| |
Red Dawn is a 1984 war film by John Milius about a fictional invasion of the United States by the Soviet Union, Cuba, Nicaragua and other Communist Central American armies, and the resulting guerrilla actions of a group of American high school students in the town of Calumet, Colorado. The movie features Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and Powers Boothe.
Red Dawn was the first movie to be released with a Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating. At one time, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.
he mid 1980s in the small Colorado town of Calumet, a normal fall morning is interrupted by the appearance of Cuban and Soviet paratroopers in the empty fields behind the local high school.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Red Dawn' Start a new discussion about 'Red Dawn' Answer questions from other users |
Quotations
The two toughest kids on the block, I guess...Sooner or later they gonna fight. When asked why World War III started
Encyclopedia
Red Dawn is a 1984 war film by John Milius about a fictional invasion of the United States by the Soviet Union, Cuba, Nicaragua and other Communist Central American armies, and the resulting guerrilla actions of a group of American high school students in the town of Calumet, Colorado. The movie features Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and Powers Boothe.
Red Dawn was the first movie to be released with a Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating. At one time, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and The National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.
Plot summary
In the mid 1980s in the small Colorado town of Calumet, a normal fall morning is interrupted by the appearance of Cuban and Soviet paratroopers in the empty fields behind the local high school. As the paratroopers begin their attack, a small group of teenagers obtain weapons and supplies and flee to the nearby mountains. When they return to find news on what has happened, they are joined by two girls, Toni and Erica Mason, the granddaughters of an old couple who give the boys sanctuary for a time. Led by Jed Eckert, his brother Matt,and their friends Robert, Danny, Daryl and Aardvark who call themselves the Wolverines after their high school mascot, begin a resistance against the Soviet-allied occupation force.
As the result of escalating guerrilla attacks, the Soviet field commanders now view the Wolverines as a serious threat. Initially the occupiers had tried terror tactics, executing groups of civilians following every Wolverine attack, to intimidate the local population and the Wolverines into halting their attacks. However, this tactic backfired and civilians lent increasing support to the Resistance. Following a rise in popular support for the Wolverines, the Soviets decide to stop reprisals against civilians and begin hunting the Wolverines themselves. Spetsnaz commandos are sent into the mountains to eliminate the resistance, but the commandos are ambushed and killed by the Wolverines.
The Wolverines are weakened by the attacks and other events, though; their morale has eroded as the war of attrition takes its toll on their numbers. Even though the civilians are increasingly resistant to Soviet rule, the occupation forces are pushing the resistance to the breaking point.
The remaining Wolverines are ambushed and they are reduced to four: Jed, Matt, Danny and Erica. The survivors realize that they cannot outlast the Soviets and if they keep fighting, they will all die. Determined to save at least some of their number, Jed and Matt stage a suicide attack on the Soviet regional headquarters in order to distract the troops while Danny and Erica escape to "Free American" territory. The ploy works; Jed and Matt are killed, but Danny and Erica are free.
The film's epilogue, narrated by Erica, suggests that the United States successfully repels the invasion some years later; a plaque is displayed with "Partisan Rock" in the background, a rock which throughout the film has been a recurring motif as each dead comrade's name has been inscribed upon it by a member of the Wolverines.
Backstory
Much of the progress and politics of the war is left to the viewer's speculation in the film's first half (putting the audience in the position of the characters, who also have no idea what is going on beyond their immediate surroundings), but specific facts are later provided by a downed U.S. Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner.
Director/screenwriter John Milius reported that he had obtained the help and input of former Secretary of State and NATO commander General Alexander Haig to create the backstory/scenario, which required an invasion of the U.S. by Communist countries with minimal use of nuclear weapons on both sides.
Although the movie was released in 1984, the story itself takes place in the near future. The film's backstory involves several alternate history political precedents. The Green Party came to power in West Germany, forcing the removal of U.S. forces from that nation and all nuclear weapons from Europe. The resulting upheaval left NATO as a political nonentity, with only Britain remaining as a U.S. ally. At the same time, Soviet allies Cuba and Nicaragua each expanded their armies to 500,000 men, subsequently overrunning El Salvador and Honduras. A civil war in Mexico resulted in that country falling behind the Communist "Iron Curtain." During this time, the Soviet Union was suffering its worst wheat harvest in 55 years and food riots were occurring throughout the nations of the Warsaw Pact. Apparently desperate for food to feed its people, the Soviet Union and its allies launched a full scale invasion of the United States.
