RED DAWN: Revisiting a classic patriot film

I remember many scenes from this movie. The one that stands out the most was when the idiot played by C. Thomas Howell stood out in the open and tried to shoot down a Hind D with an AK. The RPG shot was a good try, but an AK?
 
damn i must be old.. everybody seems to have saw it when they were in school. i don't remember when it came out, but i know i was at least in my mid 20's. sheeessshhh!!!!!
it was a great movie!!!!

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what me worry?
 
I had just turned 21 when I saw this movie for the first time. It really had an impact on me. I grew up around guns, but my father and mother were owners and not advicates. I guess looking back on it, this was when I became an advicate instead of just being an owner!

Oh, I remember a winter scene when they were watching a battle with fighters and tanks in a small valley. They were almost run over by a couple of T-72's. Powers Boothe's character was shot. As he pops the top on a smoke grenade, his last words were "Shoot straight...you Army pukes...".
 
I have a copy of Red Dawn and have watched it more than once. Yes, if we are either invaded or a combination of US puppet forces and foreign troops tries to put us into the NWO officially, I think it will be the young people who will fight and perhaps make a difference. Dont laugh! The last three generations of Americans have allowed our nation to sink into huge debt,into centralized and corrupt government,into a dumbed down citizenerythat is oblivious to everything except consumerism and hedonism. In the movie ,the imprisoned parents told the boys not only to avenge them,but that they(fathers) had failed them by not being the watchmen on the walls. The founders knew the price of freedom is eternal vigilence. Here the last three generations get a big fat score of zero!
 
Ivan8883,

Don't damn us all. If the balloon goes up seek out and pay attention to some of us grey hairs. We'll teach you things that Charlie taught us.



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Joe Portale
Sonoran Sidewinder
Tucson, Arizina territory
 
Here in my new career as a Computer Geek (but arn't we all here?) I was the only shooter here amid the blue haired, peirced and tattooed lads and lasses... I stood out like a sore thumb. Now, about 8 months later... I have taken quite a few of them out and educated them.
Took a group to a local Gun Show, and led them on a tour.
"The AK-47 - The very best there is..." (movie: Jackie Brown)
Showed them all a real UZI - one guy blushed and said his wife would kill him if she found out he had actually held an Uzi.
They were surprised that guns were heavy! They all purchased "stuff" there and we all had a good time - ending up at an arcade playing shooting games... Area-51 and Haunted Manor (my favorite).
After that i have taken many out shooting, informally. And 2 of the guys have now purchased there own guns. They might have earings, tattoos and a peirced tongue... But they are pretty much good fellas. Not so Red in the Neck - but good guys in there own rights. And smart too - dont discount some one just cause of blue hair. He may have an IQ of 130+, a tech degree and goto MIT seminars for fun... Along with the DEF-CON HACKING Expo...
Should the Fecal hit the Fan - I know these guys would fight to defend.

And in case you were thinking, Dude1 bought a Walther P99, and Dude2 bought a Desert Eagle .357 because he liked them from The Matrix... I was surprised - driving dented Celicas and all and throwing down for a 900 dollar auto...
 
Kodiac,
"...don't discount some one just cause of blue hair"! ROTFLMAO! :D
Thanks! That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time! True? Of course! But I've never thought of it in those terms before.

You just gave me another "catch phrase" that I will use in my classes. I hope my students appreciate that line as much I have. Thanks again.

Oh, BTW, I agree with your point, too. (Not just the humor.)

[This message has been edited by Dennis (edited July 24, 1999).]
 
