...continues her special report called The Storm Over America.
Tony, according to the film's director, those who attack the work have every right to do so.
And says Donald Rye, the attacks usually stimulate thought.
Well, that's the intention. In fact, he says, the picture itself stands for the right to criticize.
It's been three years and $35 million in the making, all 14 hours of it.
DC's miniseries, America. It's set in 1997, 10 years after the Soviets have conquered us without a shot fired.
It worked because you lost your country before we ever got here.
Along the way, the movie makers occupied a small town in Nebraska,
invaded a mock-up of the U.S. Capitol building they'd constructed in Little Rock,
and made a lot of people see red.
The United Nations is mad over Soviet-backed troops in Darth Vader get-up
carrying the U.N. flag as they wreak havoc on America.
It is clearly hostile towards the United Nations, and it is very unfair to this organization.
I'm quite astounded by all of this. It's, first of all, it's only a movie, it's not foreign policy.
Executive producer Donald Rye, who describes himself as a Kennedy Democrat,
says he's not tearing things down, but building dramatic irony.
The image of Lincoln, Lincoln-Lennon in juxtaposition,
all of these things that have a special positive sense for us are things turned on their ear.
Liberals are taking it more literally.
Burn the house!
They're convinced the network is doing penance with conservatives
who are up in arms over the 1983 ABC movie The Day After,
the story of the aftermath of a U.S.-Soviet nuclear exchange.
In the film America, liberals see the left being blamed for the Soviet takeover.
Three generations of Milfords built in this land, come back from Vietnam, tear it down.
You lost the land!
I'd say America is the right-wing's ultimate paranoid fantasy come to the tube.
But there are some conservatives who feel America is too soft on the Soviets.
They said they researched occupations from the Roman occupation of Britain on down,
but they didn't do a very good job as far as Soviet occupations are concerned,
as Harrison Salisbury has pointed out in the current issue of TV Guide.
Anything that offends both the left and the right can't be all that.
And tomorrow night, a talk with Chris Christofferson.
He says his commitment to this film goes much deeper than the script.
Tony.
A little more on that right now here, Lonnie. Thank you.
Chris Christofferson is in the Soviet Union right now.
He's there with the 12-member peace forum that's laying the groundwork for a U.S.-Soviet conference.
During his stay, he's been able to sample firsthand the Soviet reaction to the miniseries America.
He described it in a telephone news conference with the San Francisco group this morning.
The general reaction to America has been concerned and I think hurt and confusion
that the United States continues to perceive Russia as an enemy.
Christofferson says he's been asked a number of questions about why he chose to play a role
in the production that the Soviets feel is so inflammatory.
Tony's still ahead on eyewitness news tonight.
Harold Green will look into why Russian immigrants to the United States left the Soviet Union.
To my supervisors, in television, on a cinematography system, in theater, in a show product, whatever.
But mostly to escape the reality of state control over nearly every facet of their lives.
A leak may become a recipe for what nobody knows.
We earned enough money to have good, comfortable lives.
In a way, no one has freedom to spend this money that we have.
You cannot save. You cannot protect. You can lose everything overnight.
Getting out of the Soviet Union is difficult.
A lucky few are allowed to immigrate, but others are forced to defect.
I was preparing myself for this decision for about five years.
That's why, in fact, I decided to take this job, because that job allowed me to travel to the West.
And because many can never return, the decision to leave is a hard one.
It was very difficult. We left only three of us, and a very big family left behind.
And we did not know if we will ever see them again.
Tony, we'll have more tomorrow night.
We'll see you then. Thanks, Harold. That's it for us. Thanks for watching.
We'll be right back here tomorrow night. Good night, everybody.
And climbing, for about half what most others charge.
Two pounds just 10.75. Express mail overnight service.
When we say overnight, we mean overnight.
Mazda's got your number. RX-7.
So hot, it's won seven straight infant GPU championships.
So hot, a special RX-7 just shattered a land speed record at Bonneville.
So advanced, its unique rear suspension system has multiple patent endings.
Yet RX-7 is thicker, thousands less than Nissan 300ZX, and that may be the best number of all.
Get a great deal at your Southern California Mazda dealers today.
Gridlock is a reality in LA today. New freeways, carpools, and mass transit won't stop it.
And by now, you know that the other guys don't have the answers either.
But all this week at 6, eyewitness news goes to the experts on the ground and in the air.
Paul Johnson for KABC.
Meet the faces behind the voices of LA's best traffic reporters and get the real solutions to gridlock.
Join reporters Jerry Dunphy and Fred Anderson for a report that'll keep you from being driven crazy all this week at 6 only on 7.
Ah, the wonderful flavors of home. Taste them at my recalendar's restaurant.
Welcome home.
Americans against foreigners.
From exercises in the morning
to a KGB spy series at night.
It's television Soviet style.
And we'll be tuning in tonight.
Good evening, I'm Ted Koppel and this is Nightline.
Broadcasting to 275 million people over 11 time zones, Soviet television is sometimes predictably heavy handed.
Sometimes charmingly unpredictable.
We'll look at what they show their children.
Their games show, the news, and at a time when attention is focused on the American program about a fictional Soviet takeover,
we'll look at what the Soviets broadcast about us.