Red Dawns

 

Finally something to write about which I haven’t covered before.   With Russia becoming the Bad Guys once again, thanks to their tourism extravaganza in Ukraine, revisiting this movie, and watching its 2012 remake, became appropriate and amusing again.

Red Dawn (1984).  A small town in Colorado is abruptly attacked by Communist bloc army of Russians, Afghans and Sandinistas.  The local high school students take to the hills and continue the fight.  A USAF pilot, Tanner (Powers Boothe) is shot down but manages to join their group.  Casualties are to be expected, but a few survive to make their way to US lines and freedom.  The big two here are Jed Eckert and his brother Matty (Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen – the first major role for each of them).  The female contribution is Jennifer Grey – before her hookup with Swayze in “Dirty Dancing” – and Lea Thompson, briefly before she fell in love with Marty McFly, her own son gone back in time before his parents even hooked up (Grey and Sheen "hook up" briefly in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"). Ron “Superfly” O’Neal is one of the Red leaders, evidently a former Sandinista.

Released in August 1984, we saw this when it came out.  It was right in the Reagan years, when patriotism was running high, to put it mildly.   Grenada was two years earlier, and I even managed to visit the USSR – Kiev, Moscow and Leningrad – in March 1983.  All the boxes are checked off here: AK47s, MI24 Hinds (actually French helicopters modified to look like them), and plenty of anti-communist and pro-American propaganda, either cringeworthy or amusing depending on your viewpoint.  Too bad these days, the types most likely to identify with the Wolverines tried to take over the government on January sixth and actually support Putin, because their beloved leader seems to have a tiny hard-on for the Russian dictator.  That’s the cue for the rest of us to stock up on AR15s and AK47s (plus the 5.56mm and 7.62x39mm ammunition they fire).  Oddly, some of the Comm-Bloc soldiers were actually firing FALs - not aware of any communist country which adopted it.

I like it, even if I can recognize the “check the boxes” deal of immersing in contemporary uber-patriotic propaganda which this film indulges in.  The extra features were amusing to watch.  Although the movie takes place in Colorado, it was filmed in a small town in New Mexico, with the familiar name of Las Vegas, although this one doesn’t seem to have any casinos, and its fanciest hotel is supposedly haunted.  The town is not far east from Santa Fe.  The film crew hired experts to teach the cast about weapons training, as none of them (except C. Thomas Howell) had any relevant experience.  Lea Thompson said that was immensely fun.  She also shared the common knowledge that Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey did not get along with each other.  Well, three years later they could dance together without shooting at anyone, or each other. 

Red Dawn (2012).  I suppose if you remake a movie that was never particularly popular in the first place, there’s no wonder the remake won’t be a whole lot more popular (though I suppose “The Thing” is a counterexample).  Instead of a small town in Colorado, it’s Spokane, Washington (a decent sized city).  Instead of a Comm-bloc alliance army, it’s the North Koreans (!!) with a Russian Spetsnaz advisor.  Chris “Thor” Hemsworth takes over the Patrick Swayze (Jed Eckert) role, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan takes the Colonel Tanner role, now USMC instead of USAF.  Unlike the prior Jed Eckert, who was just a former football player, this one was in Iraq with the USMC and has combat experience.  Josh Hutcherson is the only other major actor here, dwarfed by Hemsworth. 

As we’re talking about North Koreans and not Sandinistas, Colonel Bella (O’Neal’s) comment about the guerillas turning into policemen is now switched with Jed Eckert talking about “policemen who are now guerillas”.  Other plot angles are switched as well, almost as a matter of principle.  Instead of a group gradually wound down in numbers (1984) this time they have a specific target, a black box (olive drab suitcase) which contains the North Koreans' anti-EMP device.   

Part of what makes this one a little stranger, is that as implausible as the “Russians invade us through Mexico” scenario of the first movie was, an invasion by North Korea is far more implausible than that.  If they can’t even roll back into Seoul and down to Pusan, it’s unclear which navy they have which can take an invasion force to Washington State.  Same deal with having higher military technology than we do.  As an actual threat, I’d say the Russians have returned to being our most likely adversary, though the Chinese seem to be moving in that direction as well – both far more so than North Korea. 

Either way, it’s the same type of story:  high school students defend their home against a foreign invader.  Ten years later, we’re cheering the Ukrainians as they do the same thing – against Russians, for that matter. 

As Americans we love this business of, "we didn't start this war, but we'll finish it!"  Whether we're avenging Fort Sumpter, the USS Maine, the Lusitania, Pearl Harbor, the USS Maddox, or the 9/11, we love this business of fighting back.  Otto Skorzeny, the black ops specialist of Nazi Germany - who arranged Mussolini's rescue and the behind-the-lines chaos of the Battle of the Bulge, gave SS Leader Heinrich Himmler advice when asked if the Germans could fire a V1 rocket off a U-boat into Manhattan.  "Don't underestimate the Anglo-Saxon strain in the Americans; their morale jumps sky-high when directly threatened."

However, there's no plausible scenario in which we would be faced with enemy ground forces on US soil.  Far more likely, unfortunately, is for Russia, China or North Korea to land on US soil in the form of nuclear assault, and none of our weapons training is of any use against an H bomb.  

Oh, and no sign of Hugh Jackman in either film.  Too bad.