What impact did the movie Red Dawn have on you?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

As a 9 year old impressionable youth it helped to make me feel that the 80s were the last decade the Earth would see because the apocalypse was due some time in 87, 88 or 89.

What was your experience?

[lanparty]

1. Worse ...

"The Day After"

That was a LOT more chilling than "Red Dawn"

[WolverineDG]

36. Threads

it was a british movie, & ted turner had the guts to air it on TBS. couldn't sleep for days after & i still have nightmares. "day after" was like sesame street compared to threads.

dg

[hiphopnation]

58. As a young kid...

BOTH "The Day After" and "Red Dawn" freaked me out. Maybe I'm just naive or a softy or both. :shrug:

Whatever the case, I had nightmares after seeing both of those movies.

[HuckleB]

2. It taught me just how good a great comedy could be!

:)

[DrWeird]

3. It taught me that there were plenty of freepers in Hollywood.

And that there are suckers born every minute.

[plurality]

It left me thinking...

that inexeperienced, determined individuals could fight oppression and win. It showed me why our military is having a hard time in Iraq; all the technology in the world won't save you from people who would rather die than be slaves.

[amber dog democrat]

4. It inspired me to sit down with a pizza

pretty entertaining stuff.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. I have to admit. Being a little kid myself back then.

I kinda sorta bought the whole stupid impossible scenario for a minute there. Being so close to Cuba. My cousin and I thought they would land on our shores any minute. The Day After also messed me up because it was more realistic.

[Cyrano]

6. Showed how shallow right wing propaganda can be

[Atman]

7. I remember thinking..."Gawd, what an awful movie!"

eom

[ibegurpard]

15. Yeah, and I was a TEENAGER when I saw it.

It HAD to have been pretty bad.

[Guava Jelly]

8. Red dawn I believe is responsable

for alot of these gun toteing redneck repukes.
notice in red dawn the invaders used records to find out who had guns,,
Charlie heston couldnt have done a better job selling paranoia.

[Canuckistanian]

53. Now invaders just have to raid the NRA offices

Proabably a better indication of where the real artillery is.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

9. WOLVERINES!!!!!! n/t

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

11. You just have the hots for Lea Thompson!

I see right thorugh you !!! :)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

13. Damn you!!!!!!! eom

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. A clearer admittance I have never heard!

:)

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

19. Is she still alive?

And if so. Would you happen to have her phone #?

[NewHampshireDem]

10. As someone who spent their teens in the 80's, I agree ...

I never thought I'd live to see my 20's. Honestly, I don't remember how many sleepless nights I spent worrying about impending nuclear holocaust. Our actions against Libya--which I think happened when I was a freshman in high school--were especially worrisome to me.

Movies like "Red Dawn," "The Day After" (which, thankfully, I never actually saw myself), and those of the whole post-apocalypse sci-fi sub-genre really just added more fuel to the media- and religious zealot-inspired sense of doom. (Nevermind the music--remember "99 Red Balloons" and "Two Tribes"?) :sigh:

For that reason, I am not mourning--though not celebrating, either--Reagan's death. I'm glad to see the vestiga

[scarletlib]

17. I'm not a kid but the mother of two

my daughter born in 79 and son in 72. It was a very scary time.
(Like you when the movie "The Day After" came out, I couldn't bear to watch it.) I did see it a few months ago on Sci-Fi and it is pretty devastating and truth be told it really doesn't show the whole horrible truth of atomic war.

Strangely enough I did watch a British movie/documentary that came out during that time about nuclear war. I think it was called "Threads". Now that was truly devastating to watch.

So as a parent I worried about nuclear warfare. Now I am sad to say I am worried that they (and you) and the children being born today will suffer from the effects of Global Warming and environmental degradation if bush doesn't do us all in first.

[TexasMexican]

27. Threads

yeah that was a good movie, far better than the day after.

I usually download movies online, and on some forum I was asking about all the "nuclear holocaust" type movies and some guy from the UK recommended threads. He had recently bought the DVD so he ripped it for me and I downloaded it from him.

IMO it has a far more realistic ending than the day after.

[scarletlib]

34. I saw it all those years ago (80's) on the Nashville public TV station

It freaked me out. I still remember it after all these years.

[TheDebbieDee]

12. I like the movie, but mostly remember it for the.........

closing theme song, appropriately called "Fighting and Dying".

[Feanorcurufinwe]

14. I liked the scene

where the Russian pries the gun from the guy's cold, dead fingers.

I don't remember much else about it.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

22. What about when the guy had his daughters in his basement?

Even president Hamilton would have fought against that kind of crap!!

