Moscow on the Hudson (1984) User Reviews (61)

An entertaining and touching seriocomic tale

[mattymatt4ever · 7/10 · 24 September 2002]

My main reason for checking this movie out was because of Robin Williams. After seeing him in so many great films like "Insomnia" and "One Hour Photo" and watching his numerous hilarious talk show appearances, I've become even more curious about checking out the movies on his filmography that I have yet to see. Well, this is more than just a Robin Williams vehicle. Paul Mazursky cleverly combines comedy and drama, and expresses some good morals. He accurately portrays an immigrant's journey to America, and how he/she expects that America is a beautiful place where everyone can run free without any set limitations. It starts out as a fish-out-of-water comedy in which Russian immigrant Williams (who decides he wants to become an American citizen) explores the oddities of New York City and revels in its ambience, no matter how rough the neighborhoods are, no matter how many wackos are running around. Then he slowly learns that freedom has a price. America may be a free country, but that doesn't stop him from getting mugged and having his upstairs neighbors constantly complain about him playing his saxophone.

One thing that impressed me was rather than have a bunch of American actors don Russian accents, Mazursky actually has the actors speaking Russian to each other. Now, there are certain movies like "Schindler's List" and "K-19: The Widowmaker" in which we do see American actors speaking English and putting on foreign accents and still prove to be good movies, but it's always more engaging to see characters from a certain country speaking their native language. I mean, what if Russia were to make a movie set in America, where all the American characters were speaking Russian in American accents? How goofy would that look? I'm guessing that Williams was the only American actor in the cast, and the rest are actual Russians. I don't speak Russian, so I can't tell whether or not Williams was actually speaking Russian, but it looked convincing to me. But since mainstream American audiences have grown to hate reading subtitles, you probably won't see a movie like this released nationwide.

Robin Williams gives a terrific performance, totally disappearing into character. I was actually convinced he was a foreigner, as he speaks just like a Russian immigrant, in broken English, not articulating his words one bit. There was no sign of Robin Williams the Comedian in his character. Whenever he gets a laugh, he gets a laugh as Vladimir and not as Robin. Besides, this is one of his more serious roles and he never really plays it for laughs. Maria Conchita Alonso still sounds Cuban, as her Italian character, but she still gives a fine performance. Since I haven't seen her in any recent movies, it's nice to see her pretty face again. She was like the Salma Hayek of the 80's. Williams and Alonso have a good on-screen chemistry.

The friendship between Williams and his African-American friend, who goes as far as letting him move in with his family, is very touching. Working as a security guard at Bloomingdale's and seeing Williams wreaking havoc around the store, he starts out hating his guts. Before you know it, they're best buddies. The most touching scene is the one in which Williams leaves a jazz club, depressed after being told by a well-known jazz musician that he needs practice. He decides to throw his saxophone away and forget about being a musician altogether. His friend relates to his problem and gives him plenty of encouragement in pursuing his dream of playing the saxophone, as they get drunk and laugh their heads off. The movie stresses the outburst of immigrants in New York City, which is a melting pot society. Almost every character Williams comes in contact with is either a foreigner or a minority. Strange but undoubtedly true, if you were to examine the streets of New York. It's not unlikely to walk across a whole city block, where not one person speaks English.

The movie has no real plot structure, as it is mainly character-driven. The comedy is subtle, and arises naturally. My favorite quote from the film is when Williams says, "I bought my first pair of American shoes. They were made in Italy." That is a sample of the kind of humor in this film. I definitely suggest people check out this oldie-but-a-goodie.

My score: 7 (out of 10)

I love New York

[marcslope · 7/10 · 27 January 2007]

Manhattan looks so much more varied and gritty and real and less mall-ified than it does today in this, Paul Mazursky's 1984 love letter to the American way, and one of the last unambiguously patriotic mainstream American movies. (It's very much a product of its Reagan time, right down to the casual homophobia.) Robin Williams, for once not twinkling too hard or overworking his virtuosity or adorableness, is an Everyman Russian who unexpectedly defects in Bloomingdale's and goes on to live the immigrant experience, suffering urban indignities and romantic angst along the way. His worklife is a little easier, his economic situation a little less treacherous, and the people he meets a little nicer than they would be in real life. For all that, in its celebration of the melting pot and its warm embrace of the American urban landscape, the movie moved me to tears.

