Rating: 
Summary: You Must Suspend Disbelief
Review: In order to fully enjoy this movie you must suspend disbelief. There are many logistical problems for the Russian and Cuban armies to invade Colorado of all places and it is hard to swallow Patrick Swayze and some of the other cast members to be "teenagers". Swayze was 32 at the time of its filming! But all in all it is a very enjoyable movie and is a frightening look at what a full military invasion could look like on our soil.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly the Worst Movie Ever
Review: Now I've got to respect the screenwriter on having a little creativity in taking the perspective of a guerilla fighter on their own turf. Afghanistan or Iran might have been a more realistic setting, but let's be honest, that's not going to sell, now is it?So, Red Dawn starts off with Russian paratroopers invading America and starting with a school in Colorado. They kill a teacher right away and blow up an empty school bus with a rocket propelled grenade. Boy those Russians are sure something, aren't they? Reminds me of those old "evil empire" speeches that Reagan would give. Now how the Russians managed to sneak 60 divisions into America and Central America without somebody noticing is beyond me, but what's more flabergasting is how on earth they are supposed to keep them supplied. More to the point, where was the air force looking while the roughly 3000 "passenger planes" that would be required to drop all these men in (let's not even talk about the tanks and armor), doing? We'll disreguard the logistics and realism for a second and get to the dialogue. "I love you dad." "I love you son." "Tell mom I love her dad." "Don't you cry now son, don't you dare cry." And so on and so forth, not exactly oscar material, let me be one of the first to say it. I can recall other cornball lines about "600 million screaming chinamen" and "I got 7 Migs but the eighth got me." Now if they hadn't insulted us enough with the dialogue, our band of high-school kids have an unlimited supply of ammo and they've apparently been training with Delta Force as they can routinely out-smart an entire Russian army. So, without dialogue or realism to stand on, what does this movie run on? Fumes. It portrays "kids always win" theme that was eaten up in the 80's...
Rating: 
Summary: Looses Something in the Translation
Review: All the gung-ho, red-blooded flag-wavers who love this movie should be aware of one pertinent fact: This film was a re-make of a film released in 1943 called "North Star". The orginal, made at the height of the Big One was about the heroic Russian partisans battling the Nasty Nazis in defense of their beloved Motherland. Ironic, no? Considered merely as an action film, it isn't bad. Plenty of things blowing up and gunfights. Seasoned with a spoonful of charachter development to help it all go down. But it's ultimate fate will be similar to that of the parent film--a relic of propaganda serving to mark a particular moment in time and space. Veiw it as an artifact only.
Rating: 
Summary: Friendly Fire
Review: "DON'T CRY!!!! HOLD IT IN!!!! Let it turn to something else. Let it turn. Let it turn!" So says a charismatic Colorado cowboy quarterback named Jed (Patrick Swayze), and while his immediate mission was only to steel the killing nerves of Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and the other assorted Wolverines gathered around the campfire, he might as well have been addressing the entire American nation at some kind of militaristic pep rally/football game during the Reagan years. The message is something like this: Enough of the lingering collective pain from Vietnam. Just hold it in. Wear a huge grin while you're gettin' the Cuban, Nicaraguan and Russky bastards, and everything's gonna be alright, lil' darlin'. If the truck runs out of water, you just get up there and PISS IN THE RADIATOR!!!
As a cinematic/political smart bomb, "Red Dawn" is a stark juxtaposition of the film's hero and anti-hero, between Swayze's all-American, .45-packin' truck-drivin' tragic protagonist, and the sniveling, whiny, politician (obviously Democratic Party) son of the mayor (Calymette Student Body President and a member of the elite paramilitary organization "EAGLE SCOUT" -who proves in the end to be a communist sellout rat--is enough to make a good leftist sick to their stomach. I had a skater friend in high school whose parents were socialists and who forbade him to expose his violent juvenile brain to the right-wing ravages of Red Dawn. If only they knew that this blatant piece of Reaganism was actually a beautiful expose of the shortcomings in Pax Americana, they would have bought him tickets and some popcorn to boot. Along with the Chuck Norris film "Invasion USA," Red Dawn provides us with an illuminating glimpse into the darwinistic Cold War psychology of "kill or be killed." Powers Boothe, playing a downed fighter pilot, posits to the Wolverines in an incisive geopolitical hypothesis on bilateralism: "Two biggest kids on the block. Sooner or later they're gonna tangle." And when they do, the naive young Calymette high school students metamorphose into fierce Wolverines in the image of their local sports "collective." Despite their mayor's treachery, the good people of Calymette rally to each other's cause, and even have the balls to sing "America the Beautiful" in cracked voices as they are mowed down by revenge-bent Russian machineguns. Amidst the gunsmoke and screams of the wounded, we begin to see that small-town America is a monumental historical force, to be harnessed for good or evil, and this film is a vicious tug-of-war for the soul of this powerful political locus.
Rating: 
Summary: Good movie. Poor DVD release.
