Red Dawn Movie

Wemt to see the remake of Red Dawn this week.  The old one, with actors we got to know well in the years after its release, was based on the idea of what it might be like if the communists invaded.  A group of teens became an insurgent group that fought a guerilla war against the invading Cubans, who were advised and supported by the Russians.

This time the invaders are North Koreans.  They were originally going to be the Chinese, but substantial pressure was brought to bear on the producers by the offended Chinese, so they switched to the North Koreans.  Supported once again by the Russians.  Portland, Oregon took over ground zero from Colorado (I forget what town in Colorado it was supposed to be).  This time the invaders made use of some sort of EMP weapon that shut down all communications to hamstring the US Military defenses.

Nick told me the reviews were very negative.  I hadn't read any reviews before going to see the movie, so I just finished reading one.  The negative review was not about the movie, but politics.  The reviewer was derisive and dismissive over the very idea that communists might ever invade, therefore the movie (in his opinion) was a silly right-wing fantasy unworthy of attention.

I liked it.  Not because I'm one of those right-wingers happily immersing myself in the fantasy of evil communist invaders.  Because I thought it was a pretty good movie.  Well scripted, beautifully shot, and even pretty well acted.  And beyond the fact that the invaders were communists, there were no overt political messages in the movie.

Bad reviews ignored the qualities of the movie itself because the reviewers themselves are, well, Communists.  Presumably they don't believe their friends from Russia and North Korea would ever actually invade America, because they don't have to.  These folks are doing a fine job with the president of "transforming" America into a Socialist State, so there's no need to invade.

The original made a rather chilling point about gun control, depicting the invaders as seeking out the gun registration papers immediately after they arrived to identify and go round up all registered gun owners, then executing the ones who couldn't produce their firearms for confiscation.  The new version didn't bother with anything like that.

I'd recommend the movie not for its patriotism or anti-communist themes, but for pure entertainment.  Some arguments are going around the net about which version was better.  I'm not participating in that argument.  The two versions are different enough that they don't require comparison, and I enjoyed both.