Jerk
10/26/2008, 08:18 AM
Red Dawn’s message for today
After 24 years, what does the chest-thumper really say about America?
By David Plotz
Slate.com
The middle Reagan years — the fingernail-gnawing, doomsday-clock*watching, pre-perestroika finale of the Cold War — were a dreadful time for movies in general, but they were the heyday of the Armageddon film. The mid-’80s gave us War Games, The Day After, Invasion USA, Testament, Amerika and The Terminator, and they gave me nightmares.
But except for The Terminator, none of the mid-’80s Armageddon movies has had as much enduring in*fluence as 1984’s Red Dawn. The film is beloved of American military types. In 2003, the Army named its opera*tion to capture Saddam Hussein “Red Dawn” and dubbed the two Saddam safe houses it was raiding “Wolverine 1” and “Wolverine 2” after the flick’s child rebels.
Recognizing that we’re again living in an age of existential dread, MGM recently announced plans to remake Red Dawn. With the Russian army having run rampant over Georgia and the Kremlin hissing over American plans to base a missile defense system in Poland, this seemed the right mo*ment to revisit Red Dawn. But Red Dawn did not conjure up the chest*swelling patriotism I felt as a 14-year*old. Instead, it turned out to be dis*turbing in an entirely unexpected way.
Red Dawn embodies conservative nutterdom in a way few films not made by Mel Gibson have ever man*aged. If Ann Coulter made a movie, it would look like Red Dawn. This is thanks to director John Milius.
Apocalypse Now screenwriter, Conan the Barbarian auteur, and former NRA board member, Milius is a mili*tary zealot, infatuated with the war*rior code. Red Dawn is really a fetish movie, an ode to guns and blood.
Milius’ vision of the world is cu*riously — or perhaps presciently — congruent with that of modern Bu*chananite isolationists. World War III begins as an immigration problem: Latino illegal aliens infiltrate and sabotage Midwestern Air Force bases. Pathetic old Europe betrays America and refuses to come to our aid. The first thing the Commies do when they seize Calumet, Colorado, is round up all the gun owners — relying on “Form 4473,” a real-life ATF form for registering gun sales.
In my memory, Red Dawn cele*brated America and its virtues. But its guiding ideology is actually fascism. The only politician in Red Dawn, the mayor of Calumet, is a quisling who rats out his neighbors for execution. His son, the student-body president, turns out to be the traitorous Wolver*ine . The warrior code of Red Dawn is nihilistic: Glory and death are the same; there is no higher aim than to fight. It never imagines an America that is worth saving: We have corrupt institutions and cowardly politicians.
But what’s most unsettling is that the movie’s historical parallels have been turned upside down. In 1984, the Soviets of Red Dawn represented the Soviets, and the Wolverines repre*sented both the Americans and also the Afghan mujahideen then defeat*ing the Red Army in a guerilla war.
But on re-viewing, Red Dawn isn’t a stark reminder of Cold War fears. Rather, it’s a pretty good movie about Iraq, with the United States in the role of the Soviets and the insurgents in the role of the Wolverines.
In Red Dawn, the Soviets invade a country whose customs they know not. They ham-handedly toss lead*ing citizens into hellish prisons. They maltreat the civilian population. They appropriate private and government buildings for themselves. They re*place local commerce with their own.
The insurgents are at first merely scared, angry kids, but they’re hard*ened by the viciousness of the Soviets. Seeing nothing to lose, they become suicidal terrorists who assassinate, bomb civilian targets, gleefully mur*der wounded and captive Russians, and eventually martyr themselves in theatrical, insane ways. Ultimately, the insurgency and the anxiety of oc*cupying a hostile land take their toll on the invaders. By the end, the de*moralized Cuban commander is sub*mitting his resignation. MGM is so far tight-lipped about the plot of its Red Dawn remake, but I wonder: Will the new Wolverines be us — or fighting us?
After 24 years, what does the chest-thumper really say about America?
By David Plotz
Slate.com
The middle Reagan years — the fingernail-gnawing, doomsday-clock*watching, pre-perestroika finale of the Cold War — were a dreadful time for movies in general, but they were the heyday of the Armageddon film. The mid-’80s gave us War Games, The Day After, Invasion USA, Testament, Amerika and The Terminator, and they gave me nightmares.
But except for The Terminator, none of the mid-’80s Armageddon movies has had as much enduring in*fluence as 1984’s Red Dawn. The film is beloved of American military types. In 2003, the Army named its opera*tion to capture Saddam Hussein “Red Dawn” and dubbed the two Saddam safe houses it was raiding “Wolverine 1” and “Wolverine 2” after the flick’s child rebels.
Recognizing that we’re again living in an age of existential dread, MGM recently announced plans to remake Red Dawn. With the Russian army having run rampant over Georgia and the Kremlin hissing over American plans to base a missile defense system in Poland, this seemed the right mo*ment to revisit Red Dawn. But Red Dawn did not conjure up the chest*swelling patriotism I felt as a 14-year*old. Instead, it turned out to be dis*turbing in an entirely unexpected way.
Red Dawn embodies conservative nutterdom in a way few films not made by Mel Gibson have ever man*aged. If Ann Coulter made a movie, it would look like Red Dawn. This is thanks to director John Milius.
Apocalypse Now screenwriter, Conan the Barbarian auteur, and former NRA board member, Milius is a mili*tary zealot, infatuated with the war*rior code. Red Dawn is really a fetish movie, an ode to guns and blood.
Milius’ vision of the world is cu*riously — or perhaps presciently — congruent with that of modern Bu*chananite isolationists. World War III begins as an immigration problem: Latino illegal aliens infiltrate and sabotage Midwestern Air Force bases. Pathetic old Europe betrays America and refuses to come to our aid. The first thing the Commies do when they seize Calumet, Colorado, is round up all the gun owners — relying on “Form 4473,” a real-life ATF form for registering gun sales.
In my memory, Red Dawn cele*brated America and its virtues. But its guiding ideology is actually fascism. The only politician in Red Dawn, the mayor of Calumet, is a quisling who rats out his neighbors for execution. His son, the student-body president, turns out to be the traitorous Wolver*ine . The warrior code of Red Dawn is nihilistic: Glory and death are the same; there is no higher aim than to fight. It never imagines an America that is worth saving: We have corrupt institutions and cowardly politicians.
But what’s most unsettling is that the movie’s historical parallels have been turned upside down. In 1984, the Soviets of Red Dawn represented the Soviets, and the Wolverines repre*sented both the Americans and also the Afghan mujahideen then defeat*ing the Red Army in a guerilla war.
But on re-viewing, Red Dawn isn’t a stark reminder of Cold War fears. Rather, it’s a pretty good movie about Iraq, with the United States in the role of the Soviets and the insurgents in the role of the Wolverines.
In Red Dawn, the Soviets invade a country whose customs they know not. They ham-handedly toss lead*ing citizens into hellish prisons. They maltreat the civilian population. They appropriate private and government buildings for themselves. They re*place local commerce with their own.
The insurgents are at first merely scared, angry kids, but they’re hard*ened by the viciousness of the Soviets. Seeing nothing to lose, they become suicidal terrorists who assassinate, bomb civilian targets, gleefully mur*der wounded and captive Russians, and eventually martyr themselves in theatrical, insane ways. Ultimately, the insurgency and the anxiety of oc*cupying a hostile land take their toll on the invaders. By the end, the de*moralized Cuban commander is sub*mitting his resignation. MGM is so far tight-lipped about the plot of its Red Dawn remake, but I wonder: Will the new Wolverines be us — or fighting us?