Red Dawn
Red Dawn is a 1984 American action drama film directed by John Milius, from a screenplay co-written with Kevin Reynolds, and starring Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey, with supporting roles played by Ben Johnson, Darren Dalton, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O'Neal, William Smith and Powers Boothe. Set during a fictional World War III between an increasingly isolated United States and the Soviet Union, the film follows a group of teenage guerrillas, known as the Wolverines, fighting against a Soviet-backed Latin American invasion force in Colorado.
Despite mixed reviews from critics, the film became a commercial success, grossing $38 million against a budget of $17 million. It was the first film to be released in the United States with a PG-13 rating under the modified rating system introduced on July 1, 1984. A remake was released in 2012.
Plot
In the 1980s, the United States has become increasingly isolated after NATO is dissolved and Western Europe's nuclear weapons are removed. The Soviet Union and its allies Cuba and Nicaragua have begun building up their military strength, while expanding their influence across El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.High school students in Calumet, Colorado, witness a surprise Soviet-led invasion of their town. Brothers Jed and Matt Eckert escape the chaos of a Soviet paratroop attack. When Soviet, Cuban and Nicaraguan soldiers occupy Calumet, Jed, Matt, and their friends Robert, Danny, Daryl, and Arturo flee into the countryside with camping supplies, food, and weapons taken from Robert's father's store. They evade a Soviet roadblock assisted by a U.S. helicopter gunship, and narrowly escape into the mountains where they go into hiding. Weeks later upon learning that Mr. Eckert is being held at a re-education camp at Calumet's drive-in, they surreptitiously visit him and learn that Mrs. Eckert is dead. He asks his sons to avenge him.
Visiting the Mason family in occupied territory, they learn Robert's father has been executed. The Masons ask Jed and Matt to care for their granddaughters, Toni and Erica, as the group retreats back to their camp. The group is eventually discovered in their forest hideout by a small group of Soviets and kill them in self-defense. The group begins launching guerilla attacks on the occupation forces, calling themselves the "Wolverines" after their high school mascot. The occupiers respond with brutal crackdowns, executing Mr. Eckert and Arturo's father. The Wolverines encounter crashed USAF pilot Andrew Tanner who informs them of the current state of the war: several American cities, including Washington D.C., were destroyed by nuclear strikes, Strategic Air Command was crippled by Cuban saboteurs, and paratroopers seized key positions in preparation for full-scale invasion via Mexico and Alaska. Most of the southwestern United States and northwestern Canada are occupied, but American counterattacks halted their advance between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. Europe has remained neutral, and America's only remaining foreign allies, China and the United Kingdom, actively resist the Soviets with weakened militaries.
Tanner joins the Wolverines, leading to further reprisals by occupation forces against civilians. Tanner and Arturo are killed in the crossfire of a tank battle while visiting the front line. Soviet Spetsnaz commander Colonel Strelnikov arrives to track down the Wolverines. The spoiled Daryl defies Jed's orders and warnings, venturing into town to rescue his father on his own and is arrested by the KGB when his brainwashed father betrays him. Daryl is forced to swallow a tracking device and released to rejoin the Wolverines. Soviet troops track the group but are ambushed by the Wolverines, who capture one of the Soviets alive. After questioning the Soviet leads nowhere, Matt gets the tracer to work, which points to Daryl. The group assembles to execute Daryl and the Soviet, arguing about whether what they are about to do is right, but Jed shoots the Soviet. Daryl pleads for mercy, but is killed by a furious Robert.
The remaining Wolverines are ambushed by Soviet helicopter gunships, which kill Toni and Robert. Jed and Matt attack the occupation forces in Calumet as a distraction to help Danny and Erica escape. Strelnikov mortally wounds Jed and Matt before Jed kills him with his grandfather's pistol. Although the brothers are discovered and held at gunpoint by Cuban Colonel Ernesto Bella, the latter ultimately spares them. The brothers sit together on a park bench during their final moments. Danny and Erica trek through the mountains and reach American-held territory.
The film closes with a shot of a plaque on a mountainside, fenced off, with a U.S. flag flying nearby. The plaque identifies the location as Partisan Rock, and reads the following:
In the early days of World War III, guerrillas, mostly children, placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so that this nation shall not perish from the earth.
Cast
Production
''Ten Soldiers''
Originally called Ten Soldiers, the script was written by Kevin Reynolds. Producer Barry Beckerman read it, and, in the words of Peter Bart, "thought it had the potential to become a tough, taut, 'art' picture made on a modest budget that could possibly break out to find a wider audience." His father Sidney Beckerman helped him pay a $5,000 option. Reynolds wanted to direct but the Beckermans wanted someone more established. Walter Hill briefly considered the script before turning it down, as did several other directors.The Beckermans pitched the project to David Begelman at MGM, but were turned down. They tried again at that studio when it was run by Frank Yablans. Senior vice-president for production Peter Bart, who remembers it as a "sharply written anti-war movie... a sort of Lord of the Flies", took the project to Yablans.