Seriously - do you remember only that? Don't you remember when Patrick Swayze and Emilio Estevez saw their father at the drive-in movie prison?

[Feanorcurufinwe]

24. Now that you mention it.

I remember the drivein prison scene, but not the basement... I only saw the movie once, it was within the last year but I probably wasn't paying very close attention.

[theboss]

31. Wrong Sheen Brother

It was Charlie.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

37. OMG - you're right!!!

I'm sorry!

[theboss]

42. Like I said....

I own the damn thing.

I have a big soft spot for all the Right-wing films of the 80s. All the Rambos. All the Chuck Norris flicks. And - of course - the majesty of Top Gun.

[Zolok]

18. Instilled in me a lifelong interest in

serious commie takeover movies...especially the obscure ones like "The Red Menace", "My Son John", and "Invasion U.S.A." (1951-not to be confused with that dismal Chuck Norris claptrap)...


www.chimesatmidnight.blogspot.com

[CaptainClark23]

20. Made me glad I wasn't born in the 'burbs

I recall thinking "no fuckin' way Brooklyn would roll over like dat!"

Overall though, minimal impact. Cool flick all the same.

[LuminousX]

21. Growing up in Montana

Red Dawn made me spend a lot of time up in the back country scouting places I could hide out. I was a totally freaked out kid. I expected nukes to fall any day. I was NOT amused at Reagan's "We've outlawed Russia, bombing will commence shortly" or whatever he said joke.

Red Dawn did highlight a few critical things though - an occupying army cannot defeat a guerilla force who are fighting for their homes.

[West Coast Democrat]

23. I wondered why such a stupid film would ever get made

I think I was about 10 or 11.

[truebrit71]

25. None. It was a stupid right-wing fantasy movie....

...with bloody awful actors...

[Taverner]

26. As a teen, I loved it

As an adult, I can't stop laughing every time I hear "Wolverines!"

[T Town Jake]

48. My exact reaction, too!

They showed that movie in my high school, for crying out loud. I guess it was to educate us all on the "Red Menace." Wasn't Jennifer Gray (Grey?) in that movie, too?

[topherX]

28. I remember feeling scared

of the possibility of the U.S. getting invaded. I also felt pride to me an American.

In retrospect, Red Dawn makes me think of what the citizens of Iraq must feel being occupied by our troops. After watching Red Dawn, I can feel the Iraqis' pain to a small degree.

[theboss]

29. I own it on DVD!!

"America Stands Alone"

"Avenge me!!! Avenge me!!!"

"Because we live here!"

"Wolverines!!!"

Goddamn that movie made guerrilla warfare look cool. You get stay up all night, shoot Russians, blow up trains, and nail Leah Thompson. I was hoping for the Soviets to invade.

Of course, I could never quite figure out why the Nicaraguans were involved.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

32. Exactly - let me investigate who directed this piece of propoganda!

I'll let you know what I come up with!

[theboss]

33. John Milius?

He did a bunch of "Man in his natural state movies."

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. That watching Americans

being paranoid and ridiculous could actually be damn funny.

[SlingBlade]

35. Now we know how the rest of the World

When the United States comes for a visit.

RED WHITE AND BLUE DAWN.

[WoodrowFan]

38. made me give up on an old girlfriend

an oldgirlfriend I kind of still liked saw it and thought it was GREAT! She took it seriously! I lost such respect for her then, that I never got back.

She's happily married to a die-hard repub now...

[NuttyFluffers]

49. wow, bit the bullet there, huh?

very lucky outcome. imagine if you had to find out in the first year of marriage she thought like that?...

ps: only saw red dawn like 2 months ago, so my adult perspective had me rolling on the floor dying of laughter. all i could think of was a juxtaposition of dirty dancing, red dawn, girls just wanna have fun, and caroline in the city. the mind starts to break down with the hilarious joke combinations that can be made with that. i was literally dying gasping for air.

[glaeken777]

39. I hated Red Dawn...

... I was always partial to INVASION USA with Chuck Norris. Hilariously implausible, but tons of action in the traditional 1980s Red-paranoia tradition.

[robertpaulsen]

40. Experience was different then than it is now.

I think you know from my previous posts that this movie profoundly impacted me as a kid, building foxholes in the backyard, etc. But I recently watched it to see if there was any relevance today.