Another slice of bittersweet melancholia from Paul Mazursky...

[moonspinner55 · 7/10 · 10 December 2005]

Robin Williams is excellent as a Russian circus performer in New York City with his troupe for the first time, deciding to defect and become a U.S. citizen. After an appropriately dark, though somewhat heavy-handed opening, this comedy-drama from director Paul Mazursky suddenly finds its niche and seldom wavers. It may appear from the early parts of the picture that Williams is giving yet another of his overly-colorful, cartoonish performances, but he too gets into the groove of this project and fleshes out this charming, confounding, complicated man. Maria Conchita Alonso is wonderful as the working girl who falls for Williams (they have terrific chemistry, and Alonso has never been better). A fuzzy, friendly, thoughtful film, a bit too long but occasionally sublime. *** from ****

My released dream

[Naum · 4 January 1999]

The movie released in 1984 but I saw it only 2 years ago. I'm from former USSR and this film was prohibited in the Soviet Union.I think it's the best American film about America itself:sometimes fun,sometimes sad.It's useful especially for Russians who want to leave poor Russia for the US and release their 'Russian-American dream'.It's also the best film about the former USSR,its citizens' way of life,its lines to shops,surveillance of the KGB and many other bad things.I'm a history teacher in high school and I demonstrate this film to my young RUSSIAN students in Russian history class.Besides a very creditable performance of Robin Williams,Savely Kramarov.Very clever movie !

Early Robin Williams comedy

[faraaj-1 · 6/10 · 14 November 2006]

I first saw this film when the Iron Curtain was still firmly in place and of course it was intriguing and funny. Seeing it again, I found it quite prescient if less intriguing and funny. Robin Williams plays a Muscovite who visits the Big Apple as part of a cultural troupe. On a visit to Bloomingdales, he suddenly decides to defect (a very spin is made on this term!). The rest of the film deals with his attempts to settle in the US.

Obviously given the great political changes in the USSR and Eastern Europe since the film was released, it has aged noticeably. However, it is not entirely without merit. The big plus is obviously Robin Williams. He was and is a great actor and seems to have put in great effort on his Russian and spoken English accents. Notice the way he says "Mister". The hot, hot, hot Maria Conchita Gonzalez (Miss Venezuela 1971) plays an Italian immigrant and the love interest. The overall bent of the film is liberal - African-American families are especially realistically and positively portrayed. The central lesson of the film is that the transition from a Communist to a Capitalist mentality is not easy and the adjustment can bring great joy and sorrow. That is a very valid lesson in the largest context of the later collapse of the USSR and the painful transition ex-Soviet states are still going through.

Robin Williams: Talented (And Strange)

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 13 April 2007]

Robin Williams became famous, I think, for his stand-up comedy, like his idol Jonathan Winters, but do you realize how many movies this guy has made over the years? He's really become quite a film star and is especially good playing against-type as a criminal or simply as a wacko (see "One Hour Photo?")

Anway, this was an early Robin Williams film in which he plays a Russian musician defecting to the United States. He ("Vladamir Ivanoff") first hides out in a big store in New York City before being taken in as an immigrant by a black guy (can you say PC?) Williams does an outstanding job speaking Russian, by the way, as opposed to most English-speaking actors.

There really isn't much of a plot here, just slices of life, if you will, some of it with the usual Liberal promiscuous (i.e. "I'm a liberated woman and if I stay the night, don't misinterpret that I want to get involved with you," the Italian tells the Russian. I can think of a few more accurate descriptions that the word "liberated.")

All in all, despite the premise and talents of Williams, this was only so-so. It kind of runs out of steam halfway through and it's hard to maintain interest in the final 40 percent of it. Actually, I like Williams better when he plays more serious roles like this although I'm not sure if he himself was ready to play it straight this early in his career. He's just too tempted in this film to produce comedy. He's a talented and very strange guy; this film reflects that.

What a Country

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 18 July 2016]

Vladimir Ivanoff (Robin Williams) is a musician in the Moscow Circus. He lives with his grandfather and family. His girlfriend is looking to get married. The Soviet Union is a world of line-ups, black markets, and stagnate police state. His best friend clown Anatoly Cherkasov tells him that he's defeating during their upcoming New York performance. The KGB is monitoring them closely and Vladimir is supposed to be watching over Anatoly. In New York, Anatoly loses his nerves but Vladimir suddenly decides to defect. In Bloomingdale's, he's hiding under sales clerk Lucia Lombardo (María Conchita Alonso)'s skirt and helped by security guard Lionel Witherspoon (Cleavant Derricks). He's a fish out of water and tries to adjust to his new world.

