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Red Dawn: 1984 (PG-13) -1
USA / MGM
56%
I LOVE Red Dawn! Why?
I am a proud patriotic gun loving son of a bitch! And this movie is about armed civilians killing invading commie hordes in their own back yard! The only way this movie could be anymore American if George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt came back to life to fight the Russians on horseback wielding M-16’s eating apple pie and high fiving Baby Jesus! Though Baby Jesus would be highly unlikely since Milius is Jewish. Anyway, I remember the day clearly when I swore an oath to defend this great nation from all threats foreign and domestic. And this is a movie that plays to my sentimentalities to a tee. This movie is a Cold War action flick set in Colorado where Swayze and Charlie Sheen kill a bunch of Russians who made the damn fool mistake of invading the USA! Five minutes into this movie you see a Colorado high school overrun by Russian, Cuban, and Nicaraguan paratroopers to begin their invasion of the US. Escaping the fray at the school, a group of teenagers including Matt Eckert (Charlie Sheen) and adult brother Jed Eckert (Patrick Swayze) grab a bunch of guns and supplies and head for the mountains. Together they start a guerrilla war against their Soviet invaders calling themselves the Wolverines. They set up ambushes, bomb movie theaters playing Soviet films, raid prison camps, blow up Soviet vehicles, and leave the Russkies lying in puddles of their own blood. The plot is simple, the characters are not the most complex, but the drama is real and the violence is in mass amounts. The story is told over months at a time, from what looks like fall in through winter. They fight long and hard and show what kind of prolonged and intense fighting does to a person. Some begin to crack, some struggle with tough moral choices, and some give into the darkest part of a man’s soul which burns hot with revenge and bloodlust. This follows in a long line of movies John Milius has made which are full of his typical macho bravado and I love it! And though the violence is relatively bloodless (at least by modern standards) the number of violent acts is staggering. In fact this movie was considered the most violent movie at the time in terms of number of violent acts on screen. This movie even held the title in the Guinness Book of Records. It was also the first movie to be distributed with the PG-13 rating. And the movie was a big hit!
Problem was, this movie got Milius in all kinds of trouble. Hollywood also has a reputation of being a pretty liberal town, and this being a very violent film where the Soviets were the bad guys and killed in massive amounts, the film did generate some controversy. It did not help that Milius had a history in Hollywood. Despite Milius being tight with the likes of Coppela, George Lucas, and Spielberg, and being an exceptional writer he was pretty much viewed as an outsider in Hollywood because of his very larger than life personality and personal politics. The self described Zen Anarchist was an un-credited writer on Dirty Harry, The Hunt for Red October, and Jaws; a credited co-writer on Magnum Force and Apocalypse Now; and wrote and directed Conan the Barbarian and this movie. He was also the writer who came up with a lot of the most memorable lines in American cinema. He wrote the “Do I feel Lucky” monologue from Dirty Harry, “Go ahead make my day” from Sudden Impact, USS Indianapolis speech in Jaws, and all the best lines in Apocalypse Now like “Charlie don’t surf” and “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” But that did not save him from a media storm where the film was condemned for its violence and political themes. Some called it irresponsible and some accused the film of saber rattling. After this movie he was pretty much black listed from Hollywood.
And as sad as it is Milius never got a lot of stable work after this again he has stayed active as a writer and even co creator of the TV series Rome so he can still pay the bills. In the end however this is still one of my all time favorite films, and at one point in time this WAS my favorite film. If you cry out “WOLVERINES!” people know exactly what you are talking about! And if you have ever seen Walter in The Big Lebowski, take a guess who is friends with the Coen Brothers and inspired that character.
If you are curious about learning more about John Milius, check out the documentary about him. It is on DVD in the UK and can be viewed on E-Pix in a 14 day free trial.
Red Dawn: 1984 (PG-13) -1
USA / MGM
56%
I LOVE Red Dawn! Why?
I am a proud patriotic gun loving son of a bitch! And this movie is about armed civilians killing invading commie hordes in their own back yard! The only way this movie could be anymore American if George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt came back to life to fight the Russians on horseback wielding M-16’s eating apple pie and high fiving Baby Jesus! Though Baby Jesus would be highly unlikely since Milius is Jewish. Anyway, I remember the day clearly when I swore an oath to defend this great nation from all threats foreign and domestic. And this is a movie that plays to my sentimentalities to a tee. This movie is a Cold War action flick set in Colorado where Swayze and Charlie Sheen kill a bunch of Russians who made the damn fool mistake of invading the USA! Five minutes into this movie you see a Colorado high school overrun by Russian, Cuban, and Nicaraguan paratroopers to begin their invasion of the US. Escaping the fray at the school, a group of teenagers including Matt Eckert (Charlie Sheen) and adult brother Jed Eckert (Patrick Swayze) grab a bunch of guns and supplies and head for the mountains. Together they start a guerrilla war against their Soviet invaders calling themselves the Wolverines. They set up ambushes, bomb movie theaters playing Soviet films, raid prison camps, blow up Soviet vehicles, and leave the Russkies lying in puddles of their own blood. The plot is simple, the characters are not the most complex, but the drama is real and the violence is in mass amounts. The story is told over months at a time, from what looks like fall in through winter. They fight long and hard and show what kind of prolonged and intense fighting does to a person. Some begin to crack, some struggle with tough moral choices, and some give into the darkest part of a man’s soul which burns hot with revenge and bloodlust. This follows in a long line of movies John Milius has made which are full of his typical macho bravado and I love it! And though the violence is relatively bloodless (at least by modern standards) the number of violent acts is staggering. In fact this movie was considered the most violent movie at the time in terms of number of violent acts on screen. This movie even held the title in the Guinness Book of Records. It was also the first movie to be distributed with the PG-13 rating. And the movie was a big hit!
Problem was, this movie got Milius in all kinds of trouble. Hollywood also has a reputation of being a pretty liberal town, and this being a very violent film where the Soviets were the bad guys and killed in massive amounts, the film did generate some controversy. It did not help that Milius had a history in Hollywood. Despite Milius being tight with the likes of Coppela, George Lucas, and Spielberg, and being an exceptional writer he was pretty much viewed as an outsider in Hollywood because of his very larger than life personality and personal politics. The self described Zen Anarchist was an un-credited writer on Dirty Harry, The Hunt for Red October, and Jaws; a credited co-writer on Magnum Force and Apocalypse Now; and wrote and directed Conan the Barbarian and this movie. He was also the writer who came up with a lot of the most memorable lines in American cinema. He wrote the “Do I feel Lucky” monologue from Dirty Harry, “Go ahead make my day” from Sudden Impact, USS Indianapolis speech in Jaws, and all the best lines in Apocalypse Now like “Charlie don’t surf” and “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” But that did not save him from a media storm where the film was condemned for its violence and political themes. Some called it irresponsible and some accused the film of saber rattling. After this movie he was pretty much black listed from Hollywood.
And as sad as it is Milius never got a lot of stable work after this again he has stayed active as a writer and even co creator of the TV series Rome so he can still pay the bills. In the end however this is still one of my all time favorite films, and at one point in time this WAS my favorite film. If you cry out “WOLVERINES!” people know exactly what you are talking about! And if you have ever seen Walter in The Big Lebowski, take a guess who is friends with the Coen Brothers and inspired that character.
If you are curious about learning more about John Milius, check out the documentary about him. It is on DVD in the UK and can be viewed on E-Pix in a 14 day free trial.