Eastern European Cross-Border Collaboration in Film and Popular Music Business During the State Socialist Period: The Case of <i>Sing, Cowboy, Sing</i> (1981)

This article discusses the collaboration in film and popular music between East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania, as evidenced by the film Sing, Cowboy, Sing (Zpívej, kovboji; 1981), directed by Dean Reed. It explores the reasons why this coproduction took place and how the involvement of three countries—or even four, if we account for the fact that the director was American—affected the textual characteristics of the film. It argues that Sing, Cowboy, Sing is a revisionist Western not only in relation to classical American Westerns, but also East German ‘Red Westerns’, which reflects the fact that by the time Reed embarked on this project, this genre was in decline. It also considers the international reception of this film. It concludes that the collaboration reflected the Cold War dynamics and was most profitable for Czechoslovakia, which took advantage of its eminent professionals in the field of popular music.