Stupid political content.....

As a slab of paranoid, right wing propaganda, no film will ever top Red Dawn. Released in the same year as Reagan’s re-election campaign, the film was no doubt intended as a cautionary tale for lazy, complacent liberals who thought the Soviets weren’t a real threat to our way of life. The film opens with a political context, and we read that in West Germany, “Greens” have been elected with the sole mission of removing nuclear weapons from that country. From this I must assume that environmentalist wackos are being held accountable for the loss of Europe, if not the world, to Lenin and his cronies. More than that, though, this film is the greatest example of an NRA recruitment piece that I have ever seen. “See,” the filmmakers seem to be saying, “without individual gun ownership those kids never could have fought back and the nation would have been lost!” The film even states that when the Commies set up their bases, the first people they seek out for extermination are those with guns. One of the colonels says that since their names are recorded, they will be easy to find. Get it? We must eliminate background checks and gun registration or else the Commies will know who we are! From all accounts, the Second Amendment was written just for this very purpose; so that when the evildoers come for our wheat, we can take up arms and save civilization. After all, if the bombs fall and the armies are tied up elsewhere, who else will kill those red sons-a-bitches?

Given that this is a John Milius film (a self-described fascist, I might add), the kids are easily and happily transformed from passive pussies into hardened killing machines within a few days. One of the kids even says, in response to a question about how it was to kill a man, “It was good.” Red Dawn, therefore, lays bare the true ideas of the extreme right-wing in this country and what they want us all to be — god-fearin’, gun-lovin’, and willing to kill for the Stars and Stripes. And finally, just for good measure, Europe is said to be “sitting this one out,” which is another way of saying that them Europeans is just a bunch a no-good, Commie-lovin’ atheistic *beep* Republicans then, Republicans now.

-http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/1190/red-dawn/