Red Dawn

Rating:
Summary: Anytime, Ivan!
Review: I was recently at a mega-truckstop convenience store along I-20 in Texas and as I was at the counter, I noticed several stacks of Red Dawn DVDs poised to fly off the shelves into the expectant hands of gun-totin', Bible-belted, Texas patriots. And this is TWENTY years after the movie came out! No wonder the Soviet Union collapsed. Red Dawn was the only mainstream Hollywood movie outside of Chuck Norris's B+ films brave enough to confront Communism as the Evil Empire. On my "Jane Fonda Has a Hissy Fit Scale", this movie ranks a 10. The opening scene with the commie commandos parachuting in the schoolyard and blasting away is the fulfillment of at least two archtypal fantasies: 1)this is exactly the scenario that justifies my last trip to the gunshow, and 2)a world in which you will never have to worry about turning in your homework. Talk about connecting with the male gestalt!
The only problem I have with this movie is I could never buy into the feasibility of a limited war between superpowers that involves part of the U.S. being occupied. It seems to me that if the conflict ever went that far, nukes would not be off the table. But if you can get beyond that tactical hurdle, the backyard war against Communism is irresistable to the Conservative heart. As long as somewhere in the land, a truckdriver is at rest in his sleeper cab, one hand on his 9mm Glock and the other on his remote pressing "play" for the Red Dawn DVD in his mini-TV, America is safe.

Rating:
Summary: completely over the head of both liberals and nationalists
Review: If I were to say nothing else about Red Dawn, it contains perhaps the most awe inspiring (while, perhaps, simultaneously stupid) opening of any film I've ever seen. Watch for a South Park, "they killed Kenny.. " moment as a student hangs out a window in a backround shot of the attack on the school.

Unfortunately, squabbles between America's right and left have twisted this movie's meaning into something almost unrecognizable. Maybe I am mistaken (certainly, most of the other reviews would disagree with me) but I have never thought there was anything which fundamentally constrained this film's theme to the time and place it is set in. The director, John Milius, takes pains (his characters sometimes explicitly mouth the connection)to draw parrallels between the guerilla actions in the film, and those which occured in Afghanistan, Central America, Vietnam, etc.

Murray Rothbard notes in his review how the phases the Russians go through, in countering the film's guerillas, mirror those used by US commanders in Vietnam:

"...first the Russian commander decides to hole up in the cities and military bases, into the "safe zones," whereupon the Wolverines boldly demonstrate that in guerrilla war there are no safe zones, and that the "front is everywhere." At that point, another crackerjack Russian commander takes over, and replicates the "search and destroy" counter-guerrilla response of the Green Berets. This is more punishing, but still does not succeed. "

Now, to defend home and family from invaders, against whatever odds, is inarguably a personality trait common to any human. That said, Americans (even liberal Americans who pretend otherwise) don't really care about guerilla wars in central America or Afghanistan -not even very much when it's Americans who are fighting against guerillas in Afghanistan. So Milius came up with the fascinating(albeit improbable) scenario that is played out in Red Dawn, where the Soviets invade Colorado.


What, though, about this film has caused liberals to detest it so much -and vice-versa for nationalists?

I believe the reason nationalists/neo conservatives like this film is simple; it is an exciting film which shows Americans bravely defending their home against foreign invaders. Unfortunately, if the American's roles were reversed, they would probably think it was a film about a brave, occupying American force trying to bring democracy to a backwards land. It would simply never occur to these people (who can compare a nightmare like Abu Ghraib to a fraternity prank) that people in other lands can care as much about defending their land from outsiders as Americans would, or that there are countless Iraqi/Afghani teenagers who are living out their own personal Red Dawn at this moment.

As the liberals go; I think that, while they are not necessarily unpatriotic, they are just too self absorbed and fond of being "cool" to be enthusiastic about anything which seems like it might be patriotic. Secondly, liberals dislike guns; more specifically, they dislike guns being portrayed in a positive way. The liberal/collectivist mentality holds that home/self defense is best left to the trained, state sanctioned proffesional -that ordinary people simply cannot be trusted with anything as dangerous as firearms. The former Soviet Union agreed with them. Which brings me to my next point; liberals liked/like the old USSR. Sure, they will condemn Stalin and Mao in a mealy-mouthed, offhand way, but in their hearts they still believe that socialism is a superior social and economic system, which is mearly working it's way through some growing pains. Hence the the hysteria that surrounds this film about it's supposed anti-Soviet message.

But enough about those swine.. How does Red Dawn work as a movie ?

It certainly has it's faults. It's true that the characters remain rather anonymous and underdeveloped throughout the movie. Some of the action sequences are very exaggerated -there are sequences that would hardly seem out of place in an old, silent comedy movie. I find Milius' hyper-macho, "zen facist" mentality to be a little over the top.

