1984 was a pivotal year in the history of the world. Apple Computers marketed their first home PC and worldwide people were turning into snobby assholes, Michael Jackson was badly burned filming a Pepsi commercial and would spiral into a weirdness to whose depths no one could have predicted, and the USSR (and other Soviet nations) boycotted the Olympics resulting in a record number of medal wins for countries that didn’t have genetically modified athletes (I cite Rocky IV here as proof). Yes, it was the end of innocence for this planet earth.
And yet, in the midst of all this chaos there was a voice of reason; John Milius. Milius has numerous writing and directing credits to his name (Conan the Barbarian for one), but nothing would ever rival his finest work… his Spruce Goose… a film we know as Red Dawn .
If you were born after 1980, then the list of actors in Red Dawn may surprise you a little bit, but keep in mind that this movie was made in a time shortly before the world stopped making sense. This is when Patrick Swayze was a badass, Charlie Sheen wasn’t coked to the gills and Emilio Estevez wasn’t coaching junior hockey. Lea Thompson was (as she is now) a fox, and Jennifer Grey was… well… she was… a supporting character.
The film opens with a mid-western American high school teacher giving a history lesson and noticing hundreds of paratroopers falling from the sky. He goes outside to see what’s going on, and gets blown away. It seems that the Soviet nations have invaded the United States of America and the only ones who can save Mom, all her apple pie, and the rest of America are its youth. Just thinking about it makes me want to smoke a carton of Marlboros, eat 12 Big Macs and chug a 32 oz bottle of Jack Daniels. WOOO! U…S…A!!!!
Sorry, I digressed there. This slightly altered view of a possible future must have resonated with an early 80s audience (this is also before the days of Gorbachev and Perestroika, so the Russian bear was greatly feared… as should be ALL bears), so if it’s lost on any of young pups out there, just imagine they’re from somewhere in the Middle East… somewhere Jack Bauer wants to go and kick some ass.
Ignoring the poignant and cleverly woven tapestry of cultural commentary (and there’s A LOT… easily enough for a Grad paper or two), Red Dawn delivers on every other level. It’s got action sequences that will make your teeth hurt (from gritting them, or whatever), romance (albeit between the lovely Lea Thompson and some geezer), and High School Football. Like every 80s movie, the teen characters are broken up into their various social groups (a la ‘Sixteen Candles‘ and ‘The Breakfast Club‘) but with far more depth.
For me, Red Dawn is the film to which every other film must compete… it is a perfect 10. Disagree with me. I dare you. GO WOLVERINES!