John Milius actually did a pretty good job illustrating how war can rob even the "good guys" of their humanity. The scene where one of the Wolverines about to be executed yells, "What about the Geneva Convention?" and Patrick Swayze responds, "Never heard of it", gave me chills in this era of Gitmo/Abu Ghraib unaccountability. When Charlie Sheen tries to stop Swayze by asking, "How are we better than them?" and Swayze replies, "Because this is our home", I realized that the Wolverines of today are the Iraqi insurgents. We are the invading superpower with the superior firepower, but it is their home.

All in all, this is not a great movie, but it's not bad at all. It sure made me fearful when it came out, but I have more fear for our country today than I did then.

On edit, thanks for all the 80's threads today, Chavez!

[theboss]

43. Milius is actually a pretty good writer

He wrote Apocalypse Now.

Granted most of his films are pretty violent and reactionary (Conan the Barbarian for God's sake), but his characters always have a code of honor that is called into question.

[glaeken777]

45. Don't forget...

....MAGNUM FORCE with Clint Eastwood. Best Dirty Harry sequel there ever was.

[TexasMexican]

44. Good points.

[merh]

67. I saw it again a couple of months ago

And I couldn't help but think about all the Bubbas I know who got such a patriotic charge out of it and still do, yet they cannot see how it relates to what is going on today. They totally miss the point. The Iraqis are the Wolverines and we are the invading army.

Same thing with Braveheart - Mel and his blue faced followers were the "insurgents" fighting for freedom - just like the Iraqis.

What is odd, I am from the South, pro-confederates surround me and I have tried to impress upon them that they should try to use empathy, and to put themselves in the Iraqis place. That they should realize that the Iraqis are comparable to the confederates, fighting off an invading army that is trying to force their form of government and democracy on them. Boy have I gotten a whole heck of a lot of flack and misery from trying that line of reasoining. (Especially when I tell them that in my opinion, the confederates were very unpatriotic for seceding from the Union and fighting against the United States armies.)

Empathy is a gift!

[mr blur]

41. It was a piece of crap

Nasty right-wing paranoid crap, at that.

[devilgrrl]

46. I thought it was one of the WORST movies of the decade

Right-wing paranoia at it's finest. There were a lot of "fear the commie/USA owns the world" movies in the 80's - so much for liberal Hollywood.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

51. How old were you then?

My feeling is the Reagans wanted to hypnotize the young folks of the 80s

[devilgrrl]

54. I was 20 when the movie came out...

I wasn't buying any of it.

[gulfcoastliberal]

47. Bout all I remember is you can piss in a radiator.

I filed that away for when I would be old enough to drive.

[seabeyond]

50. flash of the u.s. today

i keep getting flashes of the movie today..........as if we are walking into the times. i keep looking at new mexico mountains as the place to be

[Independent_Minded]

52. without trying to start a flamewar

so i take it that the conventional wisdom here is that the idea of the USSR being a conquering force in the world is considered propoganda?

im not so much talking about the movie, im more commenting on several people's take on it.

[eridani]

59. Yep, it's propaganda alright

The Soviet Union took most of the casualties in WW II, and the country was flattened. It did nothing but play catch-up to the unscathed US until its fall. Stalin was helpless to do anything about it when Tito told him to blow it out his ass.

To reverse the historical premise of the movie, the US actually did invade Russia (along with 19 other countries after WW I). Going by past history, they had far more reason to be afraid of an invasion by the US.

[Independent_Minded]

62. oh i definitely agree

that the idea of a ground invasion by the Soviets would be pretty unlikely(China might have the numbers put still dont have the technology), i was more referring to the whole, "Manifest Destiny" of the Soviets. You know, the view that they were actively and forcefully if necessary trying to bring other countries to their form of government.(similarly to what we are doing in Iraq). Do you believe THAT was propoganda?


and thanks for your civil response. :)

[eridani]

73. Forcefully?

They achieved all that they were going to achieve by force at the end of WW II. They gained no new ground by suppressing revolts in Hungary and Czechoslovakia. And note that the people revolting considered themselve to be the real socialists, and their actual governments to be asslickers of foreign boot.

Vietnam? No soldiers, just material aid. You could make a case of Cuba, but what happened to US policy toward Cuba after the Soviet Union dissolved and aid was cut off? It immediately got 10 times more vicious. Would it Cuba have even presented any real threat at all without the US placing missiles in Turkey?

[VOX]

63. USSR as an invading force in Colorado??? Afghanistan, yes...

But in Colorado, Mainland USA??? *That* is either comedy or propaganda, especially as told in 1984. And the USSR ran into such a quagmire in Afghanistan, it's very doubtful that they would have had much luck in Colorado (even with the Cubans, as the movie tells it).