The script's chances increased when Reynolds became mentored by Steven Spielberg, who helped him make Fandango; the script was eventually purchased by MGM.
John Milius
Bart recalls that things changed when "the chieftains at MGM got a better idea. Instead of making a poignant little antiwar movie, why not make a teen Rambo and turn the project over to John Milius, a genial filmmaker who loved war movies. The idea was especially popular with a member of the MGM board of directors, General Alexander Haig, the former Nixon chief of staff, who yearned to supervise the film personally and develop a movie career."Bart says most of MGM's executives, except for Yablans, were opposed to Milius directing. Bart claims he made a last minute attempt to get Reynolds to direct the film and went to see Spielberg. However, by this stage Fandango was in rough cut, and Bart sensed that Spielberg was disappointed in the film and would not speak up for Reynolds. Milius was signed to direct at a fee of $1.25 million, plus a gun of his choice.
Milius set about rewriting the script. He and Haig devised a backstory in which the circumstances of the invasion would occur; this was reportedly based on Hitler's proposed plans to invade the U.S. during World War II. Haig took Milius under his wing, bringing him to the Hudson Institute, the conservative think tank founded by Herman Kahn, to develop a plausible scenario. Milius saw the story as a Third World liberation struggle in reverse; Haig introduced Nicaragua and suggested that, with the collapse of NATO, a left-wing Mexican government would participate in the Soviet invasion, effectively splitting the U.S. in half. Bart says, "Even Milius was taken aback by Haig's approach to the project. 'This is going to end up as a jingoistic, flag-waving movie,' Milius fretted. As a result, the budget of this once $6 million movie almost tripled."
Other changes included a shift in focus from conflict within the group to conflict between the teens and their oppressors, and the acceleration of the ages of some of the characters from early teens to high school age and beyond. There was also the addition of a sequence where some children visit a camp to find their parents have been brainwashed.
Milius later said, "I see this as an anti-war movie in the sense that if both sides could see this, maybe it wouldn't have to happen. I think it would be good for Americans to see what a war would be like. The film isn't even that violent – the war shows none of the horrors that could happen in World War III. In fact, everything that happened in the movie happened in World War II."
Bart says Yablans pushed through filming faster than Milius wanted because MGM needed a movie over the summer. Milius wanted more time to plan, including devising futuristic weaponry and to not shoot over winter, but had to accede.
The Department of Defense had originally agreed to provide assistance to the production on the basis the film "would have a positive impact and benefit to the military services and in the interest", although the Air Force objected to the language used by one of the pilot characters. However, Milius ultimately decided not to cooperate with the department after deciding doing so would be too expensive.
Casting
Milius wanted Robert Blake to play the American pilot, but was overruled by Frank Yablans. Powers Boothe was selected instead.Filming
The movie was filmed in and around the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico. Many of the buildings and structures which appear in the film, including a historic Fred Harvey Company hotel adjacent to the train depot, the train yard, and a building near downtown, which was repainted with the name of "Calumet, Colorado", referencing the town in Michigan, are still there today. An old Safeway grocery store was converted to a sound stage and used for several scenes in the movie.Powers Boothe later claimed that "Milius cut out the emotional life of its characters. Originally, my character was anti-war, as well as a rightist. I was supposed to be the voice of reason in that movie. But certain cuts negated my character."
Lea Thompson said the original cut featured a love scene between her and Powers Boothe but it "was cut out after some previews because of the age difference. And that was the main reason I took the movie—it was such a terrific scene." Similarly, a sex scene that took place in a sleeping bag was scripted between the characters Jed and Toni, but was abandoned after a failed take. Jennifer Grey stated this was because Patrick Swayze was drunk and couldn't remember his lines while filming, while Grey was high on marijuana, stating "And then it got cut. And they said, 'We'll come back and reshoot it.' But of course they didn't." Her negative interaction with Swayze made her anxious about working with the actor again in Dirty Dancing.
There were scenes filmed at and around a McDonald's restaurant and at least one picture of Soviet officers around the restaurant exists. However, the scenes were cut before the movie was finished, supposedly due to a shooting at a McDonald's less than a month before release.
The Soviet Mi-24 "Hind-A" helicopter-gunships were mocked-up and built around French SA 330 Pumas. Some of the weaponry devised for the film did not work. Futuristic helicopters created for the film did not have FAA approval to fly over people.
The budget increased from $11 million to $15 million. It ultimately cost $19 million.