Red Dawn Remake Most Intelligent Movie in Decades
Read Time:6 Minute, 22 Second
(Goblinbooks) The trailer for the remake of Red Dawn has surfaced on the web, and it is shocking. This movie – about an invasion of the American homeland – may be the most brutally subversive critique of US foreign policy since Apocalypse Now. The preview is a catalogue of why our military interventions fail, and why insurgencies succeed. You should watch this film, bring friends, and talk about it afterwards. It might make you write to your Congressman. It might change how you see everything.
Just 39 seconds into the trailer the audience witnesses an airborne operation from the ground – menacing and beautiful columns of aircraft with an American flag in the foreground. The slow-moving line of planes is like a distorted World War II propaganda film, or CNN footage of one of our TV wars with the POV reversed. Immediately an accident destroys a suburban home and brings the terror into stark focus. In that one instant the filmmakers thoroughly dismantle the notion that a tactic like “Shock and Awe” could be anything but a strategic disaster, as “collateral damage” poisons the legitimacy of the attacker among the civilian populations. You can’t kill a man’s family, and then win his heart and mind with a pamphlet, the director seems to be telling us. Why didn’t we realize this before?
Characters then talk about the enemy’s superior technology:
“How did this happen? There’s a new class of weapon. Everything went offline and
never came back.”The occupier has an edge. But right away, we know that such a weapon can be stolen or defeated. And so the filmmakers explain how a vicious, determined insurgency rises out of the wreckage of a defeated country and destroys its conquerors.The group coalesces around an off-duty Marine, who trains them in combat tactics and marksmanship:“I can’t. Yes, you can. Just relax… and squeeze.”
never came back.”The occupier has an edge. But right away, we know that such a weapon can be stolen or defeated. And so the filmmakers explain how a vicious, determined insurgency rises out of the wreckage of a defeated country and destroys its conquerors.The group coalesces around an off-duty Marine, who trains them in combat tactics and marksmanship:“I can’t. Yes, you can. Just relax… and squeeze.”
“I’m going to fight. Anyone else who wants to join is welcome to. We’ll hit them on our terms.”
The makers of Red Dawn are reminding us of the disastrous decision of the Coalition Provisional Authority to disband the Iraqi army, creating a large class of unemployed and angry people who could organize into a potent threat. At the same time they know that bringing security forces into our orbit does not necessarily solve the problem. Local military and law enforcement always have the potential to connect with hostile elements and betray the occupying army from within. In a few spare words of dialogue this movie is presenting us with the most deadly paradox any victorious military faces if it wants to seize a country and recreate it in its own image.
The video shows the insurgent forces grappling with the invading army using their superior knowledge of the terrain and an ability to move easily in the local population. Every mall, every street becomes a potential trap for the occupier. The director’s visual of the Wolverines popping out from the ground reminds us of Arminius crushing the Roman legions in the Teutoburg Forest. Smarter men than this author have observed that the modern Teutoburg – the wilderness that neutralizes the superior equipment and tactics of 21st century centurions – is the human terrain of cities, suburbs, and even virtual networks. We enter this wilderness every time we intervene. But Red Dawn makes it really visible to a civilian audience for the first time.
The rebel leader tells us why they are so effective in the clip: “We’re the Wolverines. And we create chaos.” An occupying army has to rebuild infrastructure, provide services, and demonstrate its power without brutalizing the people. The rebels just have to topple whatever was painstakingly built in a single, violent moment. And it is always easier, much easier, to destroy than create. We have to relearn this lesson every time we invade a country and attempt to win its people over, Red Dawn reminds us. When will we stop forgetting it?
But it’s the personal story of the insurgent commander and his brother that has the most revealing, and depressing, message for US policymakers. As a military officer kills their father, he tells his boys to avenge his death:
“Boys, I love you both. But I want you to do what I would do. Kill this piece of -” He never finishes his sentence. But he doesn’t have to.
“They messed with the wrong family,” the insurgent commander says later. It is a chilling statement, with a logic as pitiless as Napoleon’s famous dictum: “The moral is to the physical as three to one.”
“For them, this is just some place,” the insurgent commander says, revealing his tactical, strategic, and psychological advantage at once. “For us, this is our home.” And these advantages can only multiply. As the occupying force kills fathers, sons, cousins, and friends they only create the next generation of fighters, ever more determined and ever more ruthless. It is the seeming genius of Red Dawn to show us this truth in what would otherwise be a relatively tired action movie plot point.
But it’s the meta-narrative of Red Dawn that transcends the medium, and delivers a powerful and vital message to people who haven’t even seen the movie. The film’s creators originally portrayed the Chinese army as the primary villains, but studio heads forced them to change the antagonists to North Koreans in post-production, according to media reports like this LA Times article.