Now, in the 1950s-early 1960s, the concept of the USSR as an aggressor nation, one capable of launching a nuclear attack, was not far-fetched. And the big fear then was what nukes could do to humanity and the environment -- not being occupied by Soviets.

On edit: Sorry, I forgot to welcome you to DU! My apologies, Independent Minded -- welcome, and I look forward to your posts.

:toast:

[Independent_Minded]

64. grazzi

:)

[Carl Brennan]

79. I could not believe some of the audiences responses

after the movie. I walked out before it was over so as not to puke and waited for some friends. People talking about how scary it was taught me alot about how ignorant many Americans are.

[hatrack]

55. Mild abdominal muscle strains and hyperventilation

Hysterical laughter can do that to you.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

57. Hi there!!!

:hi:

[LoZoccolo]

56. I thought it was stupid and I was like nine.

It reminded me of this kid that lived on the next street that would try to act all tough but would end up acting stupid. I remember when he moved in we spent like three days trying to establish who could kick who's ass.

The Day After is a different story, however.

[leeman67]

60. Right wing propaganda. However...

change the story's setting from the Rockies to the Middle East. Also change the skin color of the "Wolverines" from white to brown. Wa-La! The "freedom fighters" become "terrorists". See how easy that was?

[VOX]

61. I howled with laughter and found it rather entertaining...

We get to see see:
--A high-school history teacher telling his class about Ghenghis Khan, when he looks out the window and sees Russian paratroopers dropping from the skies (the coolest part of the movie, IMO)
--Beneath a bumper sticker that says "They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers," the corpse of a American citizen, being relieved of his weapon by an invading soldier.
--The local movie theater is playing "Alexander Nevsky!"

And there's such rippingly hilarious dialog as:
"Who's on our side?"
"Six hundred million screamin' Chinamen."
"Last I heard there were a billion screamin' Chinamen."
"There were."

[jmowreader]

66. Or when Lea Thompson attempts to authenticate the colonel

And gets the answer wrong herself.

[rumguy]

65. We were young. My friends and I found it entertaining...

[jayavarman]

68. Wolverines!!!!!!!!!!!

I was into it as a boy.

[Rowdyboy]

69. Set "Red Dawn" in Fallujah instead of Colorado

Make the invaders Americans, not Commies. Sadr's troops are fighting EXACTLY the same fight today against us, today, that the high school kids in the movie fought against their occupying enemy.

Point of the movie: occupying another country is evil and, ultimately, unworkable. Children become adults when forced by horrible situations around them.

I thought it was an excellent movie that spoke to how a conquered, occupied people would fight to the last person to regain their sovereignty.

However, thats just my opinion.

[Rowdyboy]

70. I think this is a really good thread so

:kick:

[jokerman93]

71. It all seemed

It all seemed like right wing propaganda to me -- which pissed me off because I knew someone wanted that version of the world to stink up the inside of my head.

[MissMarple]

72. As an adult in my 30's, I thought it was winger propaganda.

And, it was a sad waste of talent. But,... it probably hit the NRA folks quite well. I'm not a gun control freak ( and well regulated is something we can't escape), but I think it helped spin some wingers out of control. A bit rovian, if you ask me.

[Rowdyboy]

74. Are any of you able to see "Red Dawn" as a metaphor?

It doesn't HAVE to be America invaded by commies. It can be Iraq invaded by America.

When an occupying force takes over a subservient territory, many people are not going to TOLERATE being ruled by an occupying force. Sorry, being "conquered" just doesn't sit well with most people.

Can anyone give me a difference between the kids in "Red Dawn" who fought for freedom and el Sadr's guys who are fighting for liberation in Iraq today?

[Sterling]

75. It made we wonder if the writer was retarded?

The idea of a soviet invasion of the US via Mexico with the help of Cuba was just too stupid to take seriously. If I had I would have to wonder what the hell we built all those nukes for.

[stavka]

77. John Milius?

[Trajan]

76. I thought .... "Man ...

what a shitty movie this is .... Isnt Emeril on ????"

[stavka]

78. I loved it.....

Wasn't really thinking politically as a 15 year old, but I thought the movie was pretty cool.

Made me want to own guns.

I thought the Cuban officer was great character, and Bill Smith (who was in the airforce security service with my dad) is always amazing as the harding working block of wood turned actor in the business.

[porphyrian]

80. Patrick Swayze Big Brother Syndrome

This didn't effect me personally in any direct way, and maybe it was only my perception that changed, but it seemed to me at the time that people's big brothers tried to act more like Swayze did in the film after the movie came out. It was disturbing, but not as disturbing as people's big brothers acted after Weird Science a year later.