Looking For Sly

In the 1980s, Romanians suffered from little access to foreign goods as well as an information blackout the Communist bureaucrats used to ensure ideological purity. But in clandestine screenings at neighbors’ homes of smuggled VHS tapes dubbed by a one-man distribution network, people got a glimpse of the Western world and a culture of muscular individuality with heroes like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, and, of course, Chuck Norris. This is a story of the unexpected consequences of mass entertainment and the idea that the greatest threat to the dictatorship might just have been the VCR. -Chris Metzler

In the 1980s, Romanians suffered from little access to foreign goods as well as an information blackout the Communist bureaucrats used to ensure ideological purity. But in clandestine screenings at neighbors’ homes of smuggled VHS tapes dubbed by a one-man distribution network, people got a glimpse of the Western world and a culture of muscular individuality with heroes like Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sylvester Stallone, and, of course, Chuck Norris. This is a story of the unexpected consequences of mass entertainment and the idea that the greatest threat to the dictatorship might just have been the VCR. -Chris Metzler