Joe Portale, I may have said it wrong. Im one of you old Vets too!(67-70) What i was refering to was the fact that since 1913, the previous generations let our government get more and more powerful(Federal reserve, income tax,huge debt,2 bloody world wars financed by Federal reserve system, minor bloody wars like Korea and Nam) Our grandfathers, fathers and ourselves were not watching the steady increase of federal and state powers over the people.Our country, I believe, has lost so much since the early 1900's. For the ,last nearly 100years, the people have given up most of their constitutional rights,have lost their industrial system, and have lost the small farmers who were the backbone of this nation even as we became the industrial giant by 1900. I think we have lost it all as we wait for the year 2000. in other words, if it aint backed by gold and silver, the whole debt ridden system is due for a collapse. I just honestly dont see this country surviving as a free nation much longer baring Divine intervention. We are basically a corporate welfare state(democracy) headed for the next step(dictatorship) I dont think it matters whether a country is conquered from without or within. It still is conquered.Would it matter if the Dictator was a Klinton or a Deng? Both would destroy us. And the NWO crowd comes in all races , nationalities, and so called religions.I believe Red Dawn is already here and at work at this minute. Just my opinion.
 
Does anyone remember the tv mini-series "AMERIKA"? I can't remember when it was on but the invader was the UN. For some reason the Russians bitched more about that tv program than they did about "RED DAWN", which they did not like at ALL.

Hell, LONGHAIR, you ain't old, I first saw "RED DAWN" whin I was 42 (when it first came out). It's just that the rest of the people here are real young fellas.



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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"
 
Ivan8883, I do agree with you on everything you say. All I can add is that this country has really been on a downward spiral ever since the JFK assination. There was a great two part series on PBS a couple of years ago, Frontline I believe, call "The Selling of America". The shows traced both foreign and domestic big money influence on the congress.
These programs simply mad me mad as hell and scared the hell out of me. It showed me, plan and simple, that the citizens of this country has been sold out by every congress since 1964. I am not a big on conspiricies, but there is enough to make me think that the coup already happened in Texas that day.



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Joe Portale
Sonoran Sidewinder
Tucson, Arizina territory
 
I was on NG manovers when Red Dawn came out it was one of the movies that was shown at camp. It was real spooky for everyone. That was the scenario that was being practiced for. I only got to see it through binoculars the first time because I was part of the agressor force. About the Hind/AK scene. If proper riflemanship(?) was used he had on chance in the mag to do damage. The Afgans were able on occasion to drop Hinds with .450 Martinis on occassion. This is a movie you show a teenager when you can.

Food for thought,

ts
 
Joe, the big money conspiracy goes back officially to the creation of the Federal Reserve Systemin 1913. Congress turned over the right to create money to a group of mostly foreign bankers who created our central banking system. The result has been decades of created wars, loans for those wars paid by the taxpayers of America, huge spiriling debt created by Federal Reserve Systems printing of bogus or fiat money, and a income tax that is enforced by the arm of the Federal Reserve System:The IRS. When one writes a check to the IRS, the money goes directly to the Federal Reserve System to pay the interrest on the huge debt these charletons created in the first place! Joe, we are basically indentured servants to the feudal Federal Reserve System which controls everything from mortgages to the supply of the bogus fiat "money" they produce. When the crooked Congress of 1913 allowed the creation of this ponzi scheme,the creation of the corporate state controlled by Banksters was set in motion. Andrew Jackson,a opponent of a early attempt to create a cental banking system, called these early banksters a"den of vipers". Well today, the den of vipers rule all of us through this Federal Reserve System. The sheeple get 2% interest on their deposit, are charged 18% loan interest,and, because the banks use fractional banking system, could only get 3% of their total money out of the banks which have out on loans much more than they have in deposit. I think the biggest criminal President we ever had was Wilson who lied when he said he was opposed to a central banking system. Sorry for the ranting but the people just dont understand this economic slave system which isnt much different from the communist system. Ron Paul has a bill to abolish the Federal Reserve System but fat chance . This nation was much better off before the creation of Federal Reserve System. Unless one like huge debt, huge taxes, and wars big and small created by the money powers.
 
Jim V-
The miniseries(?) Amerika. Kris Kristofferson repeating the words "America, America, America". Great memory...thanks.

