What I think is hilarious about Red Dawn is how many of the actors grew up to become big Hollywood libs, and their association with Red Dawn and John Milius is incredibly embarrassing to them.
I remember Lea Thompson (her politics aside, grrrrr....
) being really embarrassed on The Tonight Show when Jay Leno ran a Red Dawn clip of her as a teenager unloading an AK, with a grimace of sheer determination on her face, at the Soviets over and over...
Except for the fact that the patriotic gung-ho tone of the movie was John Milius' intent all along, the embarrassment of the actors is much like Bruce Springsteen’s dismay at the near universal misunderstanding of "Born in the USA" as a flag-waving patriotic piece, when it was really intended to be a ironic and sarcastic litany of criticism of U.S. capitalism, and the "abuse of the working man" through the eyes of a Vietnam Vet.
When that kind of sappy anti-American stuff gets turned around into promoting patriotism, I love it.
When you look at the lyrics of "Born in the USA" without hearing the music, you quickly realize it's a gigantic rant against Americanism, especially when you consider that as Born in the USA came out in the 80's, America was just getting back on it's feet, politically, financially, and emotionally after the 70's, when Bruce came out with this little tantrum. Unfortunately he put such a strong melody and chorus on the song, originally intended to highten the irony of the piece, the message is washed away.
I hope how he outsmarted himself pains Springsteen every day to his grave...
Born down in a dead man's town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that's been beat too much
'Til you spend half your life just covering up
[chorus:]
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I got in a little hometown jam
And so they put a rifle in my hands
Sent me off to Vietnam
To go and kill the yellow man
[chorus]
Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man says "Son if it was up to me"
I go down to see the V.A. man
He said "Son don't you understand"
[chorus]
I had a buddy at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They're still there, he's all gone
He had a little girl in Saigon
I got a picture of him in her arms
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I'm ten years down the road
Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go
I'm a long gone Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
I'm a cool rocking Daddy in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
"