The Soviets utilize a three-phase attack. First, they use strategic nuclear strikes to destroy key points of communication including several major U.S. cities (Omaha, Kansas City and Washington, D.C. are specifically cited). Strategic nuclear weapons are also used to destroy ICBM bases in Montana and the Dakotas. In addition, Tanner says that Cuban infiltrators disguised as illegal immigrants aided in confusing U.S. forces by raiding Strategic Air Command bases throughout the Midwest and Texas. Coupled with these nuclear attacks, Soviet transport aircraft containing elite Soviet VDV and Cuban paratroopers slipped through the U.S. radar disguised as commercial airliners.
The second phase saw Cuban and Nicaraguan armies (with small contingents of Soviet forces) pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border into the Great Plains of the United States. The third phase involved a Soviet invasion of Alaska across the Bering Strait from Siberia. They crossed into Canada occupying the Yukon, British Columbia and Western Alberta, and cut the Alaskan Pipeline, but were decisively stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border by U.S. forces (thus preventing a link-up with Soviet forces occupying the Great Plains).
Elsewhere, Britain remained loyal to its American allies, but suffered heavily for it. China also declared war upon the Soviet Union, however incurred significant losses, Tanner claiming that there were only "600 million screaming Chinamen". When asked "I thought there were a billion screaming Chinamen?", he cryptically replies "There were" and throws his drink in the fire, causing it to flare and suggesting China had suffered massive Soviet nuclear strikes.
The Communist forces manage to occupy and control a large region of the central United States, extending as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and north to Cheyenne, Wyoming, across Kansas to the Mississippi River in the east. Denver is also under siege. Tanner mentions that conditions in Denver are particularly bad, with people living on "rats, sawdust bread, and, sometimes, each other." He says the remaining holdouts most likely won't survive.
Once the lines are stabilized, it quickly becomes a conventional war with both sides ceasing their use of nuclear weapons. Colonel Tanner explains that the Soviets are reluctant to use any more nuclear weapons, as they want to conquer the United States, not destroy it utterly, and the U.S. government is unwilling to use tactical nuclear weapons on or over their own soil against the invading armies. The Soviets work through American collaborators, such as Daryl's father, at the local level to help them maintain order.
Cast
This marks one of the three films Swayze and Howell did together, the other two The Outsiders with Dalton as well, and Grandview, U.S.A.. Swayze and Grey went on to appear in Dirty Dancing.
Themes
Red Dawn depicts collaboration, portraying the local mayor as someone who works with the occupational forces. Actor Lane Smith plays the role of the “Vichyste” mayor who tries to appease the occupational authorities. He watches as several of the residents of his town are executed as reprisal hostages and later gives up his own son (who is later executed by the Wolverines as a result) to the KGB.
Director John Milius portrays the private ownership of weapons as a necessary element of anti-Communism. Early in the film, a bumper sticker seen on a truck states a classic gun owner’s creed; “They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” The shot moves down to a dead hand holding an M1911 Colt pistol as well as shots of the same pistol being pried from the dead person's hand by a Soviet paratrooper. As the protagonists flee the initial invasion of Calumet, they stop at a local sporting goods store owned by one of their fathers. He tells them to gather supplies and gives them several rifles and pistols along with boxes of ammunition (the father and his wife are later executed because of the guns missing from the store’s inventory). In a later scene, Colonel Bella, the Cuban officer, instructs the KGB to go to the local sporting goods store and obtain the paperwork of local citizens who own firearms. The Cuban officer specifically refers to Form 4473, which is the actual BATF form used to record the sale of a firearm by a dealer to a private citizen in the United States. Later in the film the Wolverines make almost exclusive use of captured Soviet arms from their first engagement onwards, possibly due to limited stocks of ammunition for their own civilian weapons (revolvers, pump-action shotguns, lever-action rifles and bolt-action rifles) or the greater effectiveness of the captured military weapons (such as the AKM, RPK and RPG-7).
Development
The script for Red Dawn was written by John Milius and Kevin Reynolds (director of The Beast (1988 film), Waterworld and Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves) from a story by Reynolds. The original screenplay, called Ten Soldiers, was more akin to Lord of the Flies, the classic novel (and later a film) about the aggressive nature of man, than to the action film it eventually became. Some of the changes made to Ten Soldiers included a shift in focus from the conflict within the group of teens to the conflict between the teens and their oppressors, and the acceleration of the ages of some of the characters from early teens to high school age and beyond. John Milius was inspired to a degree by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, basing the tactics of the "Wolverines" on those of the mujahideen in fighting the occupying Russian army.
