“Wolverine!” That was the rallying cry of the teenage guerillas, also known as the Wolverines (taken from their high school mascot), in the 1984 action film “Red Dawn,” directed and co-written by John Milius. It was one of the film’s sillier aspects – and lucky for the youthful partisans that their school had such a formidable mascot.
Even after it first hit theaters 40 years ago this past summer, “Red Dawn” remains a guilty-pleasure film for many of us of a certain age. It is dumb, loud, and jingoistic, and instead of yelling “Wolverine” at the end, we’re more likely to stand and chant “U-S-A.”
Living in the 80s!
Perhaps you had to be there at the time, but the film was notable not for its nonsensical plot but for being fairly realistic about Cold War small arms and other military hardware.
The teenage freedom fighters were armed with AK-47s and RPGs – at a time when few U.S. museums even had such items on display. They used those weapons and stopped the commies in their tracks. They blew up tanks, they shot down helicopters, and they liberated America. Okay, that last part didn’t happen in the film. And arguably, on closer viewing, the Wolverines were little more than an annoyance to the Soviet invaders when all is considered.
Yet, we need to remember that “Red Dawn” came out at a time when we couldn’t have imagined the Cold War would be over less than a decade later or that the Berlin War would come down in just over five short years! The film hit theaters just weeks after the Soviet Union and most of the Warsaw Pact boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles. That turned out to be great for American athletes who won a record-setting number of medals, but it was a reminder that the Soviet Union was still the evil empire, and World War III seemed all too real.
Later that year, President Ronald Reagan would also go on to win reelection in the largest political landslide in our nation’s history, and his policies led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
“Red Dawn” didn’t have anything to do with any one of those things, yet it was very much a product of that era. Thus for those of us who watched the Olympic Games and saw Reagan cruise to reelection, this film just reminded us that the U.S. could kick butt and take names.
Nonsense, But So Much Fun
As noted, the plot barely makes sense. A quick recap at the beginning of the film tells viewers that NATO has broken up, while Central America, including Mexico, has fallen to the commies. Perhaps Jimmy Carter won reelection, and this is alternate history or something.
Then, in the open scene, Soviet paratroopers land on a “strategically vital” high school and start shooting up the place. 30-something Patrick Swayze, before his “Road House” and “Dirty Dancing” days, arrives and saves his brother and their friends and heads to the hills. They get some guns, kill some Soviets, and get more guns before a downed U.S. pilot (Powers Boothe) is rescued, and he then helps better organize the Wolverines until he gets killed.
The Wolverines’ numbers are thinned, and they tire of playing war as they’re being hunted by an anti-partisan expert. There is a final shootout, and before the credits roll, a voiceover tells us that the war eventually ended, and the Wolverines are remembered for playing their part. It is never explained how the U.S. won, but as an American flag flies at the end, we can only assume the good guys won.
The film certainly left its mark, however, which is notable as it came out during a wave of films of teen sex comedies. Instead of holding a house party that trashed the place, these Gen-Xers (played by Baby Boomers) sought to save America.
The lasting legacy of “Red Dawn” includes a disappointing 2012 remake and the multiple video games it inspired. That included the 2012 video game “Homefront,” which was written by John Milius about a unified Korea somehow invading North America (with its plot borrowed for the film remake).
American Guns in “Red Dawn”
The Wolverines initially receive their arms from Mister Morris’s gas station and general store at the end of town. Their arsenal includes various hunting rifles, notably a Marlin Model 336C, Ruger Model 77, and Remington Model 572 Fieldmaster, as well as shotguns such as a Winchester Model 1912 and Remington 870 Wingmaster. Swayze also carries a Colt Single Action Army revolver with ivory grips, which is identified as being owned by his grandfather. In actuality, the revolver was owned by Milius.
Boothe’s flyboy character is also seen with a Smith & Wesson Model 15, a handgun that was issued in the 1980s to the United States Air Force Security Police, so it has been considered an apt choice for a hotshot aviator, although later in the film he is armed with a Colt M1911A1 semi-automatic. It isn’t explained where it came from, but perhaps he had more than one sidearm tucked in the cockpit of his fighter.
The Soviet Small Arms and Equipment
Though the plot requires a substantial “suspension of disbelief” on the viewer’s part, “Red Dawn” earned critical praise from firearms enthusiasts for accurately depicting modern Soviet weaponry of the era—a fact that was notable as Warsaw Pact military hardware, including small arms, was largely banned in the United States.
