Review of Red Dawn (1984) by Jason D — 29 Jul 2009

In 2009, I finally had the great pleasure of watching Red Dawn, an 80's-riffic cheesy action movie about an invasion on the US by combined terrorist threats. The biggest part of the invasion takes place, almost immediately after the opening credits finish rolling, in a small Colorado town where several teenagers (including Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C.

Thomas Howell, etc in some very early roles) band together and race out of town towards the mountains where they stay for several months, crafting their hunting and military skills, and even picking up a couple of babes (Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey) along the way.

It's up to these Wolverines (their school mascot) to take down the terrorists before the entire country crumbles. To my surprise, Red Dawn is a surprisingly violent and grim movie, especially for being PG-13 (though, to the film's credit, PG-13 was still a brand new concept and hard to use to categorize films at the time).

For the most part, the film is very outdated, with some over the top acting (lines like "Wolverines!" and "Avenge Me!" made me laugh out loud), and some very outlandish storylines.

It's interesting to view this film from a historical standpoint. Many US citizens during that period of time genuinely feared something like this happening, especially during the Cold War. Still, this was a fun bit of popcorn entertainment.

I'm sure the remake will be a nice modernization of the film, but it's likely it will use some increasingly cliched storylines akin to the wars we suffer in today's society.