Red Dawn (1984) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 1984
Director: John Milius
Cast: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Darren Dalton, Jennifer Grey, Brad Savage, Doug Toby, Powers Boothe
Rating: PG-13
Language: English, Russian, Spanish
Release Date: 10 August 1984
Running Time: 1 hour 54 minutes

The Movie Review

Red Dawn film still 1


RED DAWN
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

I saw this one as a kid, and actually didn't have to fond of a memory about it, I favor more Platoon (1986). Strangely enough, this present time, on my re-viewing of the movie, the premise strikes a chord with me. Red Dawn is one of the better movies about World War III, and it features the late Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey before their famous roles in Dirty Dancing (1987) and also the charming albeit controversial Charlie Sheen. The remake of Red Dawn is slated to be released sometime in 2011, and I, for one, is really looking forward to it.

Jed Eckert (Patrick Swayze) and his brother Matty Eckert (Charlie Sheen) are teenagers studying in a high school of peaceful small town called Calumet in Colorado. However, unexpectedly while they are discussing about war in the classroom, right above their school many and many parachutists coming down from the sky. And without saying much, these foreign paratroopers/soldiers start spraying their bullets to the civilians, killing the teacher and some of the students. Shocked and panicked, Matty and his friends are also almost killed but in the nick of time, Jed drives his truck penetrating the chaos to take them away. Apparently, the soldiers under the command of Colonel Bella (Ron O'Neal) of the Cuban Army, continues to ransack the town and gather some of the residents to "re-educate" them with their ideology!

What makes it worse, The Cubans are not alone, together with the Russians and Nicaraguans, they are set to conquer America. And these eight teenagers are forced to live high up in the mountains feeding themselves from hunting game, fishing and taking shelter in the wild. Eventually, as time passes by, Jed begins to lead his younger friends to a patriotic war against the invaders through guerilla warfare tactic. But could they survive against the disciplined military men? Will they win the war?

Red Dawn is one of the movies with a premise derived from World War III phobia and in the 80s, Russian Army is like the common staple in any action World War III movies and of course they are also the bad guys again this time. That is why in this alternate world, Red Dawn gives an introductory text explaining what had happen to the world with the NATO and Poland, so don't take it so seriously. The flaws are inevitable however with several plot holes that makes you wonder "Why wouldn't they?" or "How is that even possible?" type and also the camerawork is still rather conventional as in probably-rather-lackluster-for-modern-viewers. Running for almost 2 hours, you're gonna see many action in Red Dawn, the action is already on almost from the get-go! It's a good thing, but hopefully in the 2011 remake, there will be some time in the beginning to make us feel more emotionally-attached to the characters.

Shot in New Mexico, the cinematography plays a big role in the overall result. It is beautiful with all the wilderness landscape so at least even though the action sequences are text-book action film, the landscape elevates our viewing experience, besides, casual moviegoers would simply overlook the intense-but-cliché war actions which are mainly about guerilla tactics. Charlie Sheen (then 19yo) is believable to play as a teenager considering his daughter was born in the same year and although Patrick Swayze looks rather too old (then 32yo) to pose a teenager, but he gives excellent drama in an emotional dialogue with his father, and FYI Patrick Swayze just lost his father in 1982.

Red Dawn is the most violent movie up to the time of its release (Whow!). Now, every time I'm almost bored to death with some sluggish action-wannabe films, Red Dawn is one of my favorites for two strong reasons. It's an 80s action film (I love the 80s) and it's one heckuva fast-pace action-filled war flick! Nevertheless, there is already a movie from Australia with strikingly similar premise but successfully perfected the storyline, titled Tomorrow, when the War Began (2010), and some of modern viewers might opt for the latter.