So somebody decides it's a good idea to remake ...

[Frayed Knot]

... Red Dawn?


I saw the original (1984) but only on TV a number of years after its release and only because I felt like I was missing out on too many punch-lines. By then it was hard to take it very seriously as the whole tough teens foiling Soviet attack during Reagan-era nuclear paranoia plot and script had become more a time-capsule stereotype than an actual movie.

This time it's apparently North Koreans who make the mistake of landing near the wrong high school and get more than they bargained for from a group of teens armed with their huntin' rifles and strengthened by a toughness born of the American heartland and honed on the almighty gridiron.



WOLVERINES!!!!

[Edgy MD]

I would think that, unlike the Soviets, the North Koreans would have a hard time occupying a portion of the US for very long.

The Soviets were an empire. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is a heavily militarized, but otherwise small and very undeveloped rouge state that we could devastatingly counter pretty quickly. I imagine the Chinese, Japanese and South Koreans would privately love it if NKs provoked the US.

A Chinese invasion repelled by the cast of Friday Night Lights --- now there's a solid jingoism movie.

[nymr83]

Yeah, it lacks the tiny speck of possibility that the Soviets had, but so what, its just a movie.

I probably won't bother seeing it though.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Well, people do still inexplicably like this movie. Because it's Full House-shaming campy and/or they're fucking paranoid, but still.

[Vic Sage]

while i think its a good idea to remake it, i have little confidence that it will improve on its mediocre source.

To be clear, i've always enjoyed RED DAWN as Milius's goofy amalgam of nationalistic jingoism and a "teen/coming of age" movie. It's just so cheesy, with acting so hysterically over the top, that a remake could take the "what if" premise and make it a little less stupid and a little more serious and intense, with realistic action on a big scale.

but i doubt they've achieved that.

i'm thinking about a filmography on Milius, Hollywood's resident zen fascist.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

Speaking of Hollywood peddling right-wing propaganda.

[Edgy MD]

Is it right wing orthodoxy that the North Koreans are a credible threat to invade the US?

I mean, I guess it can be construed as right-wing propaganda to suggest that our enemies are all around us and we must remain vigilant and keep a strong military, but for that, the Chinese or the Iranis or Venezuelans will serve. The idea that they made such a stupid choice... that seems just weak. That they jettisoned the Chinese after the fact because they don't want to hurt the potential Chinese market, well, that's the sort of lilly livered coddlling of the enemy I'd expect a good propagandist to attack. So I guess these filmmakers are third rate propagandists, remaking a second-rate film.

Interesting that it comes on the day the president up and throws an olive branch to the DPRK.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

It's kind of deliciously ironic that for the movie to be a moneymaker they have to play nice with the evil commies in China. Of course, China has essentially traded in communism for the type of capitalism the right greatly desires to implement in the US - a large, compliant, and cheap labor force under the control of an elite few (aka - "small government").