Good story, Not enough for a whole film

good back-story, and good acting

best movie i've ever seen.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This is one of my desert island films, meaning what 10 films would you take with you if you were trapped on a deserted island, which is asking what are the 10 greatest films of all-time, but what 10 films would you most enjoy watching over and over again? John Milius' "Red Dawn" is unquestionably amongst of my ten films. The continental US is invaded by the USSR and an ordinary group of high schoolers find themselves hiding out in the hills from the dirty commies and wage a guerrilla war against the occupying Soviet and Cuban forces. The group adopts their high school mascot, the Wolverines, as their rallying cry, and are led by former football star Patrick Swayze, along with his brother Charlie Sheen, in his film debut, Lea Thompson, C. Thomas Howell, and Jennifer Grey. The story is an irresistible Cold War era set-up, but it's really writer/director Milus' execution of that story that make this film a classic. The recent remake got just about everything wrong and Mlius hits everything just right. The film sees the teens making the leap from a group of typical kids to a group of freedom fighters, versus the remake where they were a fighting force pretty much from the start. Milius also pushes the Americana elements, which make an incursion by the Russians all the more offensive and angering for the audience, not the least of which is casting iconic western actor Ben Johnson in a supporting role. Most significantly, Milius dials the jingoism up to eleven and that's where this film stands out and really comes to life. All of the American iconography throughout the film is one thing, but when you have an NRA bumper sticker brought to life with a Russian taking a gun out of someones cold dead hand or Patrick Swayze arguing with his brother whether their violent tactics are any different from their enemy, Swayze shouts, "Because ... we live here!" Which brings up the interesting political implications of this film. The Soviets are clearly the bad guys for their unprovoked invasion of the United States, but it's impossible to watch "Red Dawn" without seeing a connection to US occupation and fighting of various "insurgent groups" in the Middle East. The same reasons you feel sympathies for Swayze and his fellow Wolverines for protecting their own because they "live here," it's not hard to see why the insurgency in the Middle East continues nearly 20 years after the initial US invasion of Afghanistan. Well, there are differences in the situations for sure, but regardless, but on a simple human emotional level you can't help but watch "Red Dawn" and on that gut level see the universal human desire to protect your homeland from outsiders. But I digress. As I was saying before, it's the film's unabashed flag waving that make it such a camp classic and something that stands apart from the remake or any other similar alternate history type of films. Americans citizens are rounded up in put in re-education camps. Prisoners are lined up for a firing squad and singing "America the Beautiful" as a final act of patriotic defiance. The film is littered with these type of gonzo moments, which are over-the-top and jingoistic to the point of absurdity (though I'll admit to getting quite caught up in it and quite enjoying it), but it's really the small bits of American iconography throughout the film that give it it's power; the game day football field, the middle America small town, the Teddy Roosevelt statue, Swayze's old west Colt 45, or the Wolverines riding on horseback, all add up to a very "American" band of heroes using what makes America great to preserve and protect those icons. I also need to mention that "Red Dawn" contains my favorite one-scene performance of all time. This is when an actor only appears in one scene in a movie, but gives a startlingly great and memorable performance that impacts the larger film. Examples of this would be Christopher Walker's gold watch scene in "Pulp Fiction" or Henry Jones' devastating inquest scene in "Vertigo." In "Red Dawn" there is one scene where brothers Swayze and Sheen to go a drive-in that's been converted into a POW/re-education camp and are looking for their father, played by legendary and iconoclastic actor Harry Dean Stanton, and the following exchange happens with the characters separated by chainlink fencing:Tom: Boys. Matt: Daddy. Dad. Tom: Don't talk. Don't say anything. Let me look at ya. I knew I was right. I knew it. You're alive. I was tough on both of you. I did things that made you, made you hate me sometimes. You understand now, don't you? Jed: What happened, dad? Why are you here? What'd you do? Tom: Doesn't matter. One way or another, for one reason or another, we're all gone. It's all gone. Remember. Remember when you used to go in the park and play, and I used to put you two on the swings? Both of you were so damn little. Jed: I remember. I remember all of it. Tom: Well, I won't be there to pick you up when you fall now. Both of you have to take care of each other now. Matt: We'll never see you again, dad. Tom: Yes you will. I don't want to hear that, Maddy. Matt: What happened to mom, dad? Where is she? Tom: You can't afford to be crying anymore now. I don't want either one of you to ever cry for me again. Don't ever do it. Not as long as you live. Robert: Where's my dad, Mr. Eckert? Tom: I don't know son. I don't know. You all get going. Get out before they find you. Jed: Dad, I love you. Tom: I know you do, son. I love you too.Tom, Jed, and Robert LeaveTom: Boys! Avenge Me! Avenge Me!You know that scene in "Dirty Harry" where Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan describes the power of the .44 Magnum? John Milius wrote that. Remember the scene in "Jaws" when Robert Shaw, playing Quint the shark hunter, talks about his buddies being eaten alive by sharks during World War II? That was Milius. How about the line in "Apocalypse Now," when Robert Duvall, playing a surf-loving Army colonel, says, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning"? Milius again. This is why I love Milius and consider him one of the greatest Hollywood screenwriters. This particular scene stands right alongside Milus' most famous contributions to the silver screen. Stanton makes such a strong impression with this one scene that between his performance and Milius' dialogue, the brothers entire childhood and formulation of their character and who they are is encapsulated is this once moment. The scene gives me chills every time. And as corny as Stanton yelling "Avenge Me!" at the end is, it works within the context of this film. Besides the great Harry Dean Stanton, Milius also cast Ron "Superfly" O'Neal, Frank McRae, Lane Smith, and the vastly underrated Powers Boothe, along with my all-time favorite character actor, William Smith (who also played Conan's dad in Milius' "Conan the Barbarian"), as commander Strelnikov, and interestingly, Smith was not just speaking his Russian dialogue from rote memory, but he is actually fluent in several Russian dialects and European languages. During the Korean War, Smith was actually recruited by the CIA and NSA during his time in the Air Force and worked as a Russian Intercept Interrogator. Also worth noting is the excellent score by Basil Poledouris, who also worked with Milius on his classic score for "Conan the Barbarian." Overall, sure "Red Dawn" is a right-wing paranoid fantasy, but is an incredibly fun one and is storytelling of the first order. FUN FACT! This was the first film to be released in the US with a PG-13 rating. Also, the military operation to capture Saddam Hussein was named Operation Red Dawn and its targets were dubbed Wolverine 1 and Wolverine 2.

