"Red Dawn": Important Movie Marks 25th Anniversary

[tgent]

I'm going to have rent this movie and watch it again. From what I remember it was a mediocre film at best. I do appreciate the American spirit portrayed in the movie
though.

 

[redneckmedic]

Great flick, great lessons to be learned!

 

[SavageEagle]

How anyone can call themselves American if they don't own this movie or get chills down their spine or feel a sense of serious pride while watching the movie is beyond me!

Sure it wasn't cinematically spectacular, but the story it told, the setting of the movie, during the time it was created, it was a landmark film that defined a generation. That's something to take pride in.

 

[ntrngr]

Red Dawn is one of my favorite (top 10) movies of my life time. i must have watched it 100 times on the beta-max when i was a kid.

Hey! How about sharing with us the other 9? Anybody that picks Red Dawn as a favorite has to have good taste! Give us a list!

 

[Plague421]

We watched that movie in history class, I thought it was damn good. I don't think it will ever happen, but still a good movie.

 

[Todd Levesque]

That movie got my Red White and Blue Blood worked up then and that trailer got it worked up again.

Even when the movie came out I was getting older. I was 35 then. However, I was 6 foot 205 pounds and faily solid at that age. Not now. But I hope to be again, but I doubt it. My shoulders and legs are shot and don't work too well anymore.

Younger Patriots may just need us old farts someday.

Damn right, soldier. Thank you for you service! With whats going on these days, we all might be needed!

 

[SavageEagle]

Experiance and wisdom above pride and ignorance.

 

[quiggly]

Heroes or insurgents?

I love this movie as well as the next guy but here is the thought I have always had. Maybe this would be better with a topic of its own but here goes.

The Wolverines. Heroes or "insurgents" or "terroists"? Are not the people in Iraq doing the same thing today? They fight an invading countries military with ever thing they have?

Lets here the pros and cons....

 

[StarKing]

I thought it sucked....

You'd have liked it better if you'd been born.

 

[StarKing]

That movie got my Red White and Blue Blood worked up then and that trailer got it worked up again.

Even when the movie came out I was getting older. I was 35 then. However, I was 6 foot 205 pounds and faily solid at that age. Not now. But I hope to be again, but I doubt it. My shoulders and legs are shot and don't work too well anymore.

Younger Patriots may just need us old farts someday.

They'd better hurry or I'll be helpin' em from a retirement home...

 

[Chefcook]

I am a cold war kid lol....

 

[StarKing]

Saw it on the Friday when it came out as a 20 year old college kid. The theater, and this was in Center City Philadelphia, was packed. A cop in uniform was part of the SRO crowd and was teared up when I passed him exiting when it was over. People look back through the prism of the present and do not remember how scary those times were and the very real threat that existed.

I seem to recall spending my entire childhood and most of early adulthood fully expecting to be incinerated in the first (and last) 90 minute World War...or worse - NOT be incinerated and have to face the results...
Volunteering for combat in 1969 didn't seem all that scary with that sort of childhood experience.

 

[SavageEagle]

I love this movie as well as the next guy but here is the thought I have always had. Maybe this would be better with a topic of its own but here goes.

The Wolverines. Heroes or "insurgents" or "terroists"? Are not the people in Iraq doing the same thing today? They fight an invading countries military with ever thing they have?

Lets here the pros and cons....

No you got it right. Not terrorists per say, but insurgents for sure. Guerrilla warfare was necessary. Just as it was in the civil war and Revolutionary war. The people we are fighting in Irag and Afrag are terrorist pure and simple. The Wolverines wanted to repel the invaders, not go to Russia and kill every last one of them. In the end when Swayze is carrying Sheen, and they walk past the Cuban Commander, both had the chance to kill each other but didn't take it. Do you think the same thing would happen in the Middle East right now? No, cause not only do they want to repel US, but also come over here and kill you, me, our kids, our grandkids, our grandparents, etc.

Should revolution break out here again, what do you think we will be considered? By ourselves and by the enemy?

The Wolverines would be more rationally compared to the VC of the Vietnam war or maybe the Koreans of the Korean war. Not good to compare the Wolverines to Terrorists. In a way, they were, but with today's standards, no, they weren't.

Also keep in mind, the threat of a Soviet invasion was a real threat and the movie played on that fear but had many deeper meanings aswell.

 

[SavageEagle]

And compared to today's standards, it's like comparing "The Night of the Living Dead" to "Dawn of the Dead". You just can't compare the two as the technology available to both was just so far apart there is no comparison.

 

[TRWXXA]

"Red Dawn" is a pretty crappy movie. But it's a little guilty pleasure to watch it every time it pops up on TV. I like how it captures the idea expressed by an unidentified Japanese Navy officer, during a 1960 naval exercise -- "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."

 

[jeremy]

I like how it captures the idea expressed by an unidentified Japanese Navy officer, during a 1960 naval exercise -- "You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."

Close on the quote, just off on the time frame well that and the fact it is known who said it.

"You cannot invade the mainland United States.
There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese Navy)


Fleet Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (4 April 1884 – 18 April 1943) was the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of the U.S. Naval War College and of Harvard University (1919–1921).

 

[TRWXXA]

Close on the quote, just off on the time frame well that and the fact it is known who said it.

"You cannot invade the mainland United States.
There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass."
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto (Japanese Navy)

Unfortunately, this quote (as well as the even more famous "sleeping giant" quote) cannot be linked to Yamamoto (Hollywood movie scripts not withstanding). While it does sound like Yamamoto, who was a dissenting voice in imperial Japan, the quote actually comes sourced through a US Navy officer who was quoting (or paraphrasing) an unnamed Japanese naval office, at joint naval exercises in 1960. The US officer had asked the Japanese officer why the Empire of Japan had not attempted an invasion of the US mainland in WWII.

Now back to our regularly scheduled thread.

 

[PapaScout]

I haven't seen Red Dawn since High School (graduated in '87, thank you very much) but what a great movie. I don't care if it was my Aunty Rose or Genghis Khan who laid down the "... a rifle behind every blade of grass" quote - the United States of America will never have a successful ground assault launched against it.

 

[jeremy]

I haven't seen Red Dawn since High School (graduated in '87, thank you very much) but what a great movie. I don't care if it was my Aunty Rose or Genghis Khan who laid down the "... a rifle behind every blade of grass" quote - the United States of America will never have a successful ground assault launched against it.

We do not have to worry about the ground assault. Our a$$es are being sold out by our politicians fast.

 

[PapaScout]

We do not have to worry about the ground assault. Our a$ are being sold out by our politicians fast.

Then mine will be sold dearly.