Red Dawn: Greatest Right Wing Proganda Film Ever?

[Sandpiper]

The script was something straight out of the fevered dreams of the most paranoid NRA lobbyist:

Cuban and Soviet Commies invade a tiny, jerkwater burg in rural Colorado. The first thing the Commies do when they set up shop is hunt down gun owners for extermination. One of the Commie officers says something about gun owners being easy to find because they have lists (Damn you liberals and your gun registration).

Thankfully though, local teenage gun nuts flee with their firearms, hide out in the hills and become a guerilla force that takes on the Communist hordes.

This movie was the silver screen realization of every Reagan-era gun nut's unrealized fantasy.

Fine propaganda by anyone's standards.

[NightTrain]

1. Funny how the U.S. military didn't come in and stomp the commies into dust

Instead, they left it up to the "WOLVERINES!!!" Yeah, that's plausible. :eyes:

[HawkerHurricane]

9. Well, given that the front lines were like 100 miles away...

the Ruskies didn't invade just a small Colorado town, they invaded the whole U.S., including nuking Washington D.C., Chicago, and Kansas City, plus the missle silos... the entire western U.S. was occupied.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. The odd thing is that the Iraqi insurgents would be the Wolverines..

:)

[DrZeeLit]

Actually, that's how I always think of them...

...and it bothers me.

I hate this war. I think they are justified to fight back. And so, how does that jive with my support of our troops? I mean, I'm not rooting for the Wolverines... but.... ARGH! It's awful!

And that was a really horrible movie. Which was doubly awful because I had a crush on Patrick Swayze eventually due to Dirty Dancing.

[Ladyhawk]

3. The right-wing students at my high school LOVED it.

I held a few parties just when VHS became available and one of the movies ALWAYS had to be Red Dawn.

[autorank]

4. And "The Blob" is the greatest left wing left wing sci-fi film ever.

Watch that puppy, the original or the remake. The authority figures are corrupt, the police, or stupid, the parents. The hero's are the outcast teens who finally save the town despite "the system." This film was written by a Hollywood writer while he was on the black list. It's a delightful revenge and pretty cool.

I'm glad hardly anyone say "Red Dawn." It was very weak, a "Blob" gone wrong.

[NYC]

8. I liked "The Blob".

Haven't seen it in ages. Never saw "Red Dawn," but from the description above, I wouldn't like it.

[autorank]

11. I just saw the Carpenter re-make. It's worth a look, very cool.

[CatholicEdHead]

5. Tears of the Sun

is another more recent war popaganda film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314353/

[cestpaspossible]

6. I do like the scene

where they show the bumper sticker that say "you can have my gun when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers", and then cut to a guy having a gun pried out of his cold, dead fingers.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

28. Sheesh. Everything has to be literal with these people. (nt)

[empathy]

7. The Postman

Is that the name? With Costner, was pretty good (meaning terrible) propaganda.

Which is a shame because it was based upon a book by David Brin, and he has written a lot of excellent stuff.

[VOX]

10. "Red Dawn" has its tongue-in-cheek bits, too...

Like the Russian soldier taking the handgun from the dead guy, right next to a car with a "...When They Pry It From My Cold, Dead Fingers" bumper sticker. Also the local movie theater is showing Sergei Eisenstein's 1938 classic "Alexander Nevsky." A McDonald's sign states that over 45 billion burgers have been served -- a bit of a forecast for a 1984 movie.

If you overhear a freeper waxing rhapsodic over this silly film, just tell them it's one of the best movie depictions of popular resistance to imperial aggression. That should make them scratch their heads.

[Downtown Hound]

12. It is definitely cheesy right wing propaganda

but I will say two good things about it. Number one is that I think it does accurately reflect the desperation of an occupied people that propels them to rise up. Yes, 8 or 9 nine teens would not have had as much success as they did in the movie, in which they successfully ambushed and completely destroyed whole columns of Soviet armor and platoons of infantrymen without taking any casualties of their own (at first anyway). And, had the Soviets ever truly decided to attack the U.S. I seriously doubt they would have done it in the manner depicted in the film, with paratroopers dropping onto a high school's football field and shooting everything that moves; teachers, students, and townspeople. But you do get a sense of the desperation that can occur when people's loved ones are killed and your freedom taken away by an invading force. Tell the right wingers to think of the Iraqis when they discuss this movie.

