Watching Red Dawn...

[Nightcrawler]

...This movie always interested me in the accuracy it portrayed, as far as equipment goes. Front line Soviet troops have AK-74s, rear echelon troops have AKMs. You see RPK automatic rifles, a VERY convincing ZSU-23 Shilka, and an equally convincing replica of a T-72. (Not to mention what look like YAK-38 "FORGER" fighters in one scene.) I think the Nicaraguan troops have FALs (you see FALs in the film).

The PK machine gun is missing, but this is forgivable. I'm wondering how they got ahold of AK-74s (were tehy mock-ups?) in the mid-80s. Not to mention the Makarov pistol you see. (I'm guessing the AKs were Chinese imports.)

What's the machine pistol that that Spets Naz officer has on his hip? I can't place it.

The gun handling is suprisingly good for a film from this period. Characters in this movie were obeying rule three before most of the US military was.

The HIND helicopter...I'm really wondering where they got that. It's obviously an older one, with the flat nose (instead of the later models, with the trademark double-bubble canopies), but still; where do you get a HIND in the mid 80s? Was it just a mock-up? They did a good job on it if it was (even got that exaust port on each side in the right spot).

I think you catch sight of a Tokarev in the opening scene, too.

It's not perfect; you can catch a few goofs if you look (pistols at slide lock when they shouldn't be, the shooting obviously foley-ed in...), but on average they really paid attention to little details.

This film freaked me out when I was kid; I grew up in a town called Calumet...

 

[Mad Man]

What's the machine pistol that that Spets Naz officer has on his hip?

It's been a while since I've seen the movie, but I think Bratchenko had a Polish PM-63.

 

[ocabj]

I've seen this movie so many times on HBO back in the early 80s. This movie is an 80s classic.

I really need to order a copy on DVD sometime.

 

[Nightcrawler]

Found my answer

It's a Jati-Matic, a rather homely looking Finnish submachine gun. The Finns used Russian weapons, so it's only natural, I guess, that some Russians could get Finnish weapons.

 

[strambo]

The HIND is an "A" model. Haven't seen the film in a lond time, but I'm 90% sure its real. In Rambo III they used modified CH53s or some variant I believe to replicate HIND A's, though I haven't seen that movie since High School. (Once your over 18, whats the point in Rambo films? 'cept for First Blood, that movie still rocks)

The Army has had HIPs and HINDs for quite a while, they are used at training centers, and they fly 'em. Army also has a Soviet AN2 Colt as well (Worlds largest Bi-plane.)

 

[BerettaNut92]

Calumet? I thought that was a camera store

I think the Hind was a done-up French helo of some sort with a lot of make-up....or was that in Rambo?

It's also one of the few movies where the Russians speak Russian instead of English with a Russian accent.

 

[tc300mag1]

Is a Great movie might have to break it out and watch it this weekend since all the talk about it in past few days

 

[Jeeper]

I always thought that this movie had a great lesson in it about gun registration. The first thing the cuban commander did was to get the records of all gun owners from the sporting goods stores.

 

[daver]

Tantal has a nice write-up and pictures of one of the Maadi AKs used in the movie.

http://avtomats-in-action.com/pro16.html

 

[Langenator]

Of course, the weapons weren't perfect...on the train rolling through town at the end, there's a WWII vintage German 37mm towed AT gun on one fo the flatcars...

 

[M2 Carbine]

Nightcrawler

The helicopters were Petroleum Helicopters Inc. Pumas with a LOT of junk on them.
The pilots said they wouldn't hardly fly.
You notice they didn't do a lot of maneuvering.

I retired from PHI a couple years ago. Flew for them 29 years.


My friend was the consultant in charge of the parachute jumpers.
He goes by RedDawn on Glock Talk.
He's Airborne from the Viet Nam days.

This is one of the stills he showed me from the movie.
I think he said he wasn't in this jump.

He said the wind was so bad on one jump they were blown everywhere.

 

[M2 Carbine]

One of the news clipping RedDawn had from the movie.
Notice they changed the name.

 

[strambo]

Great info, thanks M2.

 

[M2 Carbine]

Here's another clipping RD has.
He said the locals were enjoying the goings on.

On one of the jumps, a paratrooper was blown off the drop zone and landed in a yard where a couple were watching the jump.
Not knowing what was being filmed, the trooper pointed his AK at the folks and they put their hands up.

 

[morganm01]

Best movie ever....WOLVERINES!!

 

[MAKOwner]

Yep, probably my favorite movie of all time. When you look at the rest of the 80s action movies this is absolutely incredibly well done, it still stands up and feels like a well made movie today IMO...

I would have loved to have seen it in the theaters when new. Apparently it created quite a controversy...

 

[OEF_VET]

For all of you who are as into meaningless trivia as I am, Red Dawn was the first movie rated PG-13.

(MAK, I saw it in the theater not once, but twice. It was really great, especially since I lived on Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, MT; which, with its' 200 Minuteman III missiles, was one of the Soviets' top ten nuclear targets.)

 

[entropy]

Krassnyee Rassvet

Ya v' Okhotnik!

Lea Thompson was (still is) hot in that movie! Especially firing that AK!

Wolverines!

 

[tiberius]

Great cult classic. Of course they paid attention to detail. The director – John Milius – is a certified gun nut. He’s even a board member of the NRA.

My “favorite†part is when the Cuban in command orders all the 4473’s to be taken from the local hardware and gun shops so that the gun owners can be identified and their guns confiscated. He even calls them “4473’sâ€. What a great slam at gun registration.

Also:
Jed: Well, who *is* on our side?
Pilot: Six hundred million screamin' Chinamen.
Darryl: Well, last I heard, there were a billion screamin' Chinamen.
Pilot: There were.


You should also check out his film “The Wind and the Lion†– a fictionalized account of T. Roosevelt taking on some Berbers who kidnapped an American…good gun film too.

 

[entropy]

...let's not forget rounding up the Boy Scouts, 'an elite paramilitary organization.'

 

[Greg L]

Too bad thermal imaging has made hanging out in the mountains a suicidal escape route . Personally I would much rather hang out in the outdoors than in the middle of a city.

Still, it is a great movie (given the three thumbs up from my kids - they want to show it to their friends when they have a sleepover ).

Greg

 

[carp killer]

It's a cool movie and I know it is just a fantasy, but guess which politicians would "cooperate" with the enemy and happily get those 4473's. Most likely the same politicians who support gun control now. Remember what the mayor did to his own son in the movie.

 

[dischord]

For all of you who are as into meaningless trivia as I am, Red Dawn was the first movie rated PG-13.

Actually, it was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which came out two years earlier.

 

[Sportcat]

Always wondered... why would China be on our side?

We're the other 400 million nuked?

 

[MikeB]

Always wondered... why would China be on our side?

If I recall correctly, at that time China and the Soviet Union were at odds.

And yes they were probably nuked, if you remember when the pilot is telling the kids what happened, he tosses liquor into the fire when they ask about the billion chinese.