RED DAWN

'''Red Dawn''' is a 1984 film by John Milius about an invasion of the United States by the Soviet Union and Cuba, and the resulting guerrilla actions of a group of American high school students in the town of Calumet, Colorado. The movie features Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey, and Powers Boothe.
Produced in the last decade of the Cold War, ''Red Dawn'' has become something of a cult classic and has become a touchstone of 1980s pop culture. ''Red Dawn'' was the first movie to be released with a Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating (''The Flamingo Kid'' was the first film to actually receive the rating, but was not released for 5 months after certification.)

Contents

Plot summary

Backstory

Cast of Characters

Themes

Development

Taglines

Trivia

Cultural references

See also

References

External links

Plot summary

The plot of the movie is based on an idea that an unprepared United States stood alone and was then invaded by the Soviet Union and their allies in the then-upcoming late 1980s, igniting World War III. The larger war is ignored, following the lives of a group of young people who become guerrillas resisting the resulting occupation.
In the small Colorado town of Calumet, a normal fall morning is interrupted by an airdrop of Soviet paratroopers into the town. Following an attack on the local high school, a small group of teenagers arm themselves with hunting weapons and flees to the nearby mountains in order to escape the Soviets. They begin a Resistance against the Soviet-allied occupation force. The group calls themselves the ''Wolverines'' after their school’s team/mascot and proceed to attack the occupying forces using ambushes, sniper attacks, booby traps, guerrilla-style bombings in the town itself on Soviet positions, and raids on the occupiers' supply depots and convoys.
Over time, the Wolverines are joined by a downed Air Force fighter pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner, who instructs them in more formal military tactics. The Wolverines later liberate a "political prisoner camp" where the occupation force has rounded up citizens whom they thought might offer resistance to their occupation.
Eventually, they make a disastrous foray to the front lines of the war in a Rocky Mountain pass where M1 Abrams and T-72's are engaging each other, resulting in the premature death of Tanner and Arturo, known as "Aardvark".
As the result of continuing guerrilla attacks the Soviet field commanders now view the Wolverines as a serious threat. Initially the occupiers had tried terror tactics, executing groups of civilians following every Wolverine attack, in order to intimidate the local population and the Wolverines into halting their attacks. However, this tactic backfired resulting in the civilians lending increasing support to the Resistance. Following a rise in popular support for the Wolverines, Strelnikov, a Soviet counterinsurgency specialist, arrives to declare that there will be no more reprisals against civilians. Instead the specialist sends commandos into the mountains in order to eliminate the Wolverines. This new strategy fails when the commandos are ambushed and killed by the Wolverines in only mere seconds.
Following the ambush on the commandos the group finds a tracking device among the dead soldiers. Daryl, the son of the collaborating mayor of the town, admits that the Soviets had forced him to swallow a signal emitter, explaining that he only did it as a result of coercion. Jed shoots the sole Russian survivor of the commando squad but is unable to bring himself to kill his friend. Robert shoots Daryl in cold blood, prompting the group to realize that there is no way to avoid war, as it is inevitable. The Wolverines break camp out of fear of additional raids by the Soviets.
Things become increasingly hard for the Wolverines; their morale has eroded as the war of attrition takes its toll on their numbers. The Soviet occupation forces are pushing them to the breaking point, although thanks to the Wolverines, the Soviet hopes for keeping the civilian population shocked into complacency and unable to fight back have all but collapsed.
The remaining Wolverines are then ambushed while eating food from crates dropped from a passing Soviet convoy they had intended to attack. Several heavily armed Mil Mi-24 gunships appear and attack the Wolverines, and though Robert is able to disable one with an RPG-7, they suffer severe and demoralizing losses. Robert chose to die in a hail of gunfire. Toni was mortally wounded. Keeping a hand grenade as the others retreated, she killed several more Russian soldiers as she died.
The Wolverines are down to four; Jed, his brother Matt, Danny and Erica. Jed and Matt realize that they can't outlast the Soviets and if they keep fighting they will all die. Matt tells Danny and Erica to head for "Free America," insisting that some of their number must survive. The two brothers, meanwhile, stage a diversionary attack on the Soviet headquarters in town so that Danny and Erica can escape. Jed and his brother are both shot and mortally wounded by Strelnikov, although Jed manages to shoot and kill him as well. Jed staggers away as he carries his brother in his arms. Bella, the Cuban colonel who has commanded the occupation forces from the date of the invasion, has the chance to shoot the two brothers, but decides to let them go. Bella had been composing a letter to his wife just minutes before the attack, telling her he was planning on handing in his resignation. Jed staggers away with his brother to a park bench to wait out his final moments. Meanwhile, Danny and Erica successfully escape into "Free American" territory.
The film’s epilogue suggests that the United States won the war several years later; a plaque is displayed with "Partisan Rock" in the background, which pays tribute to the Wolverines killed in action, and reveals that the events in the film occurred during the "early days of World War III."

