I'm a sucker for Cold War nostalgia and American movies that were made during that era (even if they deal with the subject in a lopsided way), but even I can't get a kick out of "Red Dawn". It's kind of intriguing to see pre-"Dirty Dancing" Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey and pre-"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" Charlie Sheen and Jennifer Grey on screen together, but that's about all the fun you get out of this 1984-picture. Apart from numerous technical flaws (the horrible acting, a boring story without any dramatic peaks or even good action sequences) the morals of "Red Dawn" are so screwed up that half a century later we can only look back and shake our heads in wonder.
Although there are moments in which the writers of the movie seem to express vaguely humanistic thoughts - such as when one American character wonders who will ever be able to distinguish winners and losers in this (Cold) war, when the American heroes turn against each other at one point and aren't so sure what makes them different to their enemy anymore, or when a "bad" Colonel shows a human side (in a horribly contrived scene where he writes a letter to his lover back home) -, "Red Dawn" sells killing and martyrdom as something cool without ever depicting the horrors of war properly. We see heroic teenagers fighting for their country and slaughtering the enemies in huge numbers (just were they get all their gear from is never explained properly). There's a scene in which the father of the two main characters (played by Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) talks to his sons from behind the fence of an improvised gulag. As he sends the boys away he screams after them: "AVENGE ME!" It is this scene where you realize that something's terribly off about "Red Dawn".
Much like "True Blood: Rambo" and "Rambo III", "Red Dawn" is propaganda of the most idiotic kind and leaves one looking with much skepticism to the soon to be released remake of "Red Dawn", where invading Chinese replace the Soviet army. Shouldn't we who think of ourselves as part of a free western society have moved past this kind of movie by now?
Although there are moments in which the writers of the movie seem to express vaguely humanistic thoughts - such as when one American character wonders who will ever be able to distinguish winners and losers in this (Cold) war, when the American heroes turn against each other at one point and aren't so sure what makes them different to their enemy anymore, or when a "bad" Colonel shows a human side (in a horribly contrived scene where he writes a letter to his lover back home) -, "Red Dawn" sells killing and martyrdom as something cool without ever depicting the horrors of war properly. We see heroic teenagers fighting for their country and slaughtering the enemies in huge numbers (just were they get all their gear from is never explained properly). There's a scene in which the father of the two main characters (played by Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen) talks to his sons from behind the fence of an improvised gulag. As he sends the boys away he screams after them: "AVENGE ME!" It is this scene where you realize that something's terribly off about "Red Dawn".
Much like "True Blood: Rambo" and "Rambo III", "Red Dawn" is propaganda of the most idiotic kind and leaves one looking with much skepticism to the soon to be released remake of "Red Dawn", where invading Chinese replace the Soviet army. Shouldn't we who think of ourselves as part of a free western society have moved past this kind of movie by now?