Red Dawn

The term 'Cult Classic' has introduced us to many strange and interesting films that most would overlook as either trash or just too weird to understand. Such examples are 'ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW', 'A CLOCKWORK ORANGE', 'PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE' and dozens more in all genres from horror to science fiction. One such Cult film is the war drama 'RED DAWN' from 1984.

The 1980's were a difficult time for the world. But the biggest threat was war which was being waged all over. Vietnam was still a dark shadow from America's history, the Falklands was all over the British news, but nothing was more terrifying than the soon to be over Cold War between America and Russia. What started out as a 'who has the bigger gun' argument was turning into the world's worst nightmare as a nuclear war seemed almost a certainty. The Americans were still as scared as ever at the thought of communism taking over their land which lead to great prejudice against any Russian or indeed anyone from communist countries. One product of this is the war drama 'RED DAWN' which deals in the what-if question of what if Russia invaded America. But rather than showing us the usual images of the government responding to the war or the military fighting on the battlefield, the film focuses on how the war affects the small town community.

Russian resources have plummeted due to harvest and economic problems and wishes to solve this by allying with Cuba in order to invade the United States, creating World War III. The film wastes almost no time in getting into the invasion. We are in the average American town, seeing brothers Jed and Matt (a teenage Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen in his film debut) on their way to high school. The Russians begin to parachute down and take control of the town. This happens all over the country but the film only shows this particular town so we can see more detail on one area. The invasion, as one would imagine, is extremely violent. We see a school teacher mercilessly gunned down whilst attempting to find out who the soldiers were. The school is the first place to be struck and we see not only adults, but school children killed which is a rather bold move as the subject of child death in cinema is a major controversy, but to avoid the subject wouldn't be faithful to the depiction of war. Jed and Matt both manage to escape the slaughter and drive out of town with a couple of other boys while they gather food and supplies and hide out in the Colorado mountains to sit the invasion out.

The invasion is practically over about a month later. The USA and Russia are presumably in peace talks or simply in a standstill. The southern states have all more or less been conquered and is now considered 'Occupied Territory' whereas the northern states remain safe and known as 'Free America'. The boys are still in the mountains and have spied on their hometown and discover it full of Russian soldiers and even tanks. The townsfolk go about their normal business whilst under the watchful eye of the soldiers. The boys are also now wanted fugitives for fleeing the original invasion. They also witness the brutal execution of their fathers and 20 other people on the out skirts of town after they have built a mass grave, presumably for themselves. The boys (now accompanied by two sisters wanting to escape to the 'F.A') then take the fight back to the Russians as guerrilla soldiers and cause all types of havoc. Usually violent.

The first attack is by far the most gritty as it shows the pain that the teenagers are in due to the war. Three Russian soldiers who are on patrol stop by a national forest which is a tourist attraction (though the soldiers translate the sign wrong and has the funniest moment in the film) when they notice the teens hiding nearby. One soldier is shot in the back with an arrow and is the gunned down, the second is shot when chasing the teens. It's the third that suffers the most as he has been shot in the back, crawls back to his jeep to call for back-up when Jed appears and after a long pause of them staring at each other, shoots him in the head.

The film continues to show the teens fight back with ruthless efficiency (and does make you wonder how they know how to fight practically an entire army) until we do see the downfall of the team who are now ironically known as The Wolverines. Apart from the sudden deaths of two members (which catches us completely by surprise and effects us immediately) we also see the main break up of the group due to one member selling them out in order to save his father. He is executed as brutally as when the Russians executed the boy's fathers. Possibly giving us the impression that Jed is so blinded by rage, that he has lost all compassion for people apart from his own brother. After the loss of the two most aggressive members, Jed and Matt make one last ditch effort to give the other two remaining teens to escape to the northern states by destroying a large base and killing two of the main Russian generals but do die in the massacre. The film ends on a shot of a large rock (which the teens had carved their names into) that has become into a national monument in memory of the teen soldiers.

The film does feel like a large documentary which gives it a good sense of realism and fact (despite it being based on a war that does not exist). The characters do have detail put into them and we can tell them distinctly from each other. One change was one boy who was quiet but turns in a vengeful and quite ferocious killer despises the Russians as much (or possibly more) than Jed. The film though is possibly nothing more than a large propaganda movie designed to continue the fear of communism. It can be seen as a large act of patriotism, young Americans fighting against the Russian army and driving them back. The film was also very controversial when it was released and was the first film to classified as a 12 rating, despite it's now an 15. Is also technically the most violent film created with an average on 1 violent act every 12 seconds.

One of the best cult films of the eighties and is an excellent war film that few people have heard of but actually has references all over other films and TV shows. The film has in fact been remade and will be released this year, but instead of a Russian invasion, China goes to war with the US. Let's hope it does better than most remakes from the last ten years.

Review by Rory Dunn