Backstory

Much of the progress and politics of the war is left to the viewers’ speculation in the film’s first half (putting the audience in the position of the characters, who also have no idea what is going on beyond their immediate surroundings), but specific facts are later provided by a downed U.S. Air Force pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Tanner.

Director/screenwriter John Milius reported that he had obtained the help and input of former Secretary of State and NATO commander General Alexander Haig to create the backstory/scenario, which required an invasion of the US by communist countries with minimal use of nuclear weapons on both sides.
The film’s backstory involves several alternate history political precedents. The Green Party came to power in West Germany, forcing the removal of U.S. forces from that nation and all nuclear weapons from Europe. The resulting upheaval left NATO as a political nonentity, with only Britain remaining as a U.S. ally. At the same time, Soviet allies Cuba and Nicaragua, each expanded their armies to 500,000 men, subsequently overrunning El Salvador and Honduras. A civil war in Mexico resulted in that country falling behind the Communist "Iron Curtain." In a parallel to Operation Barbarossa, the Soviet Union, like Nazi Germany, now had a broad base from which to invade its primary enemy, and thousands of troops from satellite nations to augment their own armies.
During this time, the Soviet Union was suffering its worst wheat harvest in 55 years and food riots were occurring throughout the Warsaw Pact. Apparently desperate for food to feed its people, the Soviet Union and its allies launched a full scale invasion of the United States. Although the movie was released in 1984, the story itself takes place in the near future, probably 1988 or 1989, because the Holodomor of 1932-1934 is probably what is being referred to as the previous "worst wheat harvest" that happened 55 years beforehand.
The Soviets utilize a three-phase attack. First, they use tactical nuclear strikes to destroy key points of communication including several major U.S. cities (Omaha, Kansas City and Washington, D.C. are specifically cited). Tactical nuclear weapons are also used to destroy ICBM bases in Montana and the Dakotas. In addition, it is hinted that Cuban infiltrators aid in confusing U.S. forces by raiding Strategic Air Command bases throughout the Midwest and Texas. Coupled with these nuclear attacks, Soviet transport aircraft containing elite Soviet VDV and Cuban paratroopers slipped through the U.S. radar disguised as commercial airlines.
The second phase saw Mexican and other Communist armies (with small contingents of Soviet forces) pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border into the Great Plains of the United States. The third phase involved a Soviet invasion of Alaska across the Bering Strait from Siberia. They crossed into Canada occupying the Yukon, British Columbia and Western Alberta, most likely including Calgary, and cut the Alaskan Pipeline, but were decisively stopped at the U.S.-Canadian border by U.S. forces.
Elsewhere, Britain remained loyal to her American allies, but suffered heavily for it. China also declared war upon the Soviet Union; the reason for this is unexplained, though there was some long-standing animosity between the two powers resulting from the Sino-Soviet split. Colonel Tanner refers to there being some "600 million screaming Chinamen" on the American side. When asked "I thought there were a billion screaming Chinamen?", he cryptically replies "There were", strongly suggesting China had suffered Soviet nuclear strikes. In the film, the effects of the nuclear weapons are not shown because the location (northern Colorado) is far from any contaminated sites.
The Communist forces manage to occupy and control a large chunk of the central United States, extending as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and north to Cheyenne, Wyoming across Kansas to the Mississippi River in the east. Denver is also under siege.
Once the lines are stabilized, it quickly becomes a conventional war with both sides ceasing their use of nuclear weapons. Colonel Tanner explains that the Soviets are reluctant to use any more nuclear weapons, as they want to conquer the United States, not destroy it utterly, and the U.S. government is unwilling to use tactical nuclear weapons on or over their own soil against the invading armies. The Soviets work through American collaborators at the local level to help them maintain order.