It seems movies like Red Dawn and Amerika were produced at a time when such subjects were well received...perhaps because they appeared to be good fiction. Today, I fear, either would be criticized as "pandering", "inflamatory" or "terrorist". Is this because our tastes have changed or because America is becoming increasing frightened to look?
Rich
 
Would somebody tell me when this movie came out so I can know exactly how old I was when I first saw it, like everyone else does.

Rich,
The reason movies like that were well received was because the enemy was from somewhere else, clearly defined. Today there can't be a movie like that because the enemy is among us, it is us. The enemies were the communists, still are in fact, only now they are among us, with new names and faces.

I read recently where Mel Gibson is working on a new movie about the American Revolution, he says he wants it to be along the lines of Braveheart. The great American Revolution movie is the geatest movie never made. Will he pull it off? Anyone know anything about this project?

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To be or not to be-that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them.

[This message has been edited by walkin' man (edited July 26, 1999).]
 
Someone mentioned that the T-72s looked real, well in fact while they were being carted around during filming, the CIA apparently became very interested in where they had come from. they had actually been built in California, as was the very cool looking ZSU-24.

Other interesting facts:

One of the parachutists from the invasion scene got blown over 1 mile off course, he was found (picture this) stuck up in a tree in a Russian uniform, yelling "don't shoot! I am an Actor!"

Red Dawn was the first PG-13 movie.

The film was shot in New Mexico, not Colorado.

The original screeen play was more about the conflicts within the group of freedom fighters, akin to "Lord of the Flies," but was changed to a Good Guys vs. Bad Guys format before filming.

Millius insisted that all the cast members recieve trianing in Guerilla warfare techniques, weapons use and maintenance before filming. The cast spent about two months dressed in Camo and learning to work together.

the film was heavily criticised here inthe states as being too violent and was even picketed in various places, but some European countries actually refused to show it.

Here's what Milius said about the critics:

"I wanted to shake Americans up and show them what war would look like on their soil, I must remind them that a story exactly like thisis taking place in Afghanistan every day.
...These are people who are juding the arts...critics and journalists who are the arbiters of 'taste' in our society are saying you should do waht's correct for right now. You should go along with popular thought. this is truly anti-American.
You should see all kinds of movies representing all kinds of views..."


I guess I was about 12 when the movie came out back in 1984. I remember seeing it with a good friend on cable, probably the next year. It just so happened that this was a friend who I had grown up playing with GI Joe toys with, we learned to shoot together, played on the same little league and soccer teams, and we spent many a weekend or summer's day hiking and/or riding dirt bikes through the never ending Pine Barrens together. My dad was a cop and his was Vietnam Vet. All our influences and life history were quite an interesting backdrop for the storyline of Red Dawn. We taped the movie and must have watched it a thousand times. I can remember that our biggest problem in trying to see ourselves in the movie was that there were no mountains in South Jersey!!


We knew it was fiction and were not "obsessed", but, oddly I guess, I can remember being concientous of the fact that we thought the movie was "cool." We never would've thought of revealing how much we really enjoyed it to very many people.

I remember in High School playing a Role Playing Game that approximated the storyline of Red Dawn, which was pretty cool. Cooler than the RPGs that focused on magicians and elves I thought.

One scene that really always stuck in my mind, that I don;t think has been mentioned, is the one where they kill the two officers and the young driver who came up to the Arapaho National Forest sign. I have always remembered the scene where the very young looking driver is sitting in the jeep at the end of the scuffle and he looks away, resigned to death as Patrick Swayze winces and conciously decides to end his life. Later in life, I noticed that in this same scene the "translator" explains the significance of the national forest by telling his officers that it was the site of a great battle, where "imperialist" armies crushed Native Americans, althought the sign merely says that the forrest was established by Pres. Roosevelt and other non-military related information.

