Red Dawn

Day 11

Film 11

I am going to be honest about this movie. I fell asleep half way through, slept for a good 45 or so minutes, woke up and after a brief plot summary from a friend watched the ending 20 or so minutes.

With that warning shall we get to the meat of the matter?

I did not know about this movie until, when I was looking around the local Blockbuster with a friend, he pulled out Red Dawn after I told him he should find something popcorntastic. He came up with Red Dawn while I pulled out both The Big Lebowski and The Wrath of Khan.

Red Dawn is a fun, exciting romp through the world of popcorn action. It starts off quickly, not bothering to do boring introductions before the reds (who consist of a million different nationalities) come raining down from the sky to murder the good old American townspeople. It is well acted in a sort of cheesy action movie, in which the characters become people you want to root for. It approaches the sheer fun of kicking commie ass with some deep scenes, enough to make you know that if any of these people make it out of it they will be deeply changed by it. It is not a perfect movie, but a respectable popcorn flick that steps beyond the usual gun toting action baddies in the genre.

It should be said that Red Dawn is a powerful piece of propaganda, asking the question "if we were to fight the reds on our land what would it be like." for all of its fun we cannot just let it stop there. A movie like Red Dawn can be seriously dangerous because how it promotes nationalism and the McCharthian principles. It does this exceptionally well, and stands at a pinnacle for what movie making can do to sway a population with a good story.

The bottom line: Watch it. It is a good film that has a deeper meaning to it than its action roots would lead you to believe.