Review of Red Dawn

Red Dawn

Red Dawn is a surprisingly well executed 'alternate reality' film involving a scenario where the United States is invaded by communist forces. From the opening scene, the film pulls no punches in terms of violence and shocking imagery, as soviet paratroopers drop into school grounds before rounding up and firing on young children. Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen star as young brothers who sally out from the communist clutches before seeking refuge in the nearby mountains with a handful of other escapees.

It isn't long before their home town is turned into a ghetto, with their families bundled into 're-education' camps and murdered at whim by ruthless communist generals. The scenes galvanise the young children into forming a guerilla resistance group. Calling themselves 'Woverines' after their school football team, the rebels are responsible for some serious destruction, but the war and its lack of a conceivable endpoint soon takes its toll on the youngsters.

The ending of the film, as well as the fate of a handful of characters is left ambiguous, but the action was relentless and violent throughout. If nothing else, it was an extremely thought provoking film. There are obvious biases towards the right to bear arms and national patriotism, but these are more subtle than I expected, considering this film was released at the height of the cold war. The only truly negative aspect of the film was how ludicrously competent the children become with high powered weapons and military tactics, which was perhaps the most far fetched aspect of all. Otherwise this was just a great action film with plenty of harrowing and contemplative scenes.

7/10

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Added by Grand Assault 6 months ago on 25 May 2009 08:42