Movie Musings

Being off work means that I get the chance to watch all kinds of crappy old films on TV, often late at night. The other day I was amazed to find Red Dawn showing in prime time - on Virgin One. I suppose that by their standards it is big film. It certainly makes a change from the rotation of Double Impact, Fistful of Dynamite (actually the heavily cut US print, titled Duck, You Sucker) and Robocop 3, that they usually show in their Tuesday night movie slot. Anyway, I managed to get about halfway through it before remembering why I disliked it so much. It's not that it is badly made, quite the opposite. Or that I think that its subject matter - despite being far to the right, politically, than my own views - isn't fit subject matter for a film. People are entitled to their opinions. Besides, back in the 'good' old days of the Cold War, a speculative piece about the aftermath of the Soviets winning the 'war' and occupying the West and/or the US could, if done well, form the basis of an interesting movie. Unfortunately, Red Dawn isn't that movie.

That's one of the reasons I dislike it so much - it's a missed opportunity. Rather than an intelligent critique of the Soviet system, it instead opts for gung ho, jingoistic, war movie heroics. Indeed, the whole thing seems curiously time-warped - watching it again, I was reminded of those movies made during World War Two, where heroic GIs, or Brits, take on the might of the Japs or Huns, hopelessly outnumbered, but incredibly courageous, they triumph in the end, but only after terrible sacrifice. It had that exact same feel of propaganda about it - even down to the demonisation of the enemy as pitiless bastards. However, the tone of the older films was understandable - we were at war with an enemy hell-bent on destroying us. At the time Red Dawn was made, we weren't at war with anyone. (OK, I know that hardline conservatives would say that I'm just being naive if I think that we weren't fighting for survival against the Soviets). Consequently, the whole thing comes over as simplistic, reactionary and unpleasant nonsense, reducing a complex situation to simple black and white cliches.