Red Dawn (1984)History has shown that a motivated guerrilla fighting force can withstand the full might of the most capable of invading superpowers--even when the defenders are barely adults. Red Dawn (1984) is a war movie in which the United States is invaded by the Soviet Union with the aid of Cuba and Nicaragua, focusing on a group of young survivors turned resistance fighters, led by the capable Jed Eckert (Patrick Swayze). Jed and these few, brave teenagers are forced to adapt to the increasing Russian aggression in order to survive while discovering their own values about freedom and coping with the unresolved grief for the loss of their loved ones.
|
|
Red Dawn was released in 1984, in the thick of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, and the title is a reference to the undercurrent of paranoia regarding the communist superpower and its allies in the Warsaw Pact and abroad. (Red Dawn was remade in 2012, portraying North Korea as the invading "boogeyman" instead.) The film opens with a brief series of title cards, setting the stage for the invasion, describing the weakening of American alliances after the dissolution of NATO, combined with other world events, like a Mexican revolution that favored the communists. The film dispenses with additional exposition, and mere minutes into Red Dawn, Soviet boots hit the ground, dropped in by parachute. The vanguard of the invasion is extremely hostile, employing shock and awe tactics in defiance of the Geneva Conventions, opening fire on unarmed civilians, and even firing a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) into a school full of children. This incursion embodies the worst fears of a nation, depicting an enemy that is not only ruthless, but one that acts without regard for humanity. There is panic at first; however, Jed and his brother, Matt (Charlie Sheen), have been trained by their father, Tom (Harry Dean Stanton), in firearms and other hunting tools and to be survivors, capable of foraging off of the land for long periods of time. These skills serve them well as they and a few other high school boys narrowly escape in Jed's truck with as many supplies as they can carry into the woods surrounding Calumet, Colorado. Low on food, they return to town to find that over the course of a mere month, Calumet has been transformed into a communist ghetto, and dissident townsfolk and registered firearm owners have been imprisoned in "re-education camps", including Jed and Matt's father, who sternly tell them to "avenge him". Jed and Matt train their brothers-in-arms to fight like a commando unit, conducting raids on convoys, interrupting mass executions, and becoming a persistent pebble in the boots of the Soviets stationed in Calumet, like a modern day Robin Hood. These freedom fighters call themselves "Wolverines" after their hometown's football team, which becomes a rallying cry to strike fear into the hearts of the invaders and bolster their allies under the thumb of the enemy.
Red Dawn quickly moves into action set pieces and stays there, propelled by a sense of urgency and rarely shying away from the unyielding violence of warfare. (Red Dawn was purportedly credited in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the "most violent movie" at the time of its release, based on the ratio of acts of violence per hour--it was also the first movie to be given a PG-13 rating.) Red Dawn has a subplot surrounding an invading officer named Colonel Bella (Ron O'Neal) who facilitates the invasion. As the Soviet officers arrive to supervise the occupation, acting with increasing disdain for civilian welfare while aggressively hunting the Wolverines, Bella begins to understand the futility of the war. This revelation makes the resistance led by Jed and his fighters all the more tragic--they are defending their lives in a war that is little more than a global battle of egos. Red Dawn hinges on the central conceit that a group of high school kids possess a sophisticated level of military tactics, although it's best to chalk it up to a combination of survival training, smarts, and sheer grit. Red Dawn deliberately avoids cliche moments from a film about a group of teenagers forced to become deadly warriors, such as when Jed and Matt bring the granddaughters of one of their family friends into their unit--Erica (Lea Thompson) and Toni (Jennifer Grey). Another film might pair off the lovely teenage girls with the other boys; Red Dawn never downplays that these kids are scared out of their wits and fighting for their very lives under nigh-insurmountable odds--romance is the furthest thing from their minds. Yet enduring an extended period in a constant state of survival mode, they are forced to bury their trauma, be it the loss of their loved ones or other humiliations they have endured. One of the boys named Robert (C. Thomas Howell) learned early on of the death of his father, and turned this pain into hatred, marking a notch for every Russian he kills on the stock of his rifle. When military pilot Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner (Powers Boothe) crash lands near the kids' camp, he immediately recognizes that his suffering has consumed him; Robert replies that his hatred "keeps him warm". This arrogant remark reveals that even though the Wolverines are now officially battle-hardened veterans of World War III, they are still teenagers who don't truly comprehend the consequences of their actions or the long-term ramifications on their psyches that killing and hatred leaves behind.
Recommended for: Fans of an action-packed war movie about a group of teenage resistance fighters in World War III. Red Dawn turns the conventions of a war movie on its head by depicting the United States as the invaded country; the trailer proclaims that "no invading force had ever successfully invaded the United States...until now".
Red Dawn quickly moves into action set pieces and stays there, propelled by a sense of urgency and rarely shying away from the unyielding violence of warfare. (Red Dawn was purportedly credited in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the "most violent movie" at the time of its release, based on the ratio of acts of violence per hour--it was also the first movie to be given a PG-13 rating.) Red Dawn has a subplot surrounding an invading officer named Colonel Bella (Ron O'Neal) who facilitates the invasion. As the Soviet officers arrive to supervise the occupation, acting with increasing disdain for civilian welfare while aggressively hunting the Wolverines, Bella begins to understand the futility of the war. This revelation makes the resistance led by Jed and his fighters all the more tragic--they are defending their lives in a war that is little more than a global battle of egos. Red Dawn hinges on the central conceit that a group of high school kids possess a sophisticated level of military tactics, although it's best to chalk it up to a combination of survival training, smarts, and sheer grit. Red Dawn deliberately avoids cliche moments from a film about a group of teenagers forced to become deadly warriors, such as when Jed and Matt bring the granddaughters of one of their family friends into their unit--Erica (Lea Thompson) and Toni (Jennifer Grey). Another film might pair off the lovely teenage girls with the other boys; Red Dawn never downplays that these kids are scared out of their wits and fighting for their very lives under nigh-insurmountable odds--romance is the furthest thing from their minds. Yet enduring an extended period in a constant state of survival mode, they are forced to bury their trauma, be it the loss of their loved ones or other humiliations they have endured. One of the boys named Robert (C. Thomas Howell) learned early on of the death of his father, and turned this pain into hatred, marking a notch for every Russian he kills on the stock of his rifle. When military pilot Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner (Powers Boothe) crash lands near the kids' camp, he immediately recognizes that his suffering has consumed him; Robert replies that his hatred "keeps him warm". This arrogant remark reveals that even though the Wolverines are now officially battle-hardened veterans of World War III, they are still teenagers who don't truly comprehend the consequences of their actions or the long-term ramifications on their psyches that killing and hatred leaves behind.
Recommended for: Fans of an action-packed war movie about a group of teenage resistance fighters in World War III. Red Dawn turns the conventions of a war movie on its head by depicting the United States as the invaded country; the trailer proclaims that "no invading force had ever successfully invaded the United States...until now".