Robin Williams delivers a performance of both drama and comedy in equal parts. It is a really human story. The defection in Bloomingdale's is fun and surprising touching. It's a solid and fun immigrant story. It's also a little long for a comedy. There are some slower spots in the middle. It would be better for Vladimir to play his sax sooner and get to his failure quicker. This is a really fine complete performance from Robin.

Underrated; good plus; I'm curious why it was rated "low"

[seajoe-1 · 7/10 · 5 August 2002]

OK, this is not the greatest movie. Doesn't probably belong in the top 250 movies ever, etc., but it's really quite good.

Paul Mazursky (sp?) is after all a very gifted and experienced moviemaker. The film's technicals are generally very good, therefore.

The biggest problem with the film is that it has too much sentimentality, that is, too much feeling that seems artificial or even fake (mawkish is a good though not often used word - it comes from the same root it seems as maggot! and denotes something that makes one nauseous!). I don't want to exaggerate negatively here. I said first that the movie is quite good and I mean it. But it does have problems with one of its main tendencies: its (main?) thrust, to show that the "freedom life" is good (and specifically in the USA). (BTW, I don't think it can be accused of excessive AmericaFirstNess on that score).

The acting is generally good to excellent, but Robin Williams who is usually good has some of his usual problems showing emotion. (He contributes a lot to the sentimentality problems.) Don't know why some people knocked Maria Conchita Alonso who I thought was real good (she's notably good at showing genuineness, in contrast to RW!) And many of the smaller parts are excellently done! Much of the movie's Soviet Russia sections are very good in *all* moviemaking respects. I note that several Russians have pointed this out.

I guess the thing gets down to the question of whether it's possible to make a great Something that's mostly about how good Freedom in the USA is. I'm not knocking the United States (although I'm pretty sure quite a few people in these post 9/11 times will, defensively, think I'm am, BUT I believe it is very difficult to make anything in art that's real positive about the US (or to argue strongly in favor of the USA) when most all of what you're showing or talking about is freedom: the US is a very green (ie, young) country that is still often juvenile, especially in "feeling its oats" too much. We didn't invent freedom or liberty and we aren't worlds better than anyone else at "doing" it, though we have been so insular through most of our history that too many of us think we are. And I'm surprised that so much of this pretty unknowing attitude comes through in a Paul Mazursky movie.

THE ONLY western movie I've seen that truly shows life in the Soviet Union

[krolikovod · 10/10 · 14 December 2002]

This is THE ONLY movie I've seen that truly shows life in the Soviet Union, which is made in the West.

This is a great movie! It really hits on why people tried to run from the Soviet Union, the oppression there and the taste of freedom in the USA. It is extremely realistic! We were ashamed at some points in the movie associating ourselves with the former fellow countrymen. But the showed THE TRUTH! All of the things shown used to happen in real life.

Robin Williams was brilliant. He spoke Russian with almost no accent, which was amazing!

I am from the Soviet Union so I know what I'm talking about. Nearly all of the rest of the movies are not more than a joke when it concerns reflecting life in Russia or Soviet Union. Even in the Air Force One (with Harrison Ford!) I was laughing like crazy when they showed supposedly Russian Prison.

So, all of you lucky to be born in freedom, please see this movie and you maybe will start thinking why you are so lucky and how exciting but difficult is to be an immigrant!

Funny and sad look at the last days of the can do American spirit

[jeremy3 · 7/10 · 5 April 2009]

This movie reminds me of how much things have changed in the last 25 years. This movie was still in the days when there was the naive and simple belief that America could be a "great place". Robin Williams brilliantly portrays the Russian circus musician who ends up defecting. Williams plays Alexander with great sensitivity and humor. Russia is portrayed almost as it was. America is not perfect. The black store security guard he meets has a family that hasn't found work in years. Alexander has to work really hard to make a new life for himself. Still, the movie had the Capra-esquire belief that a new immigrant can find happiness in America. I am sad to say that those days are gone. The idea that he and his girlfriend can work it out, and that Alexander can find success in life, has been replaced by "political correctness". Movies like Moscow On The Hudson remind us that the naive and simple days weren't really so bad. We definitely need to recapture that spirit again nowadays.