Let's for a moment leave aside the rather asinine political background of the story, the Cold War milieu and the Middle American paranoia. Obviously the movie is about a bunch of "average" white kids, football players at that, fighting a cast of foreign invaders with scary accents; make of that what you will. But it's also a predictable Eighties action movie, and a rather dumb one to boot.High school kids, half a dozen or so, survive the Soviet-Cuban invasion of Wyoming and take to the hills as guerrilla fighters. I gave a vague number, because director John Milius never convincingly distinguished between any of the characters; I couldn't keep track of who was who or what their names were, so that when several of them inevitably died tragic deaths, I could only react by asking, "Which one was that?"The story is a great celebration of brainless macho posturing. The kids' leader bullies them and threatens them when they express any emotion, and Milius portrays their transformation into killing machines without any trace of irony or self-awareness. He's already stripped them of their individuality, but his only goal seems to be to create violent fight scenes, and not any sort of commentary on the dehumanizing effects of war. The fight scenes, or action scenes or whatever the aficionados prefer to call them, are elaborately staged, with helicopters, tanks, rockets, and lots of exploding stunt men. They also manage to make the trained Soviet soldiers look like morons, while the plucky American youngsters perform like steely Red Berets. The overwhelming focus on the action ensures that the movie will never be taken seriously, because the characters are allowed no emotional life, and the real consequences of guerrilla violence are avoided -- the brutal reprisals, the collateral civilian deaths, the moral compromises.Cheesy Eighties action movies can be fun, but "Red Dawn" is too exploitative for that. It misses all the opportunities it had for thoughtful commentary or provocative insights, and instead just stages a bunch of generic shootouts.

I have seen so many reviews who think the plot is ridiculous and the message is bad. Anyone who thinks it was ridiculous was born after 1990 I guarantee. At the time, it was not far fetched, but most kids today say "who cares about when it was released, it's stupid to me". How naive. Please don't comment on things you know nothing about. This was not far fetched at the time. It was a huge stretch, but not impossible. I don't comment on the plausibility of movies in the 60's, so please do not judge movies that were released before you were born. You don't know me, but trust me, this was not far fetched in 1984. Now I am sure people think we were just idiots if we think this was possible, but again, if you were not alive then, you have no clue what it was like then, so please just shut up. I know most on the left are used to movies that make war out to be horrible, and guess what? So does this one. While it's patriotic, it also shows the enemy as human, and war is fruitless. But it also shows it's OK to love your country. I don't know why so many hate this movie, simply because there is a love of country. Yes it's over the top. But it seems that most movies from Hollywood with war must show how bad America is and how bad war is to be considered "good". Sorry it shows people will fight for America. Unfortunately, this movie seeems to fall into the left hates it and the right loves it. It is so much more than that. Your politics will decide if you like this it seems, but try and get past that, and enjoy this. It is a deep movie with multiple messages. You will want to fight for America after this if it comes to that, but you will also pray for peace. Too bad so many just use their political views to judge this movie, because it has something for both sides and it really is a wonderful movie if you can move past picking apart a few unlikely scenarios. So many who claim to be "enlightened" sure are close minded with this film. And the music is incredible too btw. Best score in a non Star Wars movie in along time. Get past your politics and try and enjoy it.

As a serious drama this is arguably one of the most inept major releases of all time. As a comedy - which it might be - it's still one of the most inept major releases of all time. Acting so bad I'm surprised any casting directors took their agent's phone calls after this one. Patrick Swayze, C Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Powers Boothe. How did they find work ever again? Action sequences so farcical is makes pro wrestling look like the most carefully choreographed martial arts movie. A story so preposterous it makes real-life Cold War rhetoric sound as gentle as a Jane Austen novel by comparison. Most movies centered around high school kids are bad, generally speaking. But this is the worst. Who agreed to invest money in this production? A bunch of dentists hoping to lose money so they could claim the tax break?