Me: So, I brought up Red Dawn in therapy today. Too obscure?
Him: Yes. Too obscure. Do not reference Red Dawn in therapy.
Me: But. . . but. . . it's the first movie to ever be released with a PG-13 rating.
Him: It doesn't matter. Nobody saw it.
Now, on this I disagree. Red Dawn, for the unenlightened (including, obviously, my ex-therapist and the person with whom I had this conversation), is a semi-classic action movie from 1984 starring B-List Brat Packers--including C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and a pre-Dirty Dancing Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey. The premise is pure cold-war paranoia-meets 80's cheese-fest: A group of teens in an isolated Colorado mountain town stave off a Russian invasion of America at the start of World War III. Seriously. The ragtag crew bands together, adopts the battle cry, "Wolverines!" as a homage to their high school mascot, and fast become experts at guerilla warfare. (The Russian army is no match for Charlie Sheen--yeah, he's in it, too.) Here's a snippet of dialogue (courtesy of IMDB) that pretty much sums it all up.
Jed Eckert: My family would want me to stay alive. Your family would want you to stay alive. You think you're so smart, man, but you're just a bunch of scared kids.
Danny: So what do you think *you* are?
Jed Eckert: ...Alone, I guess.
Matt Eckert: [comes and stands with him] No. You're not.
Recently, a collector's edition DVD of Red Dawn was released. Among the special features are four documentaries (or "featurettes," depending on their length). But what I want to know is, where's the commentary? What, was C. Thomas Howell too busy preparing for Soul Man II to spend an hour and a half talking about what it was like to film the hokiest war movie ever made?
No, really, everyone should see Red Dawn. Well, at least every therapist.
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10 comments:
I agree with ya! :D
I was in cadets, so it was almost mandatory viewing during summer camps. I think I must have seen it about 10 times.
Michele sent me by today!
You know, Carli, you have too much time on your hands right now --- shouldn't you be looking after sprogs by yourself or something at the moment? And also, I think that "The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming", while not strictly speaking a war movie, could give Red Dawn a run for its money on the hokieness factor....
N.
ps How is being a single daddy going?
pps Michele didn't send me this time, but she did give me directions
Carli,
Ooops! major faux up there! Mistook you for another Carli! Stupid BreadBox. Stupid Stupid Breadbox!
N.
Sadly, I have seen this movie. And I think mentioning it to your therapist just proves you've seen all the good movies and now you're dipping into the shallow end of the DVD pool.
Come on, who hasn't seen Red Dawn?
While I don't think the movie doesn't stand up over time as well as say Rear Window it isn't a bad movie either. And, it's no more cheesy than the first Star Wars.
Maybe I'm just getting old.
Ergh.. that should be 'While I think this movie doesn't...'
Semi-classic is definitely overstating the case, Carli. It was a turkey!
So, shortly after making a complete fool of myself over a single letter --- but having suggested a movie --- I went home for the day, and turned on the tv, and there was "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming!" showing -- it is on again on the TCM network, if you get it, on July 29 at 4pm. Worth watching, as hokey as it gets:-
N.
I LOVED Red Dawn!
Okay, I was 17 at the time, but still!
Loved it.
And Jennifer Grey still looked like Jennifer Grey back then.
consider it added to my netflix queue
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