Dull

[canuck-3 · 3/10 · 6 September 2000]

Robin Williams is excellent in this movie and it is a pity the material is not enough of a match for him. This may work if you buy into the "U-S-A! Number One!" mentality but story wise nothing much happens. Quite a shame really since the movie is really trying to say something, and says it sincerely. It just doesn't pack enough emotional punch.

Williams Best Performance!

[channel_3_tv · 10/10 · 8 March 2004]

Robin Williams delivers the best performance of his storied career (yes I know he won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting) as Vladimir Ivanoff a Russian musician who takes a chance at freedom in America. Released in 1984 during the height of U.S. Russian tension, director Paul Mazursky doesn't villify Russia instead using it as an opportunity to show how similar the people are to Americans. Noteworthy performances by Maria Conchita Alonso (as his eventual girlfriend) and Cleavant Derricks (as the Bloomingdales security guard who takes an immediate liking to Vladimir). Mazursky walks the line of schmaltz at times but doesn't cross over. Especially evident in a well done scene when Vladimir finds out about the death of his beloved grandfather. Moscow on the Hudson is an often overlooked film that to me stood out as one worth watching again and again.

A True Melting Pot Film

[Falcon-51 · 7/10 · 3 June 2000]

Delightful film is one of Robin William's serious roles. He plays a Russian Circus band member named Vladimir Ivanoff that decides to seek political asylum while on tour in New York City. During a 30 minute stop in Bloomingdales he announces to a mall security guard that he is defecting. The film then follows him through a series of adventures as he becomes "Americanized." He realizes that adjusting is hard but in the end he discovers the grass really is greener. Look for strong performances by Witherspoon as the guard and by Maria Conchita Alonso as (Vladimir's) Italian girlfriend. Although meant to be a serious film there are some funny moments performed by Williams.

Outdated filmmaking

[michaeljayallen · 3/10 · 20 January 2019]

Apparently in the mid 1980's American film making could be kind of like in the 1950's. Every moment and the dialog generally feel contrived and sentimental. William's saxophone miming is totally unconvincing. Music choices under scenes are thuddingly obvious. There are a couple of very minor offensively stereotypical gay characters. The Russians shop at Bloomingdales. Why? Maybe it wasn't super expensive then? And William's character gets an apartment (OK, not a spiffy one, and only a bedroom/living room) in Manhattan with a spacious eat-in kitchen. And it's not on the street side! Why didn't he move to Brighton Beach? Anyway it was on the local PBS station and I didn't have to pay rapt attention, so worth it for some 80's NYC.

An experience of a Russian immigrant to America

[geosochi · 10 April 2002]

As a Russian immigrant myself, I related the story to myself and liked the movie a lot. For those who never had such an experience, you may start to understand how hard it is to adapt to a new culture and why do people want to migrate in the first place. Also, for those who don't get the Russian culture, this might be kind of an introduction to it. Robin Williams is great as always, and I like especially his comedic style in a semitragic movie, which makes it so much easier to watch. If you have something against new immigrants to America and don't get why they come here at all, watch this movie and you'll understand why.

Good Concept Falls A Bit Short

[sddavis63 · 6/10 · 30 December 2001]

I found that I had to think a bit about this movie to really begin to appreciate it. The initial response I had was to treat it as a mildly amusing comedy revolving around an eclectic set of characters that didn't really seem to have much of a point in the end. But there's more going on here than meets the eye at first. The whole movie revolves around the concept of freedom, and how freedom is defined. Produced at the height of the Cold War, I took from this movie a statement that freedom is about much more than a political system.

The first part of the movie deals with Vladimir Ivanoff's (Robin Williams) life in the Soviet Union. Protesters are arrested, Ivanoff is threatened by the KGB for no reason other than that he has an eccentric grandfather and people line up for blocks to buy toilet paper or shoes that don't fit. From what I've read, that's probably an accurate description of life in the USSR. But it isn't as bleak as it seems. Ivanoff has a family he loves, a girlfriend who loves him and wants to get married, and he can pursue his passion of saxophone playing with the Circus. Most important - this guy doesn't want to defect, and he tries to convince his best friend Anatoly (Elya Baskin) not to defect either, when the Circus visits New York City.