Cast of Characters

★ Patrick Swayze as Jed Eckert

★ Charlie Sheen as Matt Eckert

★ Harry Dean Stanton as Tom Eckert

★ C. Thomas Howell as Robert Morris

★ Lea Thompson as Erica Mason

★ Jennifer Grey as Toni Mason

★ Ben Johnson as George Mason

★ Brad Savage as Danny

★ Darren Dalton as Daryl Bates

★ Powers Boothe as Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner USAF

★ Doug Toby as Arturo "Aardvark" Madragon

★ Ron O'Neal as Col. Ernesto Bella

★ Vladek Sheybal as Gen. Bratchenko

★ William Smith as Col. Strelnikov (The Hunter)

★ Frank McRae as Mr. Teasdale

★ Roy Jenson as Mr. Morris

★ Pepe Serna as Aardvark's Father

★ Lane Smith as Mayor Bates

★ Judd Owen as The Nicaraguan Captain

★ Michael D'Agosta as Boy in Classroom

★ Johelen Carleton as Girl in Classroom

★ George Ganchev as Solider #1

★ Waldemar Kalinowski as Solider #2

★ Sam Slovick as Yuri

★ Radames Pera as Stepan Gorsky

★ Lois Kimbrell as Mrs. Mason

★ Elan Oberon as Alicia

★ Harley Christensen as Man on Telephone Pole

★ Fred Rexer as Tank Survivor

★ Michael Meisner as Russian Tanker #1

★ Victor Meisner as Russian Tanker #2

★ Phil Meade as Mr. Barnes

★ Sam Dodge as Man at Drive In

★ Ben Zeller as Man #2 at Drive In

★ Dan Sparks as Man #3 at Drive In

★ Benjamin Schick as Russian Sergeant

★ George Fisher as KGB Major

★ Zitto Kazann as Political Officer

★ Chuk Besher as Door Gunner

★ J.D. Ruybal as Cuban Crew Chief

★ Pacho Lane as Firing Squad Officer

★ Julius L. Meyer as Latin Officer

★ Tom Ireland as KGB #2

★ Krzysztof Janczar as Soviet Solider

★ Tacy Norwood as Rat Girl

★ Raquel Provance as Rachel

★ Gene Scherer as KGB #1

★ Scott Phillips as Russian Solider (uncredited)

Themes

''Red Dawn'' also depicts collaboration, portraying the local mayor as an opportunist who gains or maintains power by collaborating with the occupational forces. Actor Lane Smith plays the role of the “Vichyite” mayor who tries to appease the occupational authorities. He watches as several of the residents of his town are executed as insurgents and later gives up his own son (who is later executed by the Wolverines as a result) to the KGB to win more favor.
Director Jon Milius, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment portrays the private ownership of weapons as a necessary element of anti-Communism . Early in the film, a bumper sticker seen on a truck states a classic gun owner’s creed; “They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold, dead fingers.” The shot moves down to a dead hand holding an empty Colt pistol as well as shots of the same pistol being pried from the dead person's hand by a Soviet paratrooper. As the protagonists flee the initial invasion of Calumet, they stop at a local sporting goods store owned by one of their fathers. He tells them to gather supplies and gives them several rifles and pistols along with boxes of ammunition. (The father and his wife are later executed because of the guns missing from the store’s inventory.) In a later scene, a Cuban officer orders one of his men to report to the local sporting goods store and obtain the paperwork of local citizens who own firearms. The Cuban officer specifically refers to Form 4473, which is the actual form used to record the sale of a firearm by a dealer to a private citizen in the United States. These scenes speak to the long-standing issues of government gun control.
Although most of the high school insurgents are killed, a voice-over appears at the end of the movie by Erica (Lea Thompson), (one of the two survivors) showing a World War III memorial. The American flag flying above it implies the United States had—eventually—won the war. It was not part of the original script, but was added to soften its otherwise grim and defeatist ending .