Many of the Soviet troops were seen with AKMs, which were really Egyptian Maadi MISR semi-automatic rifles. That model had the distinction of being among the first Kalashnikov-type rifles legally imported into the United States. According to various sources, a total of 53 Maadis were used in the film, with 32 converted to full-auto by Class 3 manufacturer Pearl Manufacturing specifically for “Red Dawn.” Those same modified rifles were used in other films, including “Rambo: First Blood Part II.”
It should be noted that “Red Dawn” was made a full three years before the 1986 ban on the manufacture of fully automatic weapons in the United States.
Some of the Maadis were also modified to resemble the AKS-74 used by the Soviet paratroopers. While still chambered for 7.62x39mm rather than the accurate 5.45x39mm, the rifles were fitted with plastic magazines and a muzzle brake that resembled the one on the actual AK-74.
Another prominent stand-in is the machine pistol carried by Soviet Colonel Stelnikov (William Smith). It is a Finnish-made Jatimatic SMG, which is seen in his hip holster and later used in the film’s climax. Though it is not impossible that a Soviet officer would employ such a weapon, it was likely that it was a substitute for the Polish-made PM-63, a sidearm that in the real world was used by Warsaw Pact tank crews, East German border guards and airborne troops.
A few Cuban and Nicaraguan soldiers are seen at various points in the film with the Belgian-made FN FAL, but no explanation is given. It can only be speculated that the film’s armorers wanted to have the Central American forces with non-Kalashnikov rifles and opted for a weapon that was widely used by NATO forces in the era. Likewise, a few “captured” M16A1 rifles are present in a few sequences.
Where “Red Dawn” truly deserves some credit is in its attempt to mimic the Soviet squad weapons of the 1980s. This included a Valmet M78 standing in for the Soviet RPK, although it is fitted with a curved magazine instead of the more accurate drum magazine. The film also prominently features the DShK heavy machine gun, a weapon that would have been nearly impossible to find in the West at the time.
In that case, the armorers modified an M60D machine gun – although the U.S. weapon was chambered for the 7.62mm NATO round instead of the 12mm (.50 caliber) cartridge for the DShK. A faux flash hider was mounted to the end of the barrel, and it was only fired from an ammo can. The DShK mockups were reasonably convincing and were used in “Rambo: First Blood Part II,” as well as in the Clint Eastwood film “Heartbreak Ridge,” plus several 1980s and early 1990s TV shows.
M60s were further modified to replace the Soviet Gorunov SGM machine guns but without their iconic wheeled carts. Those, too, were recycled for later productions.
One of the most notable mockups in the film was the RPG-7. The anti-tank rocket launcher was used by the Soviets and later was seen carried by Charlie Sheen’s character. These were vintage RPG-2s, which featured an additional pistol grip and oversized faux scope. The ordnance consisted of a foam rocket guided by a wire, launched by an Estes rocket motor, while the fuse tips were reportedly made from toothpaste tube caps!
Fake Tanks and Helicopters
“Red Dawn” is also notable in that the filmmakers went to great lengths to produce convincing facsimiles of the Soviet Army’s T-72 main battle tanks (MBT), Mi-24 “Hind” helicopter, and BRDM-2 armored personnel carriers. While securing convincing small arms was a daunting enough task, it would have been impossible to get a real T-72 or Mi-24 – and at the time, the CIA and other intelligence agencies were actively trying!
Moreover, while many World War II films often just painted a vintage M47 or M48 “Patton” tank and called it a day, “Red Dawn” didn’t settle so easily. Instead, the T-72s were mocked up using the chassis of surplus M8A1 cargo tractors, which were based on the M41 Walker Bulldog. It was so convincing that when production photos made the round, the CIA even inquired how the production was able to come upon the tanks!
The Mi-24 was equally elusive, so much so that the 1982 film “Firefox” had to settle for a 1/12 scale radio-controlled model. For “Red Dawn,” the filmmakers dressed up three French Aérospatiale Pumas with a modified cockpit and faux rocket pods. It appeared reasonably convincing, and the fake Mi-24 Hinds appeared in “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Rambo III.”
The great irony is that while the CIA was almost fooled by the tank and even some aviation buffs may have wondered how three Hinds were obtained, few in the audience likely truly appreciated these facts at the time. However, that is part of what makes “Red Dawn” almost timeless. While those aforementioned World War II films with the wrong small arms and notoriously inaccurate tanks look so dated now, “Red Dawn” truly captures the era like no other film.
The story is cheesy, but it looks really good. It is hard not to love it.
The post Red Dawn: The Guilty Pleasure Film at 40 appeared first on The Mag Life.
Read the full article here
