Feature films about the first part of the twentieth century shed a negative light on Romania's political leaders from that period, and most of the time the accusations were directed against the members of the Iron Guard. The Romanian filmmakers made films to the advantage of the Communists, blaming their opponents from the respective time periods. With the help of such films, where the members of the Legionary Movement were compared to executioners who had persecuted the Communists with extreme cruelty (before 1948 the communist movement was an underground movement), they wanted to present themselves as victims, thus making the public biased and empathetic towards them. The bottom line is they were trying, to bring people closer to them with the help of films. To accomplish this, they resorted to a propaganda that was slightly different from the one used at the beginnings of the communist regime in Romania, when the main focus was on the ʻnew manʼ, the proletarian and everything connected to that. Hence, Romanian cinema started changing and this change was good for some of the filmmakers looking for professional fulfilment and the recognition of the Party; without hesitating, they started directing films about the time before or during World War II, especially about the 1940s, films in which they harshly incriminated the members of the Iron Guard and everything pertaining to it. One must point out however, that none of these films describes the Legionary phenomenon in its entirety, they only chose those elements which conferred the Movement a negative side, such as the murders committed, the excessive and fanatical impulses, the vengeful spirit etc. The first film produced under Ceaușescu's regime, which dealt with this topic was Duminică la ora 6 [Sunday at Six] (Lucian Pintilie, 1966), a creation with strong subversive tones, which managed, nonetheless, to overcome censorship, because the director did nothing more but to suggest certain aspects. Because of this, the film cannot be included in the category of propaganda cinema because it had no intention to do that; on the contrary, the film aimed to offer an analogy between the two extremist ideologies, far-right and far-left, and show both of them as being equally wrong. The plot is simple: during the National-Legionary regime (1940), a clandestine Communist comes out of prison and receives an order to meet, the following Sunday, with a female member of the same group; however, as it happens, the two of them meet before the agreed time at some sort of ball, and fall in love with each other without being aware of their true identities. The film follows their love story, permanently accompanied by their own fear of being discovered by the authorities and convicted for their political creed. The ending confronts Radu with the inevitable: he ends up in the hands of the Legionaries, depicted as cruel, inhumane, almost illiterate or fanatic. These features will be perpetuated in the Romanian films, and the portrait of the Legionary outlined here is probably the only element which links the film to the series mentioned previously. However, all Pintilie does is, suggest these things, as he would like to have the viewers believe that the representatives of the law might very well be Communists. This is why it must be stressed once again that this film does not necessarily fit into the pattern we are looking for, nevertheless it must be mentioned here, because it is the first Romanian film under Ceaușescu, which deals with the Legionary Movement. The following films will be discussed, commented and subsequently analysed, and finally, we shall draw some common conclusions with regard to them. It is very important to see to what extent the image of the members of the Legion was a construct that was meant to emphasise their negative character. The films to be discussed are the following: Un comisar acuză [A Police Inspector Calls] (1974), Revanşa [Revenge] (1978), Duelul [The Duel] (1981), Conspiraţia [The Conspiracy] (1972), Departe de Tipperary [It's a Long Way to Tipperary] (1973), Capcana [Single-Handed] (1974), Actorul şi sălbaticii [The Actor and the Savages] (1975), Să mori rănit din dragoste de viaţă [Fatally Injured by Love of Life] (1983), Castelul condamnaţilor [The Castle of the Condemned] (1969), Drumeţ în calea lupilor [Travelling in Front of Wolves] (1988), Bietul Ioanide [Memories from an Old Chest of Drawers] (1980), Împuşcături sub clar de lună [Shots in a Moonlight Night] (1977), Acţiunea Autobuzul [Bus Action] (1978). A first observation is that all these movies tackle the period of maturity of the Legion, when it evolved from being just a movement to being a political party, engaged in the competition for power, even becoming a decision factor in Romanian society between the two World Wars. Chronologically, most of these films deal with the period between 1938 and 1948. Within this timeframe the Iron Guard had the political power, so they could, therefore, be depicted as abusing it; after the left-wing government came to power, the films started to vilify the opposition towards the new regime by associating it to the Legionaries, shown as the ones ordering various terrorist attacks.¹⁶ Castelul condamnaţilor [The Castle of the Condemned] (Mihai Iacob, 1969) is the very first film that opened the anti-Legionary trend in the communist cinema under Ceaușescu. From the very beginning, with a short but significant sentence, the subject is revealed to the viewer: A film dedicated to the memory of the 17,000 Romanian soldiers and officers who fell on the anti-fascist battle field.

To have an even bigger impact, the dedication appears against the background of an image showing a cemetery full of graves, together with a bizarre and strident tune which only amplifies the initial effect. With the help of these three elements (writing, image, music) Mihail Iacob's creation successfully opens the series of anti-Legionary films; the three elements will not change in time, only the characters and the chosen situations will be different.

The above-mentioned film makes a distinction between the Romanian soldier and the Fascist soldier from the very first scenes; the first is understanding and tolerant, whereas the latter is cunning and takes advantage of this, escaping from the other's escort, hitting him and brutally stealing the weapon from him. The Romanian soldier is, hence, put in a very delicate situation with his own superior. However, the fact that he hadn't been careful enough, given that they were at war, although he knew he had to escort an enemy taken prisoner, doesn't seem to be very important. What some viewers might see as naivety and kindness from the part of the Romanian soldier, others could interpret as lack of professionalism. It doesn't even seem to matter anymore, that there are no Legionaries, not even Fascists in the film, as promised at the beginning, only Nazis, because, in the collective mentality of the time, these three categories were perceived as one that included all. Despite the fact that none of the characters in the movie impersonate a member of the Legion, the film can still be included in the topic of this paper.Shortly after Castelul condamnaţilor, the series about inspector Roman (a former clandestine Communist) was released in Romania; after fighting some ordinary criminals in his first two films, the character will face in a trilogy the Legionary movement and its members. Conspiraţia [The Conspiracy] (Manole Marcus, 1972) opens the story, with the following plot: in 1946 during the Soviet occupation of Romania, a group of former Transylvanian members of the Peasants' Party led by the experienced Salvator Varga (Fory Etterle) and by the young Legionary Horia Baniciu (Victor Rebengiuc), an idealistic, very hot-tempered man, organised a high-level conspiracy in an attempt to seize the power. The subject was, indeed, very inspired for a successful chapter of the Communist propaganda that wished to present the difficulties that the members of the Communist Party had to deal with until they took the power in Romania. As a matter of fact, it is well-known that the Communists had stolen the elections and seized the power using force, and that they had covered this up with the help of Securitate (the State Security Service) and the subsequent propaganda actions they undertook.¹⁷ Coming back to the plot, there are two competing factions in the film: they are represented by Varga and Baniciu on the one hand, and by inspector Mihai Roman (Ilarion Ciobanu) on the other hand, a very intelligent and sophisticated character, a forerunner of the eccentric inspector Moldovan, who will be discussed later on in this essay. Apparently, Varga conspired to overthrow the popular democratic regime installed by the Soviets, and this, in the historical context of Romania still ruled by King Michael, a mere figurehead, lacking any political power whatsoever.¹⁸ The film starts with inspector Roman who saves a woman from the hands of the Legionaries. After fighting about five enemies alone, he makes the last one of them stick on the wall the Communist poster because of which they had been aggressing the woman.