| Red Dawn | |
| Director: | John Milius |
| Story: | Kevin Reynolds |
| Music: | Basil Poledouris |
| Cinematography: | Ric Waite |
| Editing: | Thom Noble |
| Distributor: | MGM/UA Entertainment Company |
| Runtime: | 114 minutes[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Budget: | $17 million[2] |
| Gross: | $38 million |
Red Dawn (Russian: Красный Pассвет) is a 1984 American action drama film directed by John Milius with a screenplay by Milius and Kevin Reynolds. The film depicts a fictional World War III centering on a military invasion of the United States by an alliance of Soviet, Warsaw Pact, and Communist Latin American states. The story follows a group of teenage guerillas, known as the Wolverines, in Soviet-occupied Colorado. The film stars Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey, with supporting roles played by Ben Johnson, Darren Dalton, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O'Neal, William Smith and Powers Boothe.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film became a commercial success, grossing $38 million against a budget of $17 million. It was the first film to be released in the U.S. with a PG-13 rating under the modified rating system introduced on July 1, 1984.[3] A remake was released in 2012.
In the 1980s, the United States becomes increasingly isolated after a green political party gains power in West Germany and successfully persuades Western Europe to remove its nuclear weapons. Subsequently, NATO dissolves. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union is devastated by a failed wheat harvest and invades Poland to suppress food and labor riots. Soviet allies Cuba and Nicaragua build up their military strength while El Salvador and Honduras fall under Soviet influence and a communist coup d'état seizes control in Mexico.
In the town of Calumet, Colorado, a high school class is interrupted by a Soviet-led invasion. Some students, including brothers Jed and Matt Eckert, escape the chaos as Soviet paratroopers attack. Combined Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan soldiers then occupy Calumet. Jed, Matt, and their friends Robert, Danny, Daryl, and Arturo flee into the countryside after procuring supplies and weapons from a store run by Robert's father. When they encounter a Soviet roadblock, they are saved by a U.S. helicopter gunship. After several weeks hiding in the forests, the group learns that Mr. Eckert is held at a re-education camp at Calumet's drive-in. Visiting the camp, they speak to him through a fence and learn that Mrs. Eckert is dead; he tells the group to avenge him.
The group visits the Mason family in occupied territory and learns that Robert's father was executed by the occupiers. The Masons ask Jed and Matt to care for their granddaughters, Toni and Erica. The group begins launching guerilla attacks on the occupational forces, calling themselves the "Wolverines" after their high school mascot. The occupiers respond with brutal crackdowns, resulting in the executions of Mr. Eckert and Arturo's father, but the Wolverines are undeterred. They meet crashed USAF pilot Andrew Tanner, who informs them of the current state of the war: Several American cities, including Washington D.C., were destroyed by nuclear strikes, Strategic Air Command was crippled by Cuban saboteurs, and paratroopers were dropped from commercial airliners to seize key positions in preparation for the main assaults via Mexico and Alaska. Most of the southwestern United States and Northwestern Canada are occupied by the Soviets, but American counterattacks halted their advances between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. Continental Western Europe has decided to remain neutral. America's only remaining foreign allies—China and the United Kingdom—remain active against the Soviets, but are militarily crippled.
Tanner assists the Wolverines in their guerrilla operations, which leads to increased reprisals by occupational forces against civilians. Visiting the front lines of the war, Tanner and Arturo are killed in the crossfire of a tank battle between Soviet and U.S. forces. The Soviets bring in Colonel Strelnikov, a brutal Spetsnaz commander and his men, to track down the Wolverines. Daryl is arrested by the KGB after his father betrays him. They force him to swallow a tracking device and release him to rejoin the Wolverines. Soviet troops track the group to the forests using radio triangulation equipment but are ambushed by the Wolverines, who trace the source of the signal to Daryl; confessing the truth, he pleads for mercy but is shot dead by Robert.
Shortly thereafter, the remaining Wolverines are ambushed by Soviet helicopter gunships, which kill Toni and Robert. Jed and Matt decide to attack the occupational forces in Calumet to distract them while Danny and Erica escape. The plan works, but Jed and Matt are severely wounded by Strelnikov before Jed can kill him. They are discovered by Cuban Colonel Ernesto Bella who, completely disillusioned with both the war and Soviet ideology (seeing it as a lost cause), lets them go; the brothers sit on a park bench together bleed out. Danny and Erica trek through the mountains and reach American-held territory.
In the closing scene, a plaque is shown in the mountains. It is fenced off and a U.S. flag flies nearby, confirming that the U.S. ultimately won the war. The plaque states that:
In the early days of World War III, guerrillas, mostly children, placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so "that this nation shall not perish from the earth."
