I just watched "Red Dawn" again

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Trebor

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My wife is out of town so I decided to stay up late and watch some movies this weekend. I just finished watching "Red Dawn." Man, what a time capsule. Everything about it just screams "1980's." From the Cold War scenario, to the early 80's actors at the start of their careers (Patrick Swaze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, Lea Thompson) to the clothes and hairstyles. Back then the basic premise of the movie, while not exactly plausible, was certainly more believable then it would be today.

And of course, theres the guns. There's the AK-47's, other AK-47's modded to look like AK-74's, RPK's, RPD's, Soviet heavy machine guns (although I think one was a vismodded M-60) and Charlie Sheen's Colt Single Action Army. There are even FN FAL's in a few scenes.

Watching the movie again is like visiting with an old friend. I'd trade today's Western world vs. Islamic Fundamentalism for the old Cold War in a heartbeat. MAD worked out in the end, after all, didn't it?
 
I saw it for the first time about a month ago. I thought it was pretty decent, but the part about how the Russians came through the Mexican border made me chuckle. It was almost prophetic.
 
Oh, I forgot to mention that I figured that watching the movie would be a good time to check to see if all the Bulgarian AK mags I recently bought would lock solidly into my SAR 2. I resisted the urge to carve into the stock like Robert does in the movie.
 
Wonderful movie

I was 12 when I first saw the movie. I can say that my,...well, interests, started. It was my first exposue to a "self reliance" type theme and I heeded the message well over the years.

The prepetual boyscout,
Chris
 
First PG-13 movie, wasn't it?

I just finished watching War of the Worlds (the new one) and was thinking how every band of hideouts in an apocalyptic America would be called Wolverines.

Anyone see C. Thomas Howell on "24" this past season? He looks like he spent the last 15 years in a Russian prison camp.
 
You do realize that said movie glorifies "terrorism", aka guerilla warfare?

I first saw that movie about two years ago, and once I saw the scene with the American chick taking a picnic basket into the police station, I busted out laughing. The very thing demonized every night during the news was good ol' American entertainment on the silver screen not all that long ago.

Of course, that realization doesn't justify or excuse the current crop of middle-eastern/Islamist scumbuckets' behaviour...
 
Guerrilla warefare still targets occupying forces-soldiers and maybe police. Terrorism targets innocent civilians. When insurgents use an IED on a HMMWV, it could be called guerrilla warefare. When they blow up a Shia mosque, school children or behead civilian contractors trying to re-build a country, it's terrorism. If Swayze and crew killed some guys building a barracks for the Russians to live in or blew up an Eastern Orthodox church, that would have been terrorism.
 
You do realize that said movie glorifies "terrorism", aka guerilla warfare?

I don't ever remember the "Wolverines" targeting innocent civilians in that movie. To the best of my recolection every action was a taken against a valid military target. Please remind me where the partisans target civilians in that flick!
 
So, innocent civilians never visit police stations, eh? Oh, wait... the Wolverines were using them there newfangled smart bombs which only hurt the bad guys! ;) I think it's still pretty clear that my point is a good one. :)
 
So, innocent civilians never visit police stations,

Yes they do, but it from what I remeber the civilians were not the target the commie police were the target. As any soldier knows sometimes in war there is unintend collateral damage. During the last shootout at the train station a stray bullet from the muzzle of a partisans rifle may have even killed a child, that does not equate with terrorism, that would be the sad fact of war. Would you like to try again?
 
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I bought Red Dawn awhile ago on DVD for around $8. I loved the movie when I was younger and watching it now makes it even better. Granted the invasion scenario is somewhat far fetched, but it still made for a good story.
And yes, the Wolverines never directly targeted civilians, collateral damage aside, they were trying to free them and get the imprisoned civvies to rally behind them and fight the invading commies.
 
