Rocky IV a Christmas Film

Every Christmas season, the debate begins over a slew of films. Die Hard is a Christmas film, they proclaim! Others cite Gremlins or Batman Returns amongst others. Some of these films have their merits, whereas some do not. Audiences use broad and generic criteria to label their movie as a Christmas movie. Their details can be as simple as snow, taking place during December/Christmas, and few remarks or references to the holiday that have no merit to the film. With such simple criteria, I dare argue that Sylvester Stallone's Rocky IV is a Christmas film!

Certainly better than Rocky V, which is not saying much, but not the darling of the franchise either. This film is in your face and extremely eighties! Hence, it has become something of a guilty pleasure. Many will not think of Christmas or the holidays in this film. Instead, critics and audiences recall over-the-top, eighties boxing film and a Cold War back-drop. A setting that gives the film a political undertone at best. It is this exact setting and climax I want to call attention to in the film's status as a Christmas movie.

After the death of Apollo Creed, they schedule a fight between Rocky and Ivan Drago on Christmas Day in the Soviet Union. Why the Soviet Union? Because Ivan Drago's wife fears for her husband's life. Why this day? Rocky does not know - it is just the date they give him. One could surmise is because the Soviets care little, if anything, for Christmas.

One must understand under Marxism-Leninism, there is no god. You can only build the perfect communist society through what the Soviets refer to as 'scientific atheism.' Oddly, citizens have the legal right to believe under various Soviet constitutions. Unfortunately, the Soviets did not adhere to this law and the right of their citizens. It is as President Regan said,

"the only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat. They don't subscribe to our sense of morality; they don't believe in an afterlife; they don't believe in a God or a religion. And the only morality they recognize, therefore, is what will advance the cause of socialism."

Harsh, maybe. However, given their history and record, regardless of your stance on socialism, one can say he has a point.

You have a widespread reign of terror against Christians in the early days of the Communist Revolution in Russia. You see the prison camps, labor camps, and even mental hospitals filling up with priests and believers. Other times these Christians face execution or torture. We cannot be sure due to various sources but the number of Christian victims facing Soviet persecution range from 12 - 20 million. The communists throughout the Soviet Union confiscate, repurpose, and sometimes downright demolish churches. With all of this said, how do you think they treat Christmas?

In the first decade of the Soviet Union, they openly mock Christmas. The All-Union Leninist Young Communist League or Komsomol (think the Hitler Youth but in the Soviet Union) lead these mock parades with banners and people in costumes. They put religious figures such as Christ on a bonfire and more. The Soviets banned Christmas as a public holiday in 1929, with December 25th and December 26th becoming 'Days of Industrialization.' I do not know what is worse, getting rid of Christmas or replacing it with a holiday that you still have to work on that day. Any citizen who did not work that day, most likely to stay home and celebrate or go to church, would face punishment.

Christmas returns later in 1935 under Joseph Stalin, but not in the way you think. Recall, there is a public ban on Christmas, meaning no Christmas trees in the public square. Now you have New Year's Tree, adorned with a red star on the top. The Soviets combine elements of Christmas with New Year's Day into a full secular holiday. Replacements for Santa Claus and his elves with Grandfather Frost and his Snow Maiden. Stalin is careful to dress this Father Frost in blue and not red, so people do not associate him with Santa. They even create a New Year Boy, but you will find no Jesus, no angels, and no nativity scenes.

We come back to Rocky IV, taking place in 1985, the period of Glasnost or openness under Mikhail Gorbachev. Churches are coming back, the Soviet's new legislation represents more acceptance towards the churches and religion. However, the churches still understand that the final say and power lies with the state. Not only that, they recall the Soviets' dishonest history of always going back on their word. Meanwhile, Christmas is still not a public holiday!

By the end of the film, we see Rocky victorious over the communist boxing machine - Ivan Drago. He wishes his son a Merry Christmas and speaks of it is better that two men, rather than two countries of millions of people try to kill each other. The Soviet Premier stands in applause, along with the entire crowd in Moscow cheering for Rocky. He even notes the change of the crowd, who at first booed him, stating "if I can change, and you can change, everybody can change!" No doubt, a celebration of peace on earth and goodwill towards man.

Strangely enough, four years later in Communist Romania is the Romanian Revolution, ending on Christmas Day, with the execution of the communist dictator of over twenty years - Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife. What a wonderful gift for another regime that banned Christmas. Come 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigns his office as President of the Soviet Union on Christmas night, leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Afterward, Christmas returns as a public holiday.

Sources

Pospielovsky, Dimitry V. (1987). A History of Soviet Atheism in Theory, and Practice, and the Believer. 1: "A History of Marxist-Leninist Atheism and Soviet Anti-Religious Policies". New York: St. Martin's Press.

”Estimates of the total number all Christian martyrs in the former Soviet Union are about 12 million.”, James M. Nelson, “Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality”, Springer, 2009,

over 20 million were martyred in Soviet prison camps”, Todd M. Johnson, “Christian Martyrdom: A global demographic assessment“