Originally called Ten Soldiers, the script was written by Kevin Reynolds.[4] Producer Barry Beckerman read it, and, in the words of Peter Bart, "thought it had the potential to become a tough, taut, 'art' picture made on a modest budget that could possibly break out to find a wider audience."[5] His father Sidney Beckerman helped him pay a $5,000 option. Reynolds wanted to direct but the Beckermans wanted someone more established. Walter Hill briefly considered the script before turning it down, as did several other directors.[5]
The Beckermans pitched the project to David Begelman at MGM, but were turned down. They tried again at that studio when it was run by Frank Yablans. Senior vice-president for production Peter Bart, who remembers it as a "sharply written anti-war movie ... a sort of Lord of the Flies",[6] took the project to Yablans.
The script's chances increased when Reynolds became mentored by Steven Spielberg, who helped him make Fandango;[5] the script was eventually purchased by MGM.[7]
Bart recalls that things changed when "the chieftains at MGM got a better idea. Instead of making a poignant little antiwar movie, why not make a teen Rambo and turn the project over to John Milius, a genial filmmaker who loved war movies. The idea was especially popular with a member of the MGM board of directors, General Alexander Haig, the former Nixon chief of staff, who yearned to supervise the film personally and develop a movie career."[6]
Bart says most of MGM's executives, except for Yablans, were opposed to Milius directing. Bart claims he made a last minute attempt to get Reynolds to direct the film and went to see Spielberg. However, by this stage Fandango was in rough cut, and Bart sensed that Spielberg was disappointed in the film and would not speak up for Reynolds.[8] Milius was signed to direct at a fee of $1.25 million, plus a gun of his choice.[9]
Milius set about rewriting the script. He and Haig devised a backstory in which the circumstances of the invasion would occur; this was reportedly based on Hitler's proposed plans to invade the U.S. during World War II.[10] Haig took Milius under his wing, bringing him to the Hudson Institute, the conservative think tank founded by Herman Kahn, to develop a plausible scenario. Milius saw the story as a Third World liberation struggle in reverse; Haig introduced Nicaragua and suggested that, with the collapse of NATO, a left-wing Mexican government would participate in the Soviet invasion, effectively splitting the U.S. in half.[11] Bart says, "Even Milius was taken aback by Haig's approach to the project. 'This is going to end up as a jingoistic, flag-waving movie,' Milius fretted. As a result, the budget of this once $6 million movie almost tripled."[6]
Other changes included a shift in focus from conflict within the group to 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.[12] There was also the addition of a sequence where some children visit a camp to find their parents have been brainwashed.[13]
Milius later said, "I see this as an anti-war movie in the sense that if both sides could see this, maybe it wouldn't have to happen. I think it would be good for Americans to see what a war would be like. The film isn't even that violent – the war shows none of the horrors that could happen in World War III. In fact, everything that happened in the movie happened in World War II."[2]
Bart says Yablans pushed through filming faster than Milius wanted because MGM needed a movie over the summer. Milius wanted more time to plan, including devising futuristic weaponry and to not shoot over winter, but had to accede.[14]
Milius wanted Robert Blake to play the US pilot but Frank Yablans overruled him. Powers Boothe was selected instead.[15]
The movie was filmed in and around the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Many of the buildings and structures which appear in the film, including a historic Fred Harvey Company hotel adjacent to the train depot, the train yard, and a building near downtown, which was repainted with the name of "Calumet, Colorado", referencing the town in Michigan, are still there today. An old Safeway grocery store was converted to a sound stage and used for several scenes in the movie.[16]
Before starting work on the movie, the cast underwent an intensive eight-week military training course. During that time, production crews designed and built special combat vehicles in Newhall, California. Soldier of Fortune reported that the movie's T-72 tank was such a precise replica that "while it was being carted around Los Angeles, two CIA intelligence officers followed it to the studio and wanted to know where it had come from".
Powers Boothe later claimed that "Milius cut out the emotional life of its characters. Originally, my character was anti-war, as well as a rightist. I was supposed to be the voice of reason in that movie. But certain cuts negated my character."[17]
Lea Thompson said the original cut featured a love scene between her and Powers Boothe but it "was cut out after some previews because of the age difference. And that was the main reason I took the movie—it was such a terrific scene."[18]
Some of the weaponry devised for the film did not work. Futuristic helicopters created for the film did not have FAA approval to fly over people.[19]
The budget increased from $11 million to $15 million.[19] It eventually came in at $19 million.[20]
The film's score was composed and conducted by Basil Poledouris; it was the first soundtrack album to be released (on LP and compact disc) by Intrada Records. The label issued the complete score in 2007.
