RED DAWN (1984)

The 1980s were a fascinating time to be alive. Rock bands like Queen and Whitesnake, and singers like Madonna and George Michael, were at their peak. And, of course, the films were iconic. 1984 alone saw the release of multiple classics, including Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Footloose, and Sixteen Candles. All of these are being revisited now, 40 years later, with a sense of nostalgia and joy. However, there’s one film that equalled most of these in box office success but is often left out of the discussion when it comes to the ‘Best Films of 1984’: Red Dawn.

Red Dawn plunges audiences without a preamble into a Cold War nightmare scenario. In the opening moments, a high school class in a small Colorado town is unceremoniously interrupted by an axis of Soviet and Cuban invading paratroopers. As the world around them erupts into chaos, two brothers, Jed (Patrick Swayze) and Matt Eckert (Charlie Sheen), and their classmates, armed with rifles from their Reserve Officers’ Training Corp class, retreat into the woods. The group then sets up a guerrilla-style resistance against the invading force, made up mostly of teenagers with occasional help from a downed United States Air Force pilot (Powers Boothe).

Despite its relative box office success and mostly positive audience reception, this taut, violent, sometimes corny, but often surprisingly touching film has been almost universally panned by major critics throughout the years. To understand the reason for this almost aggressively negative reaction, we have to go all the way back to the roots of the rage.

The original screenplay for Red Dawn (then called 10 Soldiers) was written by then-relatively unknown writer-director Kevin Reynolds (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). Acclaimed producer Barry Beckerman thought it had potential as a “taut anti-war film” and shopped it around to various studios. It wasn’t until the low-budget script got into the hands of MGM, who turned it over to infamous war filmmaker John Milius (Apocalypse Now), that things took a turn for the much more interesting and political.

Milius had a reputation in Hollywood as a gun-loving war film fanatic with right-leaning political tendencies. When he partnered with a former Nixon advisor to develop a plausible scenario for a Soviet invasion of the United States, the film was doomed in the eyes of many critics.

In 1984, Soviet Premier Gorbachev made tentative overtures to the West and began to open up the USSR economy with his Glasnost initiative. As the two powers had been frequently on the brink of nuclear war since the 1950s, this was seen as a sign of progress. Most Western public figures, including popular artists like Sting (who released the anti-nuclear war song “Russians” just a year later), were begging the Soviets to maintain this tentative peace.

In this environment, a movie that depicted Soviet troops as completely unredeemable villains, thieves, and often remarkably inept was considered to be in bad taste at best and outright dangerous at worst. This is why we read reviews about the film being “jingoistic propaganda”. However, if someone were to watch this film with no knowledge of the historical context, the director’s political views, or even the Cold War tension, this particular criticism does not seem to hold water. The stark realism of Red Dawn sets it apart from the all-American patriot films like Rocky IV (1985) and Chuck Norris’ offerings with which it’s often compared.

War isn’t glorified in Red Dawn. Instead, the realities of living and fighting under an invading power are starkly portrayed. Even the toll that war takes on the mental and emotional health of the invaders is inspected through the eyes of a Cuban ally of the Soviets, Colonel Ernesto Bella (Ron O’Neal).

While the teenagers’ plight is treated as noble and worthy of emulation, the dangers of such resistance are both shown and discussed. In particular, the frequent arguments between the more survival-savvy Eckert brothers and their much more sheltered classmate and son of the mayor, Daryl Bates (Darren Dalton), examine the pressures experienced by resistance fighters, the toll war takes on humanity and relationships, and the downsides of deciding to fight at all.

While there are some unbelievable scenes (like in most Hollywood films at the time, our heroes seem to have a limitless supply of bullets, and many of their bullets seem to be laced with TNT when employed against enemy tanks), they are not so ridiculous as to suspend the air of disbelief. Likewise, the acting from young future stars, including Swayze (Road House), Sheen (Wall Street), Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing), and Lea Thompson (Back to the Future), while not always polished, lends an air of credibility to the entire scenario.

A teenager chest-beating and yelling out the name of his high school mascot after fighting against an invading force is not outside the realm of belief. I’ve known teenagers to yell the name of their school mascots after much less dignified affairs (namely flailing parking lot fights). The performances from all the young cast are in keeping with this sense of unpolished realness. They’re uncertain but trying to convey leadership. They are children who are being forced to grow up much too fast. If that means their dialogue is sometimes overwrought or their reactions are bigger or smaller than they should be, that’s perfectly in keeping with the scenario they (and we) have been forced into.

Watching the film 40 years later, I can’t help but compare it to Civil War (2024). In both films, rather than telling us the story from the top down, the filmmakers chose to tell it from the perspective of everyday people on the ground. In this year’s film, it was from the journalists’ and photographers’ perspective. In Red Dawn, it’s from the perspective of a small band of resistance fighters.

However, despite Civil War’s sleeker and more stylised presentation, one could argue that Red Dawn is the more watchable and perhaps the better of the two films. When we join the resistance fighters, we feel as though we are in the thick of the action. We know what’s at stake. We understand what people living through this war are thinking, feeling, and facing every single day. When we see a war through the eyes of journalists, we are almost forced to take a bird’s-eye view. Despite a few close calls, Civil War teaches us to be objective, neutral, and almost detached from the lives lost and destruction around us. Red Dawn, on the other hand, has us running and fighting alongside the protagonists. We also cry with them, grieve with them, and get a taste of where our anger and thirst for vengeance might one day take us.

In the end, Red Dawn is much more than a product of the political climate in which it was made. It is also much more than a reflection of its director’s political views. It is a story that feels real, with themes that still resonate today, especially in Ukraine, where resistance fighters have spray-painted the word “Wolverines” on defeated Russian tanks. To enjoy the film, forget the Cold War. Forget John Milius, and for goodness’ sake, don’t read any of the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Just press play, settle in, and enjoy the ride.

USA | 1984 | 114 MINUTES | 1.85:1 | COLOUR | ENGLISH • RUSSIAN • SPANISH

Cast & Crew

director: John Milius.
writers: Kevin Reynolds & John Milius.
starring: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O’Neal, William Smith & Powers Boothe.