Red Dawn is definitely the reason I have an odd attraction to Lea Thompson. In fact, I think it is somehow un-patriotic not to be attracted to Lea Thompson.
(note that this feeling does not extend to Jennifer Grey, which is probably due to the film "Dirty Dancing")

I once had a chance to talk with Charlie Sheen. After enough conversation to get past the "is this guy some jerk fan?" stage, I eventually commented on two movies. The first was one of his fathers, which he agreed was one of the best movies of all time and that his father kicked serious acting ass in it. The second was not one he was expecting me to ask him about, it was, or course, Red Dawn. I was kinda disappointed in his reaction, he sorta passed over the topic of the movie itself, but I could tell that he did not think of it as one of his greater achievements. He seemed very impressed with John Milius though. He and his father had both worked with him.

Reading the development of this thread has reminded my why I liked this movie so much. I am watching it right now... looks better on DVD than it did on that raggedy old tape! ... gotta go, Erica is about to come out of the basement :).

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-Essayons



[This message has been edited by Rob (edited July 26, 1999).]
 
OK so now I know, I was a senior in high school when I first saw this. I didn't see it at a theater but if I remember correctly it was on HBO when HBO first started, and they would play the same movie over and over. It had a powerful impact on me and my friends, I remember us running through scenarios. Likely routes the invaders would take, weapons selection, who would be in charge, mock battles, where to hide etc. etc.

Rob, That's pretty weird, our childhood's sound a lot alike. My dad was a cop and also a Viet Nam vet; I also spent a lot of time with friends on dirt bikes raising hell out in the woods. Wow, now I understand why Lea Thompson has always been special to me too, she was a wolverine!
 
Rented it again. Cool! The only thing I wondered about was after the rebs freed the older men confined in the re-education camp at the drive-in, and armed some of them, what happened to them, and why didn't they join the rebel force? Did I miss something?

I really liked the part where one of the rebs rolls a grenade down a tin roof into a sandbagged nest. The one enemy in there takes the time to point at the grenade and shout "A LA GRENADA!!" before being blown away.

Rob, two things: What movie did you and Chuck Sheen talk about as being a great one of his father's?

Second, about the significance of the mis-translation of the Arapahoe Nat'l Forest sign: Do you think the movie intends to portray that the enemy who knew some English INTENTIONALLY mis-translated it for some reason, or just didn't know enough English to properly translate it? After answering this, then what do you feel exactly is the significance based on your answer?

Yeah, Jen Gray and Patrick Swayze hooked up again in Dirty Dancing - I too could live without that movie; BTW, she also ran into Charlie Sheen briefly (love interest) towards the end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, IIRC. I thought Lea Thompson was the hottest thing alive after seeing Back to the Future. Now I see her as too skinny for my tastes.

[This message has been edited by Futo Inu (edited July 27, 1999).]
 
I agree with everyone on the movie being a classic. But, some of the actors like Harry Dean Stanton, are anti-gun. I just get frustrated when these a**holes get paid for these roles and then proclaim themselves non
violent and tree huggers, etc.. ad nauseum.
 
The translation in front of the Arapohoe National Forest sign was meant to signify the militant upbringing of the Russian soldiers and their "mis-interpretation" of our American heritage through years of communist propaganda. It was actually funny, but meant to impress his Russian comrades.

I thought the raids on the various troop columns were well thought out and planned. The Wolverines made good soldiers in a hurry (as I think we all will when called to do so). But it was in fact their lack of maturity that cost them their lives in the end. Only an immature kid would ever think he was enough soldier to stand up to a fleet of Russian choppers or a town which is occuppied by an entire regiment.

I prefer the tactics of the Afgan rebels who use their mountainous terrain to hide from enemy fire, and to attack from a position of advantage.

The Wolverines downfall came when they lost the Air Force pilot on that tank. He could have organized the kids, brought the released prisoners into the team, and more effectively attacked the enemy with clear military objectives.

But overall, I think the movie served its purpose well...to inflame the patriot blood that flows in our veins. After that movie I think many guys my age began the survivalist movement.
 
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