140 Character Movie Review – #140RVW
Much more serious than I remember this being. Decades of people yelling “Wolverines” made me remember the movie as campy & it really isn’t.
Spoiler-free Movie Review of Red Dawn:
Wow, they don’t waste a lot of time on this one – there’s a blitz of exposition blasted on screen too fast to read, then about two minutes of seeing a couple of teenagers, without even bothering to name them before the shooting starts. The action starts in about minute four. Within 6 minutes it’s a full war. I wonder if director John Milius was double-parked or something.
Red Dawn is possibly most noteworthy for being the first film released with the new PG-13 rating. (The Flamingo Kid earned the rating first, but was delayed in coming to market.) What’s interesting about this distinction is that in no way should this have been rated anything but R, whether PG-13 existed at the time or not. I’m a firm believer that any movie containing kids killing kids should earn an immediate R. (I’m looking at you, Hunger Games…) And this is an exceptionally violent movie by any measure (including the tasteless on-screen “Carnage Counter” feature on the DVD), considered at the time to be the most violent movie ever released with a rate of 2.23 acts of violence per minute.
It’s a serious movie. Having not seen this since the 80’s I had vague recollections of this being a slightly more violent The Outsiders. But the age of the protagonists is the only thing that separates Red Dawn from a full-on war film, and a rough one at that. Sure, it has a Outsiders-styled cast, but since the movie spends a minuscule amount of time learning anything about these characters, they could just as easily be 22 year old soldiers. It’s a good thing so many of the cast members went on to be famous, because if I didn’t recognize the actors I’d have no way of telling the characters apart.
It’s fascinating to see a war breaking out in North America, which is really the big draw with this picture. Ever since the introduction of nuclear weapons, it’s been hard to imagine a World War III fought with conventional weaponry and so Red Dawn plays out like an interesting “what if ” scenario. Admittedly, we learn over the course of the picture that limited nuclear strikes have taken place, wiping out major strategic cities, but this bit of exposition is delivered halfway through the picture during a rare non-violent moment and so you might miss it.
And that’s really where a strength becomes a weakness. One of the interesting stylistic choices of the film is leaving these kids so completely in the dark, cut off from all information. It is a very effective bit of storytelling for the first act of the film, but it isn’t really sustainable, so the solution to this problem literally falls out of the sky in the form of downed fighter pilot Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner (Powers Boothe). Tanner is able to interject some perspective and info about what is happening in the outside world. It’s a necessary character to introduce, since the audience has surely been wondering why the Russians and Cubans are bothering with this little town in Colorado of seemingly no strategic importance. But it’s too little too late. We want to see more of what is happening elsewhere. It has been really interesting to see what goes on in one small town in an event such as this and it gives the story weight. But the tantalizing taste of the larger struggle that Tanner’s info suggests made me impatient with the limited story of one group of insurgents. The efforts of these kids are fascinating but credulity starts to wane as the story progresses.
I’m a sucker for a Cold War story and Red Dawn produces images and a scenario not previously explored. It partially slakes my desire for a Cold War land war film. (I’d love it if someone would produce a film version of Tom Clancy’s Red Storm Rising.) It’s far from a perfect film (I’m not even sure it’s a good film) – it has huge pacing problems, little to no characterization, no real introduction and a non-ending. It also feels a bit like right-wing propaganda with a touch of Lord of the Flies brutality. But it is a unique picture that is better than I remembered it, and I love the Basil Poledouris score.
Poster:
Trailer:
http://youtu.be/9rmcC4xxHLI
Bechdel Test:
Fail
The Representation Test Score: C (4 pts)
(http://therepresentationproject.org/grading-hollywood-the-representation-test/)
| Main Cast | Patrick Swayze Jed, C. Thomas Howell Robert, Lea Thompson Erica, Charlie Sheen Matt |
| Rating | PG-13 |
| Release Date | Fri 10 Aug 1984 UTC |
| Director | John Milius |
| Genres | Action, Drama, War |
| Plot | It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers bands together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces. |
| Poster |  |
| Runtime | 114 |
| Tagline | A full scale military invasion by foreign troops begins. Total surprise. Almost total success . . . . |
| Writers | Kevin Reynolds (story), John Milius (screenplay) … |
| Year | 1984 |
