ABSTRACT
Whatever the intentions of filmmakers, they present in their movies their vision of some aspects of their larger social reality, even if they do so in the most allegorical ways. Phenomenology in philosophy, psychology, sociology, and ethnomethodology was important in the promotion of relativism in the perception of reality. As relativistic views gained favor, social phenomena and the social construction of reality by laypeople and scholars became the major preoccupation of those interested in epistemological issues. Like novels and other creative works, movies provide an invaluable source of information regarding the society and era in which they are created. Movies that reflect ideologies only moderately critical of the current political and social order, as well as movies that are pure “entertainment,” tend to reflect the dominant value system. Western authors have also addressed the role of ideology in Soviet films and can be divided into five groups, depending on their viewpoint.
