Andrew, If you do not mind I will paste your reply from another thread below. Movies are sometimes a personal vision and other times a vision of others. There are many independent 'Hollywood' films and but none were made in the Soviet period from Mother Russia. There are some good 'Soviet' films of this period but they are apolitical.
Free hint; stick with the Zombies, they are about your speed.
Steve makes a fair point. Movies are a reflection of the zeitgeist of the time, even though movie makers may well not be thinking in such terms.
An obvious example is the U.S penchant for alien invasion movies of the late 40's through to the early 60's. They were clearly tied into the 'Red Menace', Commies under the beds fears of the time. The aliens, usually, in some way or another were a surrogate for the Red Menace. Viewers were being conditioned to be afraid and to see the military as the solution to the nation's problems.
Later we saw a negative effect after the defeat in Vietnam whereby there were almost no films of any kind about that debacle, it was simply too terrible to mention. Later we did see movies about the war that explored how Americans could cope with the psychological trauma of another, even worse, defeat coming on the heels of Korea.
What do the zombie movies represent?
I am not sure, just as it was probably uncertain, even if anyone thought about it at the time, what the meaning of those alien invasion movies was. If pushed, I'd be inclined to think of them, in general as representing a fight against disorder, particularly external disorder. An emphasis upon self reliance as opposed to earlier reliance upon the strong government and military.