Sometimes a movie can explain an entire culture shock with one incredibly simple scene.
In 1984’s Moscow on the Hudson, Robin Williams plays Vladimir Ivanoff, a Soviet circus musician who defects in New York and suddenly has to learn how Americans live.
Then somebody sends him out for coffee.
He walks into the supermarket, asks where the coffee is and is told, “Aisle Two.”
Then comes the line that makes the entire scene:
“Coffee line, please?”
There isn’t one.
Vladimir walks down the aisle and at first he’s almost delighted. Then he starts reading the choices: Taster’s Choice, Maxwell House, El Pico, Chock Full O’Nuts, espresso, cappuccino, Sanka, Folgers, Café Caribe…
And you can actually watch Robin Williams change.
Wonder becomes confusion. Confusion becomes panic. Pretty soon all he can say is “Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!” before collapsing in the aisle.
It’s funny, but that’s what makes this scene so smart. Vladimir isn’t overwhelmed because there’s no coffee.
He’s overwhelmed because there’s too much.
For Americans watching in 1984, an aisle filled from one end to the other with coffee barely registered as unusual. But shortages and long shopping lines were a genuine part of Soviet consumer life. A 1982 survey of Soviet émigrés even reported coffee selling for the equivalent of $15 a pound in Riga.
Director Paul Mazursky and co-writer Leon Capetanos did their homework, interviewing Russian immigrants and traveling through the Soviet Union while developing the film. Robin Williams studied Russian and even learned saxophone for the part.
And decades later, this little supermarket sequence has actually been used in economics classes to demonstrate shortages, rationing and consumer choice.
But you don’t need an economics class to understand it.
Just watch Vladimir turn that corner and see an entire aisle of coffee.
Do you remember this scene — and did we ever stop to think how incredible an ordinary American supermarket would have looked to someone seeing it for the first time?
