KØVLL MOVIE REVIEWS

“Red Dawn”
1984

Directed by: John Millus
Rated: PG-13

Starring: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and Charlie Sheen

This movie I personally hold responsible for keeping me scared of an eminent nuclear attack on the United States until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Red Dawn is about a joint attack on the United States by the USSR, Cuba, and Nicaragua  specifically focusing on a small Colorado town.

The movie begins with a dramatic attack by paratroopers at a high school and a small group of kids escaping to the nearby mountains armed with only primitive weapons and a few hunting rifles. They eventually start to strike back on the  insurgents in their hometown calling themselves the “Wolverines”.

There are a lot of tense and touching scenes in this film, specifically when the kids sneak back into town and contact their parents for the last time at a concentration camp set up at the local
drive-in theatre.

To watch this movie today it certainly doesn’t hold the impact it did in 1984, the
times were different and the threats seemed a lot scarier. Nevertheless, it’s still
enjoyable to watch and it’s Patrick Swayze’s best work besides “Roadhouse”.