Number two is that it had a great soundtrack by Basil Pouledaris, one of the most gifted composers that has ever worked in movies.

Other than that, the movie is lame.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. I thought the point of the movie was to make us hate the Russians?

I mean, think about it. It was made in like 1984. The cold war is still on. Think about the lives of the people who live in communism. No guns. That's the first thing they take away from you. Then you're told to work. Work for the greater good. Nothing you have is yours anymore. It belongs to everyone. And so on and so forth. I don't agree with the right wing propoganda thing. Not that I can't see why you think that.
Duckie

[WMliberal]

33. yeah it does have that quality...

Oh crap, better make money off of hating a people while we still can!!

[T Town Jake]

14. Oh, it was Reagan-era propaganda, no doubt - BUT...

...I've always had a kind of nostalgic spot in my heart for the flick.

[MrSlayer]

15. I liked the movie.

It wasn't brilliant by any means but was a fun flick. I identify with the bitter C. Thomas Howell character, that would be me if anything like that ever happened.

[HEyHEY]

16. I'm sure weekend warriors jack off to it all the time

[GOPisEvil]

17. The Green Berets might be a close second.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

29. I faintly remember one of those Golam-Globus Israeli propaganda flicks

In which some official says to the Norris (or just Norris-like? I don't remember) hero that he has to defeat the bad guys or else Communism will take over Israel, "and you know what they do to countries that have religion." Made me cringe.

[mitchum]

31. Ironic, considering that at the time Israel had the most heavily...

socialised economy outside of the Soviet bloc.

I also saw that piece of tripe, but can't remember its name

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

18. I always thought it was more about the NRA talking points

than anything really military- it seemed to take a big chunk out of their fantasy playbook.

[EstimatedProphet]

19. That one and the Rambo series, and Missing in Action

Those films really have promoted a fantasy-world about warfare that wasn't anywhere near as prevalent before the 80's: the American with the big gun is invulnerable. All someone has to do is have a M-60 with a belt feed, and if they are truly American enough they will always shoot first and never be shot.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. Rambo II and III yes but not the first one. (nt)

[ThoughtCriminal]

20. More fun as a double feature

Show it with "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!"

That's even more fun than a MASH/Patton double feature.

[Telly Savalas]

21. Doesn't it feature a nonironic tearful "I love you, man."

I think the movie is good campy fun.

It's kind of like a "Reefer Madness" only instead of pot, the subject is the Cold War.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

22. I watched it when I was 10

Back then I liked action and war films, but even I thought Red Dawn was the lamest thing I'd ever seen. I finally turned off after 1 hour.

[solinvictus]

23. I love it myself...

the film shows how a core group of effective resisters can make an area chaotic. In all reality, their actions would've likely been more low key, such as shooting telephone/power lines and striking entirely isolated soft targets. Also, they seemed to have 100% intelligence, which is horseshit for that situation.
If anyone doubts the severity of a Soviet occupation, look at Hungary in 1956 and the 100K plus dead and deported from that revolt. The Soviets were brutal as hell.

[Nitrogenica]

24. What about that T.V. movie "Homeland Security"

http://www.movietome.com/movietome/servlet/MovieMain/movieid-100729/Homeland_Security_TV/

[Jesus H. Christ]

25. Remember what the first thing the Ruskies do is?

That's right. Shoot the only black guy.

[brentspeak]

26. Let's not forget "Missing In Action" n/t

[democracy eh]

27. was there ever a straight to video sequel?

seems like a candidate

[48pan]

32. It was indeed Cheesy but entertaining. Jimmy Smits was ...

a pretty good Cuban.