The second part of the movie is set in New York. On the spur of the moment, Vladimir defects - at Bloomingdale's. He hadn't planned to. It just happened. Asked by an FBI agent why he was defecting, he answered simply "freedom." And now we begin to learn about freedom. Vladimir tries to make connections. His best friend becomes a black store security guard named Lionel (Cleavant Derricks). Lionel's family parallels Vladimir's (right down to the eccentric grandfather), but it isn't Vladimir's family. Lucia (Maria Conchita Alonso) becomes Vladimir's love interest, but she doesn't want to commit. He can't even play the sax. He waits tables, drives a taxi, becomes a street hawker - all ultimately unsatisfying. For me the most poignant part of the film comes in a coffee shop, in a discussion among the various immigrants. They misquote the Declaration of Independence, and say that the "inalienable rights" of human beings are "life, liberty and happiness." But Thomas Jefferson didn't say that. He said "the pursuit of happiness." Here is where I really began to see the film as a sort of satire about freedom. To be politically free without having one's basic human needs met is ultimately not freedom.

It's an interesting statement. Unfortunately, the movie itself is not that interesting. That's the basic problem. It has the potential to be powerful, but just doesn't rise to that potential. Why? Too much emphasis was put on the immigrant nature of New York City, for one thing. That became - to me - something of a running joke, and I started wondering what the next accent would be rather than following the story. For a movie that tries to make a powerful statement (and a gutsy one, given the political climate of the time) it just came across as too "light" - the sort of movie that you feel you could miss twenty minutes of and step right back into without trouble. The nude scene with Maria Conchita Alonso in the bathtub with Robin Williams (Williams hands roving all over her body) also struck me as in bad taste and exploitative - totally unnecessary to the story.

Anyway, not bad. Once I took the time to think about it I decided to move it up a couple of notches in my estimation. 6/10. Unfortunately, it could have been so much better.

Forgettable 80's comedy worth watching.

[imbluzclooby · 6/10 · 24 July 2013]

I remember seeing this when I was in high school with my father. We laughed a couple of times and may have cheered for the Ivan character at his liberating choice to defect, but the overall movie was pretty shallow and didn't explore it's liberally slanted memes.

The purpose of this movie is predicated on a joke that gets repeated over and over again. The joke is - let's have Robin Williams imitate a Russian immigrant and have him walk around a wild city like New York and see what happens. Yes, I admit that premise would be more interesting than if he took a trip to rural Texas or Wyoming. New York, with all of its outlandish and colorful sights may provoke much wonder in a wide eyed soul who is inexperienced to such stimuli. So the movie supplants itself in this premise and exploits it to unrealistic and sometimes silly parodies. I thought Moscow on the Hudson worked better as a parody, but when it tried to overreach as a meaningful commentary on American life and morals, it lost its momentum and fell flat.

Also, a movie increases its appeal and intrigue when it inserts a beautiful and sexy love interest. Maria Conchita Alonso fulfills that promise. I thought their meet cute was okay and I was willing to go along for the ride in Ivan's American experience, but she is sort of treated as an object of desire who is romantic, but also capable of stereotypical tantrums and resistance. There is also an unflattering scene with Williams and Alonso in a bathtub where he is rubbing his hands over her breasts and expressing his prurient desires. Unfortunately, he ends up looking like a lecherous pervert. Both of them look tawdry in that scene and it also ruined his likability for his character who is supposed to come off as a sweet soul. The friendship between Ivan and his Black American friend looks forced as well. Mazursky inaccurately portrays the Black American family as being a family of goodwill and munificence.

I know there are some political undertones to Moscow on the Hudson and they are really inoffensive inasmuch as they allow us to make up our own mind. There are a few funny moments that I will not mention. This is not a great movie by any means. I would never consider it a cornerstone masterpiece of Cultural studies. It is simply a comedy that makes a feeble attempt to be serious.

Moronic Hollywood propaganda

[gbryl · 6/10 · 17 August 2014]

Just found out about this movie and watched it as a result of the untimely death of Robbin Williams.

I lived in the Soviet Union until I was 23, and I don't understand those reviewers saying that this movie accurately portrays life in the SU.