I just had to chime in on this guarilla warfare=terrorism nonsense. The key to terrorism, as others have said, is that innocent civillians are the ACTUAL TARGET. This is very different from innocent civillians being collateral damage. We can see this now in the mideast. When Hezzbolah lobs rockets into Isreal with not regard for where they land, that is terrorism. When Hezzbolah puts rocket launchers on civillians propety and Isreal targets the launchers, civillian deaths are collateral damage. The problem is that too many cowards hide behing women and children then cry attrocity when they (the cowards) are target and women and children die as a result.
 
Sure it glorifies guerrilla war, but guerrilla war is not terrorism!
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Right you are. Our country was liberated through "guerrilla war." Of course, the Clinton administration made that (along with "militia") into a derogatory word.

A few years ago, I played Grand Theft Auto. It takes place in the '80's, and while driving a car, there's a radio station playing. One of the commercials is for a gun-shop that offers "free screenings of the documentary Red Dawn!" Gave me quite a chuckle.
 
I just finished watching War of the Worlds (the new one) and was thinking how every band of hideouts in an apocalyptic America would be called Wolverines.
Click to expand...

I watched that movie with my dad a couple months ago. We couldn't stop laughing when the ONLY car in the world that still ran was an early 90's plymoth voyager. I guess whoever picked the car was trying to be funny.
 
I rented it a few months ago from my local video store. As I was checking it out the clerk said it was her favorite movie of all time :) I wonder if she has an AK at home. Sometimes I miss the 80's, especially the gas prices.
 
Sure it glorifies guerrilla war, but guerrilla war is not terrorism!
Click to expand...

I agree wholheartedly, but our government and the right wing side of our media, (The left might do so to just out of ignorance,) frequently refer to guerrilla acts as terrorism. The distinction is the targeting/wounding of non-combatants, but our .gov wants to eat its cake and have it to when it calls them terrorists out of one side of its mouth and combatants out of the other side.

IEDs blowing up under HMMWVs are something I hate, but they are guerrilla warfare, not terrorism. Suicide bombs that target anything but military targets are terrorism, not guerrilla warfare. It is a thin line sometimes, but an important distinction.
 
I enjoyed it when it came out and the part that sticks in my mind
is when the Cuban Comander told his men to check the police dept.
for all the gun records so he could find out who has the guns in town.
 
Wasn't it the Japanese General in the movie " Tora Tora Tora" who, when questioned by one of his subordinates as to why they don't invade mainland America, replies : "To invade America is crazy. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass."

Kind of makes you wonder. If this sort of thing were to happen, really happen, in today's world, if all the cops, armed forces, right-wing militant gun-nut types;) , gat-wielding gangbanger homies, good ol' boys with deer rifles, and everyone else would band together to repel the invasion?
 
The same scenario would be over pretty quickly these days for the good guys up in the mountains. Thermal imaging has come a long way :(

(one of my & the lowercase L's favorite movies)
 
In the white houses freezer, of course, waiting to be pulled out in time for the 2004 elec-, oh wait, I guess the lefties were wrong. In all reality, hes probably dead and buried. :neener:
 
I can remember seeing it in the theater, and later when it made it to the drive inn in 84',

when CT Howell shoots the rpg into the chopper the theater erupted in cheers and applaudes, well everytime the wolverines attacked the russians and cubans there were cheers and applaudes,

everyone was making so much noise we couldn't hear the movie, the mgt. turned the movie off, lights came on and a dude came in and ask if everyone wanted the volume turned up, everybody yells "YEAH!",

dude says OK, lights go back down and the volume goes up, and man it was loud, and no amount of cheering drowned out the sound,

when it was over and we walked out, everyone was talking LOUD, my ears were ringing,

a couple of months later when it made it to the drive inn, same reaction, people were honking horns, cheering and yelling,

it was great, thats the only movie I've ever been to where the audience got into the movie like that,


I still watch it a couple of times a year, and its still entertaining to me, some of the stuff is not too realistic, but hell its a movie,

I don't think hollywood would even consider making a movie like it nowdays.
 
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