savely Kramarov – “perhaps the most beloved figure in the Soviet Union” – whose top Soviet film career was later spitefully erased from the walls of history by a vengeful regime.
Deliciously, Kramarov’s character gets the last laugh – literally.
All of this is why Moscow on the Hudson is No. 2 on BestEverBuzz’s list of the Top 10 America’s Most Patriotic Movies Ever!