Red Dawn was the 20th highest-grossing film of 1984, opening on August 10, 1984, in 1,822 theatres and taking in $8,230,381 on its first weekend. Its box office gross is $38,376,497.[1] [20]
Red Dawn received mixed reviews, receiving a "Rotten" 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 28 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The website's consensus reads, "An appealing ensemble of young stars will have some audiences rooting for the Wolverines, but Red Dawns self-seriousness can never conceal the silliness of its alarmist concept."[21]
Colin Greenland reviewed Red Dawn for Imagine magazine, and stated that "Red Dawn [...] is a self-congratulatory little B-picture, the sort America does so well. Set in the early months of World War Three, it's a loving chronicle of juvenile heroism in Russian-occupied Colorado. Schoolkids caught behind enemy lines become crack guerillas overnight. Slaughter nobly, die even more so. Nice scenery, shame about the movie."[22]
The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin said, "To any sniveling lily-livers who suppose that John Milius ... has already reached the pinnacle of movie-making machismo, a warning: Mr. Milius's Red Dawn is more rip-roaring than anything he has done before. Here is Mr. Milius at his most alarming, delivering a rootin'-tootin' scenario for World War III."[23]
MGM apologized to Alaska war veterans for the film's advertising, which claimed that no foreign troops had ever landed on U.S. soil, overlooking the Aleutian Islands campaign of World War II, where Japanese soldiers occupied the Aleutian Islands, part of Alaska.[24]
At the time it was released, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records and the National Coalition on Television Violence, with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.[25] The 2007 DVD Special Edition includes an on-screen "Carnage Counter" in a nod to this.
A few days after the NCTV survey came out, 35 protestors picketed the MGM/UA building in opposition to the film.[26] John Milius said:
What these people really don't like is that the movie shows violence being perpetrated against Russian and Cuban invaders, which is what the demonstration was all about. My question is, where were all these demonstrators when the Russians shot down that airliner? Were they cheering? And what about the people being gassed and yellow-rained in Afghanistan? ... There's really no pleasure in outraging these people. I suppose next some extreme right-wing organization will give me an award, which is equally ridiculous.[24]
National Review Online has named the film No. 15 in its list of the "Best Conservative Movies."[27] Adam Arseneau at the website DVD Verdict opined that the film "often feels like a Republican wet dream manifested into a surrealistic Orwellian nightmare".[28]
According to Jesse Walker of Reason,
Libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard argued that the film was "not so much pro-war as it is anti-state." Rothbard gave the film a generally positive review, while expressing some reservations with the story:
Ed Power writes for The Independent,
Red Dawn has been variously released across a variety of formats.
The movie being shown to American prisoners at the re-education camp is Sergei Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky (1938).[37]
Much of the story is set in the Arapaho National Forest, and a group of Soviet soldiers refer to the Colorado War, which was fought there between the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes and the U.S. government.[38]
During one scene, the young freedom fighters sit and listen to a radio playing messages meant for guerillas behind the lines. The message played, "John has a long mustache.", is one of the messages that was used before D-Day in Normandy to signal French partisans of the imminent invasion.[39] The broadcast of this message is dramatized in the 1962 film The Longest Day.
See main article: Capture of Saddam Hussein. The operation to capture former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was named Operation Red Dawn and its targets were dubbed "Wolverine 1" and "Wolverine 2". Army Captain Geoffrey McMurray, who named the mission, said the naming "was so fitting because it was a patriotic, pro-American movie." Milius approved of the naming, saying "I was deeply flattered and honored. It's nice to have a lasting legacy."[40]
Red Dawn has been reference for and influence on a number of other media, including music, books, film, and video games.Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine 'Wolverines' graffiti was reported on a destroyed Russian APC.[41]
Red Dawn has influenced a number of video games.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a string of emails by Trump administration officials detailing concerns about the government's response to COVID-19 was dubbed the "Red Dawn emails" in reference to the film.[55]
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, several Russian armored vehicles destroyed by the Ukrainians appeared with the word "Wolverines" spray-painted in white,[56] a clear reference to the film. One theory is that numerically the Ukrainian are outnumbered by the Russians, similar to the scenario depicted in the film. It is not known whether "Wolverines" was painted by civilians or soldiers, but it has been spotted in Kyiv.[57]
See main article: Red Dawn (2012 film). A remake of Red Dawn directed by Dan Bradley was released in 2012. The film takes place in the 2010s, with North Korea invading the United States. Milius criticized the remake as "terrible" after reading an original script where the villains were Chinese:
"There was a strange feeling to the whole thing. They were fans of the movie so they put in stuff they thought was neat. It's all about neat action scenes, and has nothing to do with story. ... There's only one example in 4,000 years of Chinese territorial adventurism, and that was in 1979, when they invaded Vietnam, and to put it mildly they got their [butts] handed to them ... Why would China want us? They sell us stuff. We're a market. I would have done it about Mexico."[58]