So here we are in 2012 and apparently the new happening thing is communist invasion!
Red Dawn the remake has been in development limbo for years, and apparently will be in theaters this November. I’m morally opposed to uncreative remakes, but I gotta say, I enjoyed the trailer:
And we’ve certainly had a dearth of urban guerilla war movies in theaters recently, so I’ll probably check it out.
Of course people are going to complain about how ridiculous the premise is. Surely the mainland United States could not be invaded? Looking at our fleets of state of the art warships and aircraft that would be hammering the enemy over thousands of miles of ocean, it’s difficult to imagine. But much like my cat who has never known a life without a human constructed roof over her head, we have had ten generations of Americans who grew up with a significant percentage of our GDP dedicated to building weapons to keep invaders at arms length.
But what happens to those destroyers, submarines and fighters, and the men who maintain and operate them, when all of our revenue is sucked up by politically popular, runaway entitlement programs and debt service? It’s happened to Russia, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t happen here. Two centuries of being secure of invasion is quite a feat, but does not mean that avaricious totalitarians have forgotten how to fund their own corrupt states via violently acquiring territory and populations and looting them. Piling surplus, dead-end males onto a cargo ship with AKs is a low risk and high reward endeavor, and it’s pure hubris to think that our good fortune will continue after we cease putting effort into it.
It’s tempting to frame remakes as making old material fresh for a new audience, and certainly that’s part of it. But listen to the song playing over the last 2/3rd of the trailer. A grunge hit from 1995. This isn’t a movie exclusively for today’s teenagers, but also their parents, who sat in the theater in 1984 and watched Patrick Swayze kill Russians.
Also interesting, this is not an exclusively American thing!
Yes folks, this is Red Dawn Down Under! I haven’t read the source material so I don’t know if it’s fair to call Tomorrow, When the War Began a derivative, but it sure looks like teenagers doing small war stuff to commie invaders to me!
I don’t normally go along with supporting art for purely ideological reasons. I think this is a disservice both to the art and the cause, as art should be rewarded on its merits, and the cause is not supported by having mediocre art in favor of it. But I think I’ll check these out with my dollars. I believe this is a healthier cultural development than other recent doomsday movies. Unlike other recent movies where the youthful heroes meekly submit to the totalitarian government and eventually become part of the system, in Red Dawn(s) and Tomorrow, we see that the correct response is to violently end that government, mostly by shooting its henchmen in the face with Evil Assault Rifles. Did you know the 1984 Red Dawn will be on Blu-Ray soon?
This is a fun story to tell when the villains are foreigners. But it’s easy. What to do when the outsider fascists have taken over the country by legal means and are supported by the 51% of the population who are receiving handouts from the 49%, is a stickier question.
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I await the revised Red Dawn with glee. I liked the first one (although a little grim: I agree with the assessment that their ranks should’ve picked up people as they were successful rather than dwindled).
The only thing I find ironic is that in RD-2 they originally had Chinese invaders. They switched to North Korean … allegedly because there was a market for the movie in China. I ask you: would the Wolverines sell out for dollars!? I think not!
(I don’t care, really: Nork is, on the balance, eviler and the writer DID make a first person shooter that involved North Korea’s invasion–and while the game was mediocre the intro was *chilling* and it was well stocked with news footage and newspaper clippings that did, well, as much as he could to justify it!).
I think the switch from PRC to PRK was totally motivated by sales, and also was artistically lame. The more elegant solution would be to call the baddies the “Pan-Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere” or somesuch. That would have really opened up your casting opportunities!
Those Koreans look awfully well fed.
Where the hell are the Norks going to get the materiel for such an invasion, let alone the people?
In reference to “Tomorrow When the War Began” it’s worth a look. Unlike the original “Red Dawn” you don’t have see the conclusion of the efforts of the young rebels – in reality, they set themselves up for a sequel. Though it may bore some, in “Tomorrow” the took the time to develop the characters as they worked through their decision making process: do we fight back or do we hide and play safe?
Straight up – worth the money to rent or buy.
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