MovieChat Forums > Red Dawn (1984) Discussion > "You've seen too many movies, darlin'."

"You've seen too many movies, darlin'."

posted 9 years ago by steelywulf
6 replies | jump to latest

What movies have erroneously identified Houston as Texas' capital, instead of Austin? Frankly, I can't think of a single one.

[–] MadTom 9 years ago

The issue about seeing too many movies wasn't about Erica being mistaken about the capital of Texas but about all the movies set during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, when English-speaking Germans wearing US Army uniforms infiltrated the American lines, and American troops kept asking each other American pop-culture questions trying to trip up the infiltrators. (In real life, General Omar Bradley had an encounter with a trigger-happy GI who asked him what the capital of Illinois was, and when Bradley replied "Springfield", the GI said it was Chicago and almost shot him.)

[–] ginger-51 9 years ago

Ok, this has nothing to do with the movie, but your post reminded me of something similar. In 1999, I was invited to participate in a conference in a small mountain town in Portugal. Naturally I jumped at the chance. When I flew into Portugal and went through the customs check at the airport, it was really fast. They looked at my ticket and said "You are from California, yes? So, Los Angeles, it's really close to Miami, right? You can drive there in a day?" When I said "um, no, of course not. They are on the coasts of two different oceans," the customs agent said "ok, good, welcome to Portugal."

It wouldn't have been far off for them to ask if Houston was the capital of Texas at all.

(My guess is if I had taken that trip a few years later, they would have had a much better screening process at ANY international airport.)

[–] the_bamboo_spear 9 years ago

It was just a joke. She suspects him being a Soviet pilot, questions him, and he answers correctly. She acts like she's going to shoot him anyways because she's trigger-happy. I remember the audience loved this line, but then again the theater was filled with drunken soldiers lol.

[–] Spoiled_Pitbull 8 years ago

It was the dumbest scene of the movie.
No way would he just be lying there taking a siesta waiting to be captured. As soon as he hit the ground he'd be hiding anything that came down with him that can't be carried then get moving quickly away from the area to distance himself from where he'd been seen parachuting to in order to avoid capture. ANY air crewman would do that since it is part of thier SERE training (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape). Really, it just makes sense to evade.

It was a very good movie but scenes like that kept it from its full potential.

[–] Hendry_William_French 8 years ago

I think it's just creative license for the sake of the general audience. John Milius is a major military buff and would know about stuff like that, but he also knew the scene would be more interesting being filmed that way.

Also, Tanner seemed to land in an area that was deserted. He probably felt he'd have some time to get away and was just steadying himself, or maybe in a temporary daze.

Death by stereo

[–] ebright99 8 years ago

It's implied that ejecting left him unconscious and when she finds him he is just coming to.

We see her watching and listening to the dogfight. Then we hear an explosion and we see a ring of smoke in the sky. Then she sees his ejector seat, parachute, and then him. It's implied that he just bailed out and is unconscious when she finds him.