Having said all of that, I felt it was a very probable depiction of what it must be like to be a guerilla fighter. Throughout the movie, members of the squad die in grotesque ways, betray each other, flip out mentally, debate the morality of executing enemy soldiers -this is not (entirely) mindless, musclebound movie fodder. Likewise, the film's portrayal of the other side and why they are fighting is anything but one sided. I think this movie very effectivly conveys, to an American audience, what it must be like to be on the recieving end of a foreign invasion. All of this in a fast paced, exciting 80's style action movie, which never had me bored.

A couple of personal reflections:

If I had been able to choose any career, when I was a highschool student filling out career aptitude forms, my top 3 choices would have been:

1) AK 47 toting guerilla freedom fighter

2) AK 47 toting guerilla freedom fighter
and
3) AK 47 toting guerilla freedom fighter.

Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey do look really good in grubby, army-surplus commando gear. It raises the question, why don't more women don't occasionally toss on a beret or special forces sweater? I would think it would be a low cost way of supplementing a wardrobe and adding a little spice to casual outfits.

Rating:
Summary: It was what it was
Review: In the 1980s with American troop and armor strength greatly diminished (before Reagan poured vast amounts of money into the military) the reality of the fall of status quo and surge of communism in the western hemisphere was a distinct reality. On this idea the film capitalizes. Many will chalk this movie up to conservative jingoism due the emphasis on patriotism and liberal use of the second amendment. The question of who would fight to defend their country and the evils of communism are the crux of this movie. The seemingly nameless characters (I had to watch it again to pick up all the names of the main characters) emphasizes the point that these kids could be anyone.
Granted the special effects are 80s caliber with bullet holes appearing seconds later, if at all. After all is said and done this DVD asks some compelling questions about the state of America while delivering some excellent bonus features. I would caution, however, that anyone who has not lived under the fear of communism or studied this era in American history with some vigor may not fully appreciate the intended affect of the film or view it in a serious light.

Rating:
Summary: Once upon a time people really did worry about this
Review: There was a little book published by conservative publishing house Regnery Gateway several months after the release of this movie, entitled "What To Do When The Russians Come". It pretty well captures the tenor of the times. We now know that the Soviet Union was hopelessly bogged down in Afghanistan, couldn't even invade Poland in 1980 because its mobilization for that operation was hopelessly bollixed up, and that its economy was already beginning to collapse as a result of the brilliant operation the Reagan Administration executed against it to drive the "evil empire" into bankruptcy by forcing it to engage in an unwinnable arms race - and, indeed, only eight months after the movie came out, Mikhail Gorbachev became General Secretary of the CPSU, and we all know what ensued.

None of that was apparent at the time, though, and people still seriously worried about the Red Army storming all the way to the English Channel. While invasion of North America wasn't something we fretted about quite so much, it's well to remember that this was the era where Central America seemed on the verge of falling to Marxism, where El Salvador and Nicaragua were both in the midst of cruel civil wars and Cuba seemed about to become a major regional power. It is in the context of these times that "Red Dawn" must be viewed, and also as a major early outing for several actors who later became very well-known (Patrick Swayze, C. Howell Thomas, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Grey - Swayze's future "Dirty Dancing" co-star).

It is also to be noted that there are several serious problems with Milius' invasion scenario:

1) It's never adequately explained what happened to the U.S. Navy or how the Soviets would have been able to assemble the sealift necessary to carry a multi-division expeditionary force across the Atlantic to Mexico, much less how such a force would have been able to assemble without drawing the immediate and forceful attention of the U.S. Also, it's mentioned in the movie at one point that the Soviets tried a massive amphibious operation across the Bering Strait, which is flatly impossible given the lack of suitable naval ports, except for Vladivostok, on the Siberian side and the very harsh terrain on the Alaskan/Canadian side. A glance at the map will demonstrate conclusively that there is no way in hell that the Soviets could ever get a sizable mechanized force over those heavily-forested mountains and tundra.

2) The Communist bloc invasion is depicted as overrunning most of the U.S. west of the Rockies in a relatively short time, which seems to me quite unrealistic given the size of the terrain and the number of forces that could realistically be expected to be available.

3) That leads me to the next objection, that the Soviet Union simply didn't have the forces required to conduct a full-scale invasion of North America, a full-scale war against the People's Republic of China (including nuclear exchanges) _and_ hold down its satellites. Soviet forces were organized in three tiers; Category A (about 30 or so divisions, the regular units which were always kept at full strength and manning and which were mostly deployed in Eastern Europe or facing China), Category B, the ready-reserve divisions, and Category C, "militia" divisions which were manned by reservists and often fitted out with older, if not outright obsolete, vehicles and equipment. It would require total mobilization on the Soviets' part - which in itself would be a red flag to U.S. planners - and extensive contributions from allies and satellites (though, to be fair, "Red Dawn" does make much of Cuban and Nicaraguan contingents) - but even then, the vast majority of those forces would be incapable of sustained offensive operations and the Soviets would have to rely on their Category A divisions. And that's not even to mention that the Soviet model of war-making, which is based on short, violent offensives, is completely unsuited to the problem of a long-term war at the end of a long and by no means secure supply line against a tenacious foe whose war-making model _is_ based on supplying sustained operations.