First, the bus is totally un-SU, has those metal loops hanging from the horizontal metal bar handles, a typical American bus, not a Soviet bus, which is immediately obvious to the naked eye. This is minor, though.

Nest, there are the toilet paper line scenes, which are totally lame. We would use napkins or newspaper as toilet paper in SU, but we didn't have the long lines do buy toilet paper as the movie claims to project.

Then there's a reference to Russian women having a mustache, which is totally ridiculous. Another piece of retarded cold-war American propaganda. Anyone who's been to the SU or Russia knows that Russian women are 10, 20, no 100 times hotter than their American counterparts (over 50% of which are statistically obese to say the least). Not to mention American women's attitude that has resulted in American men being the #1 men by country to marry foreign women. Enough said.

In general, each country, the SU and the US, had positives and negatives about living there. But life in the SU was superior after all (I left SU only after it broke up in 1991). People in the SU had far more of the one precious resource that Americans could only dream of having (and still do): TIME. People in the SU had a roof over their head, food, and other basic necessities of life, while at the same time having a ton of free time, including time to pursue their dreams and hobbies. That is why the arts (ballet, literature, etc.) were so developed in the SU compared to the US: people actually had time on their hands to pursue those interests and hobbies. The US was, and still is, a bunch of debt slaves that live thinking how to make enough money to pay the next set of their bills, and have no time for real life.

Not to mention that American kids grew up (and do even more so now) inside, seeing nothing but virtual reality, playing computer games, etc., while we in the SU were free to play out in the street all day long without being worried about drugs, psychos, kidnappers, etc. At age 10, I could take a train to a different city to go to a market to buy parts for building a personal computer, for instance. Good luck doing that in the U.S. which doesn't even have a transportation system to this day. And I never heard about drugs until the SU broke up.

Ultimately, no society is perfect, but a good part of this movie is just a bunch of cheap propaganda. Of course, some people would defect from the SU, but so did people from the States (look up Dean Reed, for instance).

I liked the line "I have not had a job for 8 years. Welcome to the USA!" Sounds like things have not progressed much in the USA since 1984 when this movie was made....

Anyway, travel the world, people, and draw your own conclusions before you buy the bullsh!t that your government feeds you. Goes the same for both Russia and the U.S., as well as any other country... If you think of watching this flick, opt for Goodwill Hunting instead, even if it would be a re-run for you.

sweet film about immigrants in America

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 4 September 2005]

Robin Williams is a Russian musician who defects in Bloomingdale's in "Moscow on the Hudson," a film directed and co-written by Paul Mazursky. This is a warm, funny yet melancholy film about the experiences of immigrants trying to adjust to American life, focusing mainly on Robin Williams as Vladimir. Williams is excellent in depicting the wonder, the loneliness, the sadness, and the paranoia he experiences in his new country. He meets many other immigrants who have been in the U.S. for a longer time, including Maria Conchita Alonso, who plays an Italian salesgirl with ambitions of becoming a newscaster, and his immigration attorney, Alejandro Rey, in a marvelous performance. Once the honeymoon is over, Vladimir has to come to terms with never seeing his family again, the frustration of not yet being able to find work as a musician, the mean streets - and Russia starts to look good to him.

This is a wonderful movie that depicts what newcomers to our country go through as they adjust to life here and gives one a new respect for our ancestors and for those immigrants we meet today.

A wonderful movie

[Soledad-2 · 10/10 · 19 November 1999]

I cannot understand why this movie has received such a low rating of 6.2. I love Robin Williams when he is funny and also when he is serious. He is the best of actors and his performance in Moscow on the Hudson, as a Russian musician, is awesome. Cuban-born Maria Conchita Alonso also gives an excellent performance as the Italian young lady who falls in love with Williams. My recommendation: don't wait any longer, rent Moscow on the Hudson. You'll cry, you'll laugh, and you'll appreciate freedom. No matter how risky freedom could be, it's the only opportunity to be yourself.