The movie was filmed in and around the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Many of the buildings and structures which appeared in the film, including a historic Fred Harvey Company hotel adjacent to the train depot, the Las Vegas train yard, and a building near downtown which was repainted with the name of “Calumet, Colorado” where the movie was set, are still there today as they appeared in the film. An old Safeway grocery store was also converted to a sound stage and used for several scenes in the movie.
Before starting work on the movie, the cast underwent a realistic intensive eight-week military training course. During that time, production crews designed and built special combat vehicles in Newhall, California. Among their "fleet" were 15 Soviet armored vehicles (including a ZSU-23-4 "Shilka" mobile antiaircraft gun, several T-72 main battle tanks, and various BMP and BTR armored personnel carriers), several Yak-38 "Forger" vertical take-off and landing Soviet Naval aircraft (the Soviet Navy flag is clearly visible on the side of the air intake), and three Mi-24 "Hind-A" helicopter gunships (improvised from Aérospatiale Pumas). Soldier Of Fortune Magazine reported that the movie's Soviet T-72 tank was such a precise replica that "while it was being carted around Los Angeles, two CIA officers followed it to the studio and wanted to know where it had come from."
Five of the 36 parachutists who took part in the invasion scene early in the film were injured when high winds blew them as far as one mile off target. Parachutist Jim Fisher, wearing a Soviet paratrooper uniform including full Soviet insignia and including an AKM Assault Rifle, landed in a tree and found himself calling out to local rescuers including armed citizens and police: “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I am not a Russian soldier!”
Taglines
- In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.
- The invading armies planned for everything — except for eight kids called "The Wolverines".
- 8:44 A.M. A full scale military invasion by foreign troops begins. Total surprise. Almost total success. A gang of high school kids become the last line of defense.
The original tagline for the movie was "No foreign army has ever occupied American soil." This had to be changed because it was factually inaccurate. The British Army captured Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812 and set fire to the White House and other buildings. Fort Detroit was held by the British Army and Canadian militia and British forces from Nova Scotia captured most of Northern Maine in 1814 to occupy it until the war's end. In 1916 Mexican revolutionary bandit Pancho Villa attacked and looted the town of Columbus, New Mexico, murdering 19 American civilians before being driven off by the U.S. Army. In 1942, the Japanese seized the islands of Attu, Kiska, and Agattu in Alaska's Aleutian chain. At the time, Alaska was not a state in the United States, but it was a territory. The United States recaptured the islands the following year. Japan also conquered Guam, Wake Island, and the Commonwealth of the Philippines in the course of WWII, though they were later recaptured as well.
Popular culture
The movie was released at the height of the Cold War; less than 5 years after the capture of the US Embassy in Iran in 1979, which led to the 444 day-long hostage negotiation (and failed rescue attempt Operation Eagle Claw) in 1980 and 1981; only two years after the US invasion of Grenada where US Special Forces and Delta Force members fought against Cuban military forces; and only one year after Ronald Reagan, elected to his second term as President of the United States, announced his prototypical Strategic Defense Initiative Star Wars missile defense system as a military necessity to give America an advantage against nuclear attack. The fall of the Berlin Wall was only 5 years away, and the total economic and political collapse of the Soviet Union was only 7 years away. The Soviet attack outlined in the film was a test case for the US War College with a certain element of plausibility, given the political climate at the time the movie was released.
The operation to capture former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named after the movie (Operation Red Dawn), as well as its targets, which were dubbed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2. The Army captain who named the mission said that "Operation Red Dawn was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie." Director John Millius said about the operation's name: "I was deeply flattered and honored. It's nice to have a lasting legacy."
The movie was satirized in the South Park episode, "Grey Dawn".
Red Dawn is also referenced in American Dad, by the character Stan Smith. Stan also immitates a scene from the movie by attacking two girl's tea-pary while shouting "Wolwerines".
Red Dawn was referenced in the Family Guy episode "Hell Comes to Quahog", in which Peter sings an excerpt from a fictitious Broadway musical version of the movie.
In the episode "My Heavy Meddle" of Scrubs, Turk and Elliot watch the film. Elliot also quotes Red Dawn by saying "Wolverines!", J.D. also recites the same quote.
In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the PA in Ammu-Nation gun stores announces a screening of Red Dawn, but due to the extreme right-wing views of the store, it is said to be a documentary.
Remake
MGM has announced that Red Dawn will be remade "keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we're in". Dan Bradley has been announced as the director with Carl Ellsworth writing the updated screenplay.
See also
External links
|