So, "Red Dawn" is, in respect, very unrealistic, but at the same time it's worthwhile as a document of the last really cold phase of the Cold War.


Rating:
Summary: Mmmm.... The Power of Cheese
Review: This movie is simply hilarous. Do NOT get this movie if you're planning to get a movie for serious watching. Bullet damage is shown SECONDS after the sound is heard, American army responds to Communist threat using one helicopter and destroying the Soviet forces Rambo style. The acting is simply horrible, it's just like they memorized the lines and said them.

Their dad just HAPPENS to have a gun store, but for some reason decides to not go with them. The Soviet army focuses on private citizens in the U.S. that have weapons instead of the U.S. army. There is ZERO story build up, the action starts like 30 seconds into the movie. Two of the students vote that they surrender themselves to the Soviets, AFTER escaping machine gun bullets and rocket launcher attacks. So far, this is only just a few minutes into the movie. You'll have to get the rest of the cheesy goodness by buying it, if you like what you hear so far this is a MUST BUY. I know I got a good deal!

Rating:
Summary: The Amateur Guerillas
Review: This film asks the question: what could you do if America was invaded? Do not expect a realistic answer from this film; it seems to have been made as scare tactics for the 1984 election. (No pictures of a wandering bear.) It is possible for people in a mountainous terrain to resist an invader (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan). This requires a hardened people used to living in rude conditions, and the support of the civilian population. This film does not mention the problems of supplies: food, medicine, arms, ammunition, replacements, and intelligence.

This film is so naive as to be funny. Invasion by the Cuban and Nicaraguan armies! Who could believe that? Maybe those who think Houston is the capital of Texas. Could an amateur band of irregular forces conquer a larger force of trained and disciplined soldiers? Resistance during WW Two involved sabotage and intelligence gathering on occupying forces (France). The exception was the Yugoslav Red Army and the Soviet Partisans who operated as military units.

A box of food falls off a truck, and is gathered by these resistance fighters. This leads to their attack by "flying tanks". Didn't they learn about the Trojan Horse in High School? The fate of this band recalls the stories of outlaws in the Old West. Placing most of the scenes in a rural setting suggests a low budget. The film ends ambiguously, as if they ran out of ideas or money. It makes guerrilla warfare seem like a weekend of hunting.


Rating:
Summary: Seeing Red.
Review: Released a few years before the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia, Red Dawn poses the following question: What if Cuba and the Soviet Union opted for a conventional invasion of our contry rather than a nuclear attack?. The World War III senario is a solid action film on that basic level, aided by a then rising star cast of young talent, eager to make a name for themselves.

A town of High School students lives are turned upside down the minute Jed, (Patrick Swayze) Robert (C. Thimas Howell), Erica (Lea Tompson), Matt (Charlie Sheen), Toni (Jennifer Grey) and others -- one day look outside their classroom windows to see Communist paratroopers descending from the clouds and landing on the soil of their small town. Skilled hunters and tenderfoots alike, Jed and his friends take whatever food and weapons they can find and head for the mountains. It is not too long, however, before the enemy soldiers follow their trail, take prisoners and execute anyone who refuses to give in. Now the fate of the nation rests in hands of America's youth who will do whatever it takes to defeat the enemy.

Written and directed by John Milius, the film is loaded with 80's bravado and action typical of that time. The cast is up for the rigors of the film. Of course each of them would go on to have success in other films as well. But here they work very well. The film seems a bit dated now--looking past that, you can still have some cheesey fun with the film.

The DVD skimps on the extras. The theatrical trailer, production notes and MGM's trademark trivia booklet is all there is here. Viewers can watch the film in either the widescreen or full frame formats.

Red Dawn is not a perfect film by any means, but it gets the job done, and will take you back to the Reagan decade. A guilty pleasure indeed.

Rating:
Summary: I'm Not a Brain-Dead Redneck--
Review: I like this movie for the same reason I liked The Bridges of Madison County-it was FUNNY!
If you go into it knowing that it's a load of crap, then you will enjoy it for what it is. I mean, I am sure that Charlie Sheen doesn't look at this movie as a shining moment in his acting career, but what the hell...?
At one point in the movie, Lea Thompson's character looks off into the distance and says, "Things are different now..." Gee,ya think?
Watch this movie and have a laugh or two.