A charmingly patriotic film

[KnightsofNi11 · 7/10 · 28 August 2011]

An actor as iconic as Robin Williams playing a Russian? Could it work? You wouldn't think so but the splendid little flick Moscow on the Hudson makes it work. Robin Williams stars as a Russian saxophone player named Vladimir Ivanoff. Vladimir and the circus troupe he performs with take a trip to the United States in to perform. While there, Vladimir makes the spontaneous decision to defect while in Bloomingdale's. He manages to get away with it and is left in the states. There he makes friends, looks for work, and learns why America is the greatest country in the world. The film doesn't come without its cheese, but there's something so charming and lovable about the film that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

First thing's first, Robin Williams is as good as ever in this flick. He sports an impressive Russian accent throughout the film and about a quarter of his dialogue is actually in Russian, a language you would think he was already fluent in with how well he spoke it. Plus, the character of Vladimir Ivanoff is wonderfully lovable and it's a joy to watch his character progress and mature. Moscow on the Hudson at first starts out with the goofy and confused foreigner who doesn't know what he's doing, but it slowly moves away from that cliché as it makes Vladimir into a real character, rather than a gimmick. He is perfectly believable and goes through a progression that I can buy into. The film deals with the overwhelming nature of America for a foreigner, and it hits on some great points that go along with these ideas. Watching as Vladimir copes with the bustling New York City life is entertaining as well as touching and charming. We feel all of his excitement, anxiety, and even pain as he struggles with such a drastic change in lifestyles.

Now, as interesting as the character development of this film might be, it is served with a heaping side of fresh cheese. There are some undeniably silly moments of the film where it begins to take itself a little too seriously and goes too much of a clichéd route to get a point across. I understand that one of the central themes of this film is America as the greatest country in the world, despite all of the problems, but this point is driven a little too exaggerated at points. There is one particularly eye-roll worthy scene on the fourth of July when Vladimir and other immigrants are quoting the Declaration of Independence and other parts of the Constitution inside a café, showing how we can all come together and put aside our differences. I found this to be a little too obvious and melodramatic and wished the film would have toned down some of the cliché in spots. However, it didn't keep me from really enjoying the majority of this film.

I didn't have a clue what to expect going into Moscow on the Hudson, but I'm very glad I watched it. I probably wouldn't sit through it again, as I got everything I needed out of one viewing. This is a fun film with great characters and fantastic performances. It delivers a sincere, albeit clichéd, message that makes the film a little more than just another silly foreigner in America film. Plus, putting this film in context makes it all the more important. This is a Cold War era film that really pushes a message of peace and love, and I give it undying respect for that. It shows that we can get along if we just try, while also exemplifying that America stands to be the nation of peace and acceptance. Whether that is true today is up in the air, but that's a whole different topic. The fact of the matter is, Moscow on the Hudson is a pleasant little film that is well worth a one time watch.

Poor propaganda movie

[evalipay2002 · 1/10 · 10 March 2019]

The guy who was the head of de urity at the end is selling hotdogs and thanks robin williams for defecting?

For freedom?

Freedom belongs to people with full stomach.

I am annoyed to have spent time to watch this movie.

Ok start, good points about Williams doubts and then: sudden happy ending for absolutely no reason!

An Eighties-style take on American freedom's superiority to totalitarianism

[flesch-3 · 8/10 · 14 October 2006]

Moscow on the Hudson is a fabulous example of a pretty-good movie chock full of 1980s artifacts like Jordache jeans, feathered hair-dos and Afro Sheen, that is often surprisingly interesting, sensitive and even occasionally profound -- especially on the level of the victory of the individual soul over totalitarianism, and the defense of American capitalism against Marxism.

This film brings back a flood of cultural memories of the Eighties, the decade immediately preceding the collapse of the Soviet Union, a time in the United States when our political and cultural self-esteem matched our economic prosperity. It doesn't hurt that this movie stars a young bearded Robin Williams with heart (and Russian soul!) and a really cute and occasionally nude young Maria Conchita Alonso (a real-life Venezuelan immigrant) full of Italian passion and an ambitious independent spirit.

Only in the early 1980s could blue jeans from Bloomies, velvety white toilet paper, supermarket coffee, studio apartments, hot-dog stands, cab-driving jobs, and U.S. citizenship ceremonies be portrayed as symbols -- indeed even weapons -- of democratic capitalism in a world still governed "from Stettin on the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea" by the totalitarian evil against which President Ronald Reagan called a crusade two years earlier in his famous 1982 Evil Empire speech to the House of Commons.

