Red Dawn (1984) Review

Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn follows two brothers, Jed and Matt, who, after a Soviet invasion takes over their small Colorado town, escape to the mountains with a group of their friends, spurning a revolution to take back their home. 

Due to current global events, I thought it necessary to finally go back through and tackle Red Dawn, as it proves just as current and jarring now, as it did at the height of the Cold War scare of the time. Set in an alternate reality where NATO has dissolved, leaving the US to fend for themselves (and of course, where Russia actually invades), I think much of Red Dawn’s impact lies in that question of “what if?”. It’s a scary thought, one that Milius (a self titled “zen anarchist”), realizes to full-propagating potential, though never forcing it to feel like a propaganda piece, just a group of scared kids fighting for themselves and for their families. It’s moving, heartbreaking, and above all else, inspiring, becoming a battle cry for those with nothing left to lose but their lives. 

It’s proof that in times of war, the lines often become indistinguishable. Sure, in the fight between kids and men, the kids are winning. For the kids themselves, there is no victory where they come out on top. They’ve sacrificed and lost so much, including their innocence, while Cuba and the Russians have also lost dearly, in a war they themselves find to be disagreeable. Which is what, in all eventually, makes this so damning. It’s not pro-war, or anti-war, or even pro-revolution. It’s simply a glance behind the curtain of what could’ve been, as we now witness with Ukraine’s own defense of their home. 

Red Dawn boasts an impressive cast as well, starring Harry Dean Stanton, Lane Smith, William Smith, Jennifer Grey, Darren Dalton, Powers Boothe, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and Patrick Swayze. Coming off The Outsiders a year earlier, Swayze is a natural leader and perfect older brother type for this rag-tag group of renegades, with Howell’s ‘won’t back down’ attitude arriving front and center, aided by some equally great performances from Boothe, Thompson, and Sheen.

 

Red Dawn, directed by John Milius, is a moral question in and of itself, posing the idea of what lengths will one go to to protect themselves and their home, and, when the dust settles, was worth it in the end to lose one’s self in the process?

8.5/10