Development

The script for ''Red Dawn'' was written by John Milius and Kevin Reynolds (director of ''Waterworld'') from a story by Reynolds. The original screenplay, called ''Ten Soldiers,'' was more akin to ''Lord of the Flies'', the classic novel (and later a film) about the aggressive nature of man, than to the action film it eventually became. Some of the changes made to ''Ten Soldiers'' included a shift in focus from the conflict within the group of teens to the conflict between the teens and their oppressors, and the acceleration of the ages of some of the characters from early teens to high school age and beyond. John Milius was inspired to a degree by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, basing the tactics of the "Wolverines" off those of the mujahideen in fighting the occupying Russian army.
''Red Dawn''’s story and conception are similar to John Steinbeck’s ''The Moon Is Down'', which is a story about a town occupied by a foreign army. The book, which was published during the height of World War II, was widely circulated in underground Europe and extremely popular as propaganda because the people of occupied Europe believed it spoke directly to them in a realistic way. Unlike ''Red Dawn'', ''The Moon Is Down'' is purposely vague and does not name the location of the town or the nationality of the invaders, but it did not start out that way. In the book’s early form, the town was in America and the invaders were Nazis. Steinbeck met much resistance for this version of the story from his colleagues because it seemed to be defeatist, and so Steinbeck stripped all national references from the book.
The movie was filmed in and around the town of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Many of the buildings and structures which appeared in the film, including a historic Fred Harvey Company hotel adjacent to the train depot, the Las Vegas train yard, and a building near downtown which was repainted with the name of “Calumet, Colorado” where the movie was set, are still there today as they appeared in the film.
Before filming began, production crews designed and built special combat vehicles in Newhall, California. Among their “fleet” were 15 Soviet armored vehicles (including a ZSU-23-4 “Shilka” mobile antiaircraft gun, several T-72 main battle tanks, and various BMP and BTR armored personnel carriers—all surprisingly authentic and detailed), several Yak-38 “Forger” vertical take-off and landing Soviet Naval aircraft (the Soviet Navy flag is clearly visible on the side of the air intake), and three Mi-24 “Hind-A” helicopter gunships (improvised from Aérospatiale Pumas). The movie’s Soviet T-72 tank was such a precise replica that “while it was being carted around Los Angeles, two CIA officers followed it to the studio and wanted to know where it had come from.”^[1]
Five of the 36 parachutists who took part in the invasion scene early in the film were injured when high winds blew them as far as one mile off target. Parachutist Jim Fisher, wearing a Soviet paratrooper uniform, landed in a tree and found himself calling out to local rescuers: “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I am not a Russian soldier!”

Taglines

★ In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.

★ The invading armies planned for everything—except for eight kids called “The Wolverines.”

★ 8:44 A.M. A full scale military invasion by foreign troops begins. Total surprise. Almost total success. A gang of high school kids become the last line of defense.
The original tagline for the movie was “No foreign army has ever occupied American soil.” This had to be changed because it was factually inaccurate. The British Army captured Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812 and set fire to the White House and other buildings. In 1916 Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa attacked and looted the town of Columbus, New Mexico killing 19 Americans before being driven off by the US Army. In 1942, the Japanese seized the islands of Attu, Kiska, and Agattu in Alaska’s Aleutian chain. At the time, Alaska was not a U.S. state, but it ''was'' a territory, so it was still U.S. “soil.” The United States recaptured the islands the following year. Japan also conquered Guam, Wake Island, and the Commonwealth of the Philippines in the course of WWII, though they were later recaptured as well.^[2]

Trivia

★ The Tomorrow series by John Marsden involves a similar plot involving a foreign invasion of Australia and a small group of young adults to resist the invading military.

★ The movie being shown to American prisoners at the Russian camp near Calumet is ''Aleksandr Nevskiy'' (1938).

★ The cast underwent a "realistic", intensive 8 week military training course before starting work on the movie.

★ The plot for the movie, a Russian invasion from Mexico, etc., was based on CIA and War College studies of US weaknesses at the time.

★ The illustration of Gengis Khan in the High School classroom at the beginning of the film is a caricature of director John Milius.

★ In the movie, a regional headquarters for the invasion forces is bombed by the Wolverine insurgents. On August 3, 2006 the actual 107-year-old historical landmark used in the film, the "Center Block Building" in Las Vegas, New Mexico was destroyed as result of heavy thunderstorms.

★ During the filming of Red Dawn, an old Safeway grocery store in Las Vegas New Mexico was converted to a sound stage and used for several scenes in the movie.

★ The submachine gun that Strelnikov uses near the end of the film is a Jati-matic GG-95 PDW. It is a Finnish made submachine gun, one of about 400 that were made in the mid 1980s.

★ The scene featuring Danny urinating into the radiator of a truck appears to be inspired by a similar scene in the Soviet film ''Earth'', though the original scene was not played for comic effect.

★ Calumet was an actual mining town in Colorado, about 50 miles north of the New Mexican border at the junction of routes 610 & 69 (in Huerfano County). Today, the real Calumet is a ghost town.

★ "John has a long mustache," which is heard briefly in the movie, was the code-signal used by the French Resistance in World War II to mobilize their forces once the Allies had landed on the Normandy beaches. It is featured in the movie ''The Longest Day''.

★ The name of the film and its band of young guerrillas was used by the United States Army for the December 13, 2003, Operation Red Dawn in which the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured. The companies who converged on Hussein for the capture were called "Wolverine I" and "Wolverine II."