The political content of the movie is startlingly black-and-white by today's standards of multiculturalism and moral relativism when many academics defend dictatorships' "sovereign right" to exist, and so the offhand manner with which at every turn the film's writers Paul Mazursky and Leon Capetanos deliver praise to political liberty, capitalism and America's unique cultural acceptance of immigrants dedicated to the pursuit of happiness is remarkable. While the way in which their praises are conveyed may from time-to-time seem a little cheesy, sentimental or dated, their profound significance is not diminished.

Exactly because capitalism is an economic system as well as a social system, Robin William's character is portrayed as a Russian seeking a remedy for his literal physical hunger and basic financial requirements of life that socialism fails to satisfy. His Russian friend, played wonderfully by Elya Baskin, suffers from socialism's other often dramatized evil -- its humiliating and paralyzing effect on an individual's creative mind and psychology. Perhaps it is precisely because the film's focus is on Williams' character that Moscow on the Hudson at times comes off as exhibiting the over-the-top 1980s commercialism that made it popular then and a little startling in today's Greener age.

Russophiles can get a kick out of some of the Russia scenes. Highlights include the drab Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoi Boulevard including full-figured women in polyester; sour old babushkas enforcing their place in line; and shoe vendors pushing the wrong sizes. They might also find some treatment of Soviet atrocities like sending war protesters to mental institutions, or neighbors reporting dissidents to the KGB a bit trite, but not inaccurate. Such horrors are no less relevant in Putin's Russia of today (October 2006), where the most recent contract killing of independent politicians, businessmen and intellectuals is journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

While I've focused on the political content, this movie is not primarily a political piece, but a love story; and not primarily a love story, but a romance of personal initiative -- of immigrants who choose to reject the oppressive circumstances they left behind and to seize the chance to pursue their material survival and eventually, individual happiness. The aims of the film are high, maybe even too high at times for this light film to be able to achieve fully; but it is definitely touching and fairly deals with the array of issues every immigrant faces on a variety of levels. I personally found the love relationship between Williams and Alonso to be touchingly realistic at times; and the individualistic focus of this film to be refreshing, as well as a shocking reminder of how inappropriately self-conscious the American media has become in publicly asserting the universal truth and appeal of its core principles: freedom and capitalism.

Hard to believe there was a time when Robin Williams did not go crazy during his roles.

[Aaron1375 · 7/10 · 29 May 2012]

Usually when I think Robin Williams I think of him going off the handle and yelling wildly and stuff such as that. However, in this film where he plays a Russian who defects to the United States during the height of the cold war he actually does so in a more calm manner than I am used to seeing him. He does a Russian very well here, and less crazy like the one he portrayed in Nine Months (though do not remember if he was Russian in that one). In this film he plays a musician in Russia who defects when he sees his friend taken by the KGB. Most of the film is him struggling to adjust to the United States way of life, which is vastly different than what he is used to and not all that it was advertised to be. It is funny at times, and it gets dramatic too. It is also a fairly long film for a comedy with a nearly two hour running time. Still, for the most part it is a funny and entertaining film and it does show a person the phenomenon known as culture shock as this person goes from a place where one has to wait in lines for everything to a place where there is no such restrictions. However, he also goes from a place where there is virtually no crime to a place that is fraught with it. So it kind of looks at things in many different ways.

A complete different side to Robin Williams! 5/10

[leonblackwood · 5/10 · 23 August 2014]

Review: After the sad passing of Robin Williams, I thought that I would catch up in his older movies. I really enjoyed this film which shows a different side to his versatile acting style. This is a more serious side to his character, about a Russian who defects to New York after a trip to the big apple with the circus. There are a lot of political sides to the storyline which have a lot of similarities to everyday life in this day and age. Robin Williams put in a great performance, along with the other characters who make the movie realistic and quite funny in some parts. It's also a heart warming story which proves that determination and a little bit of guts can make you achieve your dreams. Enjoyable!

Round-Up: After following Robin Williams career over the pass years, this is definitely a movie which shows that the man can really act. His Russian accent was brilliant and I liked the way that the black family took him in, regardless of his political views and his colour. The movie does look quite dated because it came out in 1984, but the storyline is timeless and I'm sure that everyone can relate to the many different situations which Williams character comes across. Anyway, it's definitely worth a watch, just to see Williams in a different light.

Budget: $13million Worldwide Gross: $25million

I recommend this movie to people who are into there comedic dramas about a Russian defecting to America after travelling with the circus and visiting Bloomingdales. 5/10