“The changes illustrate just how much sway China’s government has in the global entertainment industry, even without uttering a word of official protest,” the report states. “Hollywood has learned the hard way that besmirching China’s image on-screen can have long-running implications for the many arms of a modern media conglomerate.”
It’s obvious that the makers of this film have created a brilliant piece of Andy Kaufman-style performance art around the production of Red Dawn. As the movie is a commentary about the foolishness of fighting multiple insurgencies around the globe, the media chatter surrounding it focuses our attention on how our military expenditures drain our economy of resources while the Chinese government – the villain who must not be identified – uses economic leverage to change the behavior of some of the largest and most powerful American companies.
“For to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill,” according to Sun Tzu. “To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.” The creators of Red Dawn have drawn our attention to this strategic fact without directly stating it.
The tone and execution of the film are very similar to this bit of journalistic theater. Red Dawn, an artful takedown of American militarism, is so similar to the kind of ignorant, simplistic movies that celebrate this militarism, that some may question whether it is pitch-perfect satire at all. Some might even believe it is praising exactly what it condemns. But this is impossible. For the people who made Red Dawn to expect us to take it as a straightforward blockbuster, they’d have to believe this country has learned absolutely nothing from the awful ordeals of its recent past which have killed thousands of its bravest, most idealistic young people and devastated their families. It would have to be a film produced by a nation of contemptible idiots, for a nation of contemptible idiots.
That simply can not be true.
Many thanks to Paul Bibeau of Goblinbooks for this outstanding review.
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I saw the old movie and this seems to be a good remake shifted to California and updated with current world probabilities. Would or could we be invaded like that? Not specifically, but I disagree with both the author of the article and Bill on the underlying message. It is one of the premises behind why the second amendment was written, our own lawmakers overreaching was another based on historical record.
I cannot even make the leap to how we attempt to deal with foreign powers from this film and I am a strong believer in how we need to stop trying to tell other countries how to act. Make a Code of allowable conduct as part of all trade agreements and stop giving them things and do a complete embargo if they don’t comply with our trade agreements code of conduct.
On the other hand as much as I disagree with the author I think trusting the government to have the individuals interest at heart is foolish and checks on executive power to police its population are critical to a free society. The “NRA propaganda” statement is belittling to the concept of the second amendment.
Undercutting the government budget seem more propaganda to me as the US Military spends 6 times as much as the next closest in China and 42% of the total for the world. This doesn’t count state and local law enforcement/ guard nor does it include FBI, CIA, ATF, INS(Immigration), Homeland security, FDA(including DEA). And as long as I have known the Republican party has been the party for big military and policing or “protecting the freedoms of” the world.
And as for the conclusion of Bills argument about investing in law enforcement this is the covered in the tenth amendment which reserves the powers to the state and or the people for anything other than calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions. Or to declare and try treason which is congress. This mean the states have sole right to police and maintain order below the level of insurrection and therefore none of the federal governments business and if they stopped making laws and not fully funding them them states would be able to afford more law enforcement.
Hollywood is having a hard time coming up with anything original. I’d say. The original “Red Dawn” was great and this is another spin off.
I agree Gary. The original had a great cast and, at the time, was a really unique idea. The rest of my opinion is in my comment above.
I cannot wait to see this movie. Talk about timely!!
Interesting take on the movie there Mr. /Ms guest contributor. Since I saw and rather liked the original with Patrick Swazye and several other soon to be stars felt like putting in my two cents into the mix here. The original had the invading army as Russians being aided by several of the Latin American extremists groups but the plot sounds about the same. While there are some a few good human interest stories woven into the plot, the brothers swearing to avenge the father, the sniveling mayors son betraying the group, and the group of high school kids having to grow up quickly and learn about the terrible part of war and killing people instead of using their hunting weapons to kill animals out in the woods. However, i think it less about sending a political message to us about our global power and more about the NRA sending a political message about why everyone should be armed with assault weapons and machine guns. The plausibility of a foreign force amassing in sufficient size to actually invade the U.S. mainland without our intelligence resources knowing about it is a bit far out there for me now as it was in the original. Does it make for good drama and America feel good entertainment, probably. But, I have serious doubts about it teaching anything beyond the NRA propaganda.
One thing I wish it would do is to teach America that the Republican idea of undercutting the government budget to the point that out state and municipal law enforcement agencies are seriously undermanned has got to stopped. On many different levels they are our last line of defense before chaos begins and it becomes everyone for themselves. We need to be investing in our infrastructure including better training, pay, and equipping of law enforcement in this country.