★ The original trailer shows a tank rolling up to a McDonald’s restaurant where enemy soldiers are eating. This scene does not appear in the final cut. It was apparently removed due to a mass murder at a San Ysidro, California, McDonald’s just weeks prior to the film's 1984 opening (see McDonald’s Massacre). The trailer also contains an activation of the Emergency Broadcast System. The trailer only has the beginning of the attack script ("This is the Emergency Broadcast System, this is NOT a test") that would have been used in such a situation, but it is not heard in the movie.

★ William Smith's character, Colonel Strelnikov ("The Hunter"), is named after Tom Courtenay's character from the film ''Doctor Zhivago'' (1965). In real life, Smith is a fluent Russian speaker who taught the language at UCLA for several years.

★ At one time, ''Red Dawn'' was considered the most violent film by the ''Guinness Book of Records'' and the The National Coalition on Television Violence ^[3]

★ The original name for the movie was "Wolverines". This was changed to "Red Dawn" before the final draft of the screenplay.

Cultural references

★ In the song “Rambozo the Clown” by punk band ''Dead Kennedys'', the lyrics reference ''Red Dawn'':
::War is sexy

::War is fun

::''Iron Eagle''

::''Red Dawn''

::Be a wolverine, you’ll rule the hills

::Just get some guns and cheerios

★ In the game '', based in 1986, when being inerveiwed on VCPR Pastor Richards make reference to ''Red Dawn'', such as "They call this a Cold War, but it's hotter than hell. Mark my words! Any day now, you're sitting in school, passing notes and talking about the prom when suddenly you look out the window and there are Russian paratroopers dropping in to take over. What can you do? Run into the woods with your friends? Call yourselves "The Wolverines"? Put twigs in your hair and try and beat back the Ruskies?" Also, radio ads for gun store AmmuNation offers free screenings of the film ''Red Dawn'', referred to as a documentary.

★ The 2003 episode of ''South Park'' "Grey Dawn" parodies ''Red Dawn'', with a group of senior citizens replacing the Cubans.

★ A 2006 episode of ''Family Guy'', "Hell Comes to Quahog", references a musical production of ''Red Dawn'' in passing as well.

★ In the PC game '' the last mission of the single player campaign is called "Red Dawn".

★ In the PC game '', the first mission of the Soviet campaign involves a paratroop assault on Washington, D.C. and is called "Operation: Red Dawn."

★ The PC game ''World in Conflict'' features a Russian invasion in Seattle set in the year 1989 where the Warsaw Pact was on the brink of collapse. The game's developers have cited ''Red Dawn'' as a major influence.

★ The video game Freedom Fighters in which the player is a New Yorker leading a group of resistance fighters against the Soviet invasion of America.

★ Underground rapper Immortal Technique uses the movie title in his song One(remix), which goes, "the red dawn, communist threat, buried and gone / so they invented a war the government can carry on".

★ In a 2006 episode of ''American Dad'', "With Friends Like Steve's", Stan plays Red Dawn with his son Steve and later Barry.

★ In an episode of ''Scrubs'' the main characters call their scooter gang the Wolverines, in homage to ''Red Dawn''. In another episode, Turk and Elliot watch ''Red Dawn''. Turk says "You know what's the cool thing about this movie? That this could really happen." to which Elliot replies "Which part? The Russians invading Michigan or C. Thomas Howell being a tough guy?" Turk instantly replies, "Both."^[4] In the same episode, when Elliot finds out Turk rented Red Dawn, she raises her hand in a fist and exclaims 'Wolverines!" J.D. does the same when he enters the apartment some time later while Turk and Elliot are still watching.

★ In an episode of ''My Name Is Earl'', a character played by John Leguizamo who is obsessed with all things 80's ends the episode by thrusting a rifle in the air and shouting "WOLVERINES!"

★ An episode of The Simpsons titled The Call of the Simpsons had Homer Simpson covered in mud and being mistaken for Bigfoot, which immediately results in him being hunted by forest rangers. Bart witnesses Homer being shot with a tranquilizer dart, whose last words to Bart before losing consciousness are "Avenge me son! Avenge my death!". This is similar to Harry Dean Stanton in captivity, yelling out his last words to his two sons.

See also

★ List of nuclear holocaust fiction

References

1. ''Soldier Of Fortune Magazine''
2.
Red Dawn Goofs
3. ''Red Dawn'' Condemned As Rife With Violence.
4. “My Heavy Meddle” Scrubs Season 1 episode 16

External links

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