Red Dawn

Rating:
Summary: Not Cinema, not film, a movie
Review: Here's the deal people

Yes the movie is stupid, yes the movie is unrealistic, and yes it has plot holes so big you could fly a division of russian paratroopers on comercial airliners through it but it is unrealistic and stupid in the right porportions. So if your main pleasure in the cinema experience is trying to catch the continuity editors mis-steps this probably isnt for you. It is a melodramatic, unrealist, star spangled, fantasy but, and this is an important but, entertaining because of those reasons (even to left leaning tree huggers like me). So if that sounds like your deal wrap you and your girl in a flag and enjoy the evening.

It maybe worth saving the 12 bucks and just reading the reviews they are pretty entertaining, but I dont really have room to criticizes since I decided to partake.

Rating:
Summary: How WWIII Began.
Review: I loved watching this movie as a kid and watched it several times over and over on HBO. The neighbors and I used to pretend to be the Wolverines hunting down the Commies and defending our hometown right in our old back yards. It was great. Apparently a lot of young men in the U.S. did the same thing and the U.S. operation that captured Saddam Hussein was named Operation Red Dawn after this film.

The film takes place during the early 1980s. The Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union has been heating up and in a mass alliance with Cuba, Nicuragra, and several other countries the Soviets make a mass "first strike" attack on the U.S. Paratrooper land on the football field of a small (Colorado?) town, killing teachers, and blowing up cars. A small group of friends escape in their truck and head into the mountains. Two girls eventually join the group and for a small time so does a downed U.S. fighter pilot. The group starts fighting back against the invasion forces and begins calling themselves the "Wolverines", named after the local high school mascot. The film ends on the eve that the tide of war begins to turn.

Many of the actors and actresses in the film were hardly known before this film and the movie formed the foundation for several of their careers: Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen. Even Harry Dean Stanton has a small role as the Wolverine brother's dad. John Milius directed and under his guidance everything in the film clicks.

This movie probably resonates more with men than women and is one of the few movies that will bring a tear to a fellow's eye. The film has a lot of very good messages that are perhaps even more substantial in this post-Sept.11th era than they were during the Cold War. I still get chocked up everytime I see this thing.

Rating:
Summary: This is not an anti-government movie....
Review: I have been a huge fan of this movie since it came out. I was 18 and very impressionable when I first watched Red Dawn. Since then I have had recurring dreams in which I am a member of the "wolverines". I would like to think that I would be so brave. Get this movie for your family...your kids...let them see how it could be. If you think it could never happen...remember 9/11. This movie was all I thought of that morning. The acting is good and the story is intense. This is a must for any and all.

Rating:
Summary: possible? unlikely. Probable? sure!
Review: This film is a frightening WWWIII scenario from the fertile mind of self-described "zen facist" John Milius. Mr. Milius is not as gung-ho commando as everyone would like you to believe, it's just that there are about 5 actual conservatives in Hollywood and he happens to be one of them.
As scenario's go, it's a nifty one. Russia and the Warsaw pact take out Europe and NATO dissolves. Cuban and marxist central American armies use commercial airlines to drop airborne units into the midwestern United States while Russia uses ICBM's to take out key American cities and defense installations. It is not unrealistic that terrorists or a foreign government could use commercial airliners to launch a sneak attack on our own soil, especially in light of the events of 9-11.
Ron O'Neal, "Priest" of "SUPERFLY" fame, plays the leader of the cuban forces, who faces off against the local high school football team which has taken off to the mountains to use their outdoor skills to form a guerrila army and use hit-and-run tactics to fight back. O'Neal gave a good performance as a man who has become what he depises, as his character fought wars of resistance in central america. Now, the tables are turned and he has become the imperialist aggressor.
Milius is actually using "RED DAWN" as a thinly disguised allegory of the benefits of the second amendmend, which does not give Americans the right to bear arms, but the right to use arms to defend land and country. While personally, I think a rifle/gun is a cowards weapon, who is to say what a person would do in a kill or be killed situation? The second amendmend is probably the only thing standing in the way of a total takeover of our country.

Rating:
Summary: "...the chair is against the wall."
Review: This movie is cheese whiz on fried toast, an empty box of Cheerios, a side of microwavable bacon, two glasses of OJ, maybe some reheated, day old pasta, a bowl of plastic fruit for extra color, hash browns and tabasco sauce - all on a Christmas place-mat in August, maybe a loaded colt python lying flat on the table pointed towards the front door. It is escapism, actionism and romanticism - and I would expect nothing less coming from the mind of Mr. John Milius. If you ever get the chance to see and hear him in an interview - check out HEARTS OF DARKNESS: A FILMMAKER'S APOCALYPSE, and you will clearly understand what was behind this film.

