One of my all time favorites.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Excellent but underrated film

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The Red menace and Russkies and good old wholesome American boys.How the Russians and Cubans got to the center of America with no resistance and barricaded the strategic little town but kids could leave and enter is part of the magic!

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.

It is the dawn of World War III. In southwestern America and Colorado, a group of teenagers bands together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces."Red Dawn" is one of those films that becomes legendary in hindsight. With Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson and more before their biggest roles, you cannot help but be impressed by the ensemble cast. But despite that, there is a lot left wanting here. Much of the plot is nonsense. We are given the impression that either a) the Russians control this one city in the middle of the country or b) they have taken over most of the United States overnight. I am not sure which is more hard to believe.The message is also very unclear. Coming from John Milius, there has to be a message. He is a towering personality, with strong opinions. But is this pro-war, anti-war, pro-freedom? We cheer for the Wolverines, but at the same time we see the Cuban (or Mexican?) colonel in a very human way, and at one point the question is bluntly asked -- how are we (Americans) different from them (Russians)? The answers are hard to find.

I'm not a big fan of '80s teen movies here – show me a John Hughes title and I'll probably run a mile (apart from HOME ALONE, which I have a nostalgic soft spot for). So when I heard about RED DAWN, a film about American teenagers fighting back against a Russian invasion, I didn't get my hopes up too much. The film is far too mainstream to offer any really cutting edge kind of thrills, so instead we're left with a bloated mess, full of average action scenes shot with little flourish or flair and plenty of soul-searching dialogue which got on my nerves after a while. I have a feeling that the Chuck Norris B-movie INVASION USA is a lot more entertaining than this flick.However, it's not all bad. It has a great director in John Milius, and he re-teams with CONAN THE BARBARIAN composer Basil Poledouris so there's a decent soundtrack. There's a big budget and action a-plenty involving shoot-outs, tanks and RPGs; some of the good guy deaths are quite moving. The script isn't all I hoped for, but there's an epic, wide-scale sense to the action which isn't half bad. It's mainly the youthful cast I have problems with. The likes of Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, and Charlie Sheen are all here, but they lack the definition that made them successful Hollywood actors in their own right. There are touches of individuality and acting ability but for the most part they seem faceless, just another figure in an ensemble group. The same goes for BACK TO THE FUTURE's Lea Thompson and DIRTY DANCING's Jennifer Grey. It takes some older actors like the excellent Powers Boothe and baddie William Smith to show them how to act.All in all, RED DAWN is a 'big' '80s film but in the end I found it a little bland for my tastes. There's a good downbeat climax, but the pacing issues up to then make it feel like an all-too-simple case of fight-talk-fight-talk ad nauseum. I enjoyed it, but it's not one I'll be watching again.