Review: First of all, I received this DVD as a Xmas gift last month and I just got around to watching it today. Red Dawn was one of my all time favorite war movies from the '80s. I used to watch my old "taped from HBO" version quite often. Now the film is on DVD. Piture quality is not bad in some scenes, but grainy and even sometimes at different light levels in others. The biggest problem with the DVD release is the sound. I mean the sound effects of the guns, especially of the hunting rifles that the Wolverines use sound so metallic and unrealistic due to their un-remastered digital transfer I assume. Had the sound track been totally remastered and the picture remastered this could have been a really great nostalgic DVD release. Now for the movie itself. Actually, I found some of the dialogue between the "bad guys" very ironic with regards to the country's attitude post 9-11. There was a conversation between Col Bella and a Russian commander in Calumet right before the Jennifer Grey character, Toni, went in and bombed the Soviet HQ that really hit home with current events. It was actually spooky. It's just ashame that MGM continuously releases subpar DVDs.
Rating:
Summary: "freedom isn't free"
Review: This is one of my alltime favorite movies. It deals with a Soviet orchestrated invasion of the United States and how a small group of teenagers are transformed into freedom fighters to fight the Soviets. Relavant for the 80s, but still relavant today. This film sends the message that "freedom isn't free" and that duty is a burden worth undertaking. The Soviets in this movie could just as easily be the Chinese or our own government. Every young person should see this movie and learn how to shoot a rifle and become a Rifleman.
Rating:
Summary: Jim Emerson, leftist reviewer extraordinaire!
Review: I liked the movie very much, as I believe it is okay to be patriotic and fly the flag. Where did this Jim Emerson come from? Do we have to be subjected to reviews by far-left-leaning, gun-hating, anti-Reagan Liberals? I realize reviews are subjective, but I don't care to be bludgeoned with someone's political views such as I felt I was with Mr. Emerson's review.
Rating:
Summary: I remember
Review: Many years ago when this movie came out it was the type of movie that can scare you, since the concept of the world turning on us and the Russians taking over was not so impossible. It reminded one of all the people that came before us who resisted what was wrong and either did or didn't live to tell their children about it. It is a well acted film and a scary one. It is violent but it is meant to be, it doesn't sugar coat the cost of resistance but it makes the point on its necessity. It even gives us a sympathetic character as a foe who when observing his men ambushed is torn by the sight he often engineered. Much like THE MISSION it is a distrubing film becasue of the truth of its message. Unlike THE MISSION it is a movie I can bear to see more than once since in the end right will prevail (but not on film), the fact that they are remembered rather that celebrated makes the most sailent point. This is a very heavy movie and should be watched as such, unlike what some think it doesn't celebreate violence, but shows the personal price that must be paid for a good cause.
Rating:
Summary: Tedious Alternate Future History
Review: The one redeeming quality of this movie: Patrick Swayze acts well in it. Other than that, this movie becomes a tedious trip into death for each of the members of a band of freedom fighters in an America that has been conquered by the now non-existent Soviet Union. The explanation of how the Soviet Union came to conquer the United States without destroying most of the country or the people in it is limited, so the basic premise of the movie requires a suspension of logic, and the movie gets worse from there. It's obvious in this movie that many of the former citizens of the United States are no longer interested in fighting the USSR either. The total lack of believability of this scenario distracts from Patrick Swayze's good acting. Patrick could have starred in a real war movie or played a doomed character in a more believable role. A brief digression: We know the amount of guns that exist in this country. We know how we reacted to the WTC tragedy. Do you think we would just let the Soviet Union, or ANY country, walk in without a major fight? Of course not. We'd fight until we had no fight left. In this movie you are expected to believe that a bunch of high school kids were the only ones interested in fighting. Pure fantasy. The lead USSR bad guy, whose name I can never remember but who often plays an antagonist, is a caricature of a Soviet military officer. Just another distraction that ultimately becomes annoyance because this character is obnoxious. He plays the kind of officer that ultimately gets killed by his own men. If you are looking for fun with the Soviets, try Fire Fox with Clint Eastwood, or The Hunt for Red October. Even better, read any of Tom Clancy's books. The time you spend with any of these will be better than any time you spend with this movie. If you are looking for a movie that stands for patriotism and average people protecting their beliefs and the right to bear arms, then watch "Starship Troopers." Clearly this movie expects you suspend your belief from the first from. Red Dawn slowly rends your disbelief from you in an agonizing way until you wonder why you ever watched this turkey of a movie. Thank you for reading my review, I'm going to go watch "Battle of the Bulge" or "Where Eagles Dare" to try to forget this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie; Acceptable video quality
Review: Red Dawn is a movie that reflects the tensions of the Cold War, presenting a hypothetical scenario in which the United States is invaded by the Soviet Union, and Cuba armies. It is chilling, thought provoking and inspiring at the same time. The entire movie takes place from the view point of several high school kids, who evade Soviet airborne paratroopers and flee into the mountains. They slowly turn from average kids into resistance fighters, who fight for their families, their country, and ultimately their freedom. In my opinion it is a great movie. When I purchased my DVD drive, I started to look for the perfect DVD to start a collection. Red Dawn was first one I purchased. The only down side is that the picture quality isn't perfect, it looks like a copy from tape. Still, I wouldn't trade it for any other DVD.
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