To this day, whenever I go sledding with friends, we scream out "Wolverines!" as we fly down an icy hill into oncoming traffic. Testosterone fuels the mind with the greatest, most outlandish and dumbly brilliant ideas... and so, we get RED DAWN. It goes beyond patriotism - it's the hero fantasy. I think almost anyone - at least males - have felt that echo, that pinging in the soul to make your mark in the world. To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of the women. To place yourself at the crumbled alter of fantasy, praising Krom for giving us this electrified moment to shine in the wispy, dark shadows of reality. I have, anyway.

Despite all the ridiculous plot devices and twists, the characters have what it takes to grab your sympathy. Yes, the characters are thinly drawn, but enough IS there for those actors to bring real soul to those inky, folded pages that fit snuggly in Mr. Milius's back pocket. I liked Powers Boothe as the hard drinking, cynical provider of outside info; I fell in love with Lea Thompson's wilily sensibilities; the brotherly compassion between Swayze and Sheen made me cry in the end; the Cuban colonel who sympathizes with the rebel spirit but must ride out his own causes; the poisoned soul of the mayor and his tragically wasted son. I liked the mounting tension between all of them as the cards of fate were dealt at each turn.

This movie is a distant cousin to BRAVEHEART or even the brilliant COMMANDO. In the latter, there's no complex emotion - just Matrix's savage drive to get his daughter back from those filthy scumbags. However, RED DAWN actually has some dramatic writing - much like the former. Enough at least to keep you hooked in - wading through the seasons, tragedies and miracles, the endless spray-paint canisters - all the way to the inevitable outcome. America will win; wee may lose a few along the way, but we will rise from the ashes victorious.

I like RED DAWN and so should you. Well, I'd wait for a re-release of the DVD - the current edition contains shoddy extras and a poor composite transfer of the original analog elements to the digital format. Besides, after recent world events, they very well may want to dust off this classic gem as part of the campaign to keep us all interested in the fight for freedom around the world...

Rating:
Summary: A Favorite of a "Left-Wing Wacko"
Review: I saw this movie in the theaters. I liked it then and I still like it now, in spite of being a "left-wing wacko." Being roughly of the same age as the people in the movie, I saw this movie as a renunciation of what I was being told at the time, that the young people of America were lost and useless. So I enjoyed that positive message.

Yes, there's a fair amount of cheesy dialogue. Yes, there are a few minor plot problems. (Not as many as some people might think, if they actually watched the whole movie and paid attention.) On the whole, it still works for me and not just because of nostalgia.

I am somewhat disappointed by the quality of this DVD. The sound isn't as good as I expected. The picture quality isn't that great either. I hope at some point, they'll remaster this movie and re-release it, maybe with some commentary from some of the now grownup stars, for example.

One thing that caught my attention today was that the operation to capture Saddam Hussein was called, "Red Dawn." And the two locations the military was investigating were called Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. I wonder how that came about. Apparently, there are still some fans of the movie in the Fourth ID.

Anyway, this left-wing wacko gives this movie two thumbs up. It's entertaining, which is all I expected then and more than I expect now.

Rating:
Summary: If you love government, you'll not like this movie
Review: Many Americans think that bad guys cannot take over the US. Perhaps the plot of this film is not likely, but it was far more possible than I think many Americans realize. The film is thought provoking, and entertaining if you like adventure films. It also reaffirms the moral bankruptcy of communism and other totalitarian regimes. Many critics do not like this film because it leaves the impression that our individual ownership of weapons is a very important right under our Constitution. Our founding fathers knew that. This film just makes the modern case for the necessity of our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, and the danger of totalitarian governments.

Rating:
Summary: don't over analyze this movie
Review: corny? unrealistic? yes, but very entertaining if you are in the right mood. this movie may be a better rent than buy, though. when i originally saw this movie as a teen it was quite entertaining and still holds a warm place in my heart. "wolverines!"

Rating:
Summary: A Right-winger's fantasy!
Review: This movie is tailor made for all the conspiracy believing militia people out there. But beyond that it is a bad movie. The acting is bad. The script is a joke. The Direction is "by the book" boring. Worst of all, the entire movie just goes nowhere. I never felt anything for any of the characters. So when they die is like "so what." Close to the end I was rooting for the Russians. If your locking to watch a good 80's action movie, go rent Predator or First Blood, don't waist your time on this one. In nothing else a good example why there are not many right wing conservatives weighting believable scripts in Hollywood. They Can't!

Rating:
Summary: Jesus Mary Joseph...
Review: ... unrelentingly poor. The premise is instantly shot to buggery as we are expected to imagine a large-scale Soviet invasion via the Bering Strait. Then we are given to understand that the fiendish Ivans have pincered Denver with the help of Cuba and Nicaragua. Credibility is as thin on the ground elsewhere in this wreck. All characters, both goodies and the baddies, are caricatures, the acting is comically poor, the political message about as subtle as a kick in the bollocks.

I'm as pro-gun as any European can be and a rabid nationalist to boot; you don't have to be a bed-wetting crypto to acknowledge the extreme crappiness of this piece of Eighties high camp. When will the Yanks realise WWIII is not something to be romanticised. I'll stick to 'Threads'.