Red Dawn Remake Being Discussed?
It looks like MGM has decided to throw Red Dawn on the remake train. The word on the street comes to us from Cannes via comingsoon:
MGM said at the Cannes Film Festival that Red Dawn, John Milius’ 1984 movie about a group of American rebels fighting Soviet forces, is a candidate for a remake, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The Soviets are not an imposing threat in the minds of the American people any longer, and this film was so awesome in the 80’s because everyone was going crazy thinking about the commies. In this remake they would have to change the threat to China, rather than Russia to be more appropriate to this day and age.
Red Dawn is an enjoyable 80’s flick that stars a young patrick Swayze, who is ready willing and able to kick commie ass. The film is still sought out by people and I personally think a remake, is a mistake. I don’t fancy remakes much at all, and this one seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I doubt the same quirky magic of the original will strike twice. It’s starting to look like remakes have a 20 year rotation, I wish they would up it to 100 so I could enjoy the sleep of death rather than watching them.
Red Dawn without Swayze - no thank you.
8 Comments, Comment or Ping
sfsilver
More importantly, “Red Dawn” without a Cold War? Red Dawn was a magnificent example of film expressing our resurgent anxieties in the early 80’s of imminent attack from the Soviets. Reagan was pontificating about the “Evil Empire” using that classic political tactic of fear to consolidate power and it made us feel as though we were on the verge of attack and popular culture bit and created a couple Cold War Paranoia classics like Red Dawn and the made-for-TV The Day After. The real magic of the film was about seeing our paranoid fears writ large on the screen.
I think it may be on the table again for the wrong reason: Teen idols. The increasing popularity of teen driven content, and a perception that Red Dawn was just a vehicle for 80’s teen hunks
May 19th, 2008
Meli
I’m in agreement with you Doug, I’m not feeling this remake news. I swear next thing you know they’ll be remaking Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink…blah.
May 19th, 2008
starman
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This is one that I doubt will happen.
May 19th, 2008
Terry Letourneau
Red Dawn is my favorite ‘guilty pleasure’ movie. I just hope that its not a bunch of teenagers vs. an invading army like the original and have every young actor from the WB. So who will be the invaders? China? North Korea? Iran? Maybe Canada? (I’m Canadian btw). I can see it now…MAPLE DAWN…mmmmm maple.
May 19th, 2008
Andrew
Red Dawn is my favorite movie of all time, but I think that it is also a movie that deserves a remake. Here’s why. Like the first commenter mentioned, Red Dawn was all about making the fear of the time written on the big screen. However, the event, in real life, never came to pass even though the threat of a Soviet invasion of the United States was real. Having said that, if you look at Red Dawn today, the fear that it plays off of is extremely outdated. I was born in November of 1991, about a month before the Soviet Union finally collapsed and the Cold War finally ended. But today we have new things to fear. The Chinese and the North Koreans are a threat, both of them being allies, and the fact that the North Koreans have a pretty nasty nuclear weapons division that could do some serious damage. So, make the invaders Chinese and North Korean, and it could actually work. Those are my two cents.
May 19th, 2008
The Poster
Is it really relevant to the age we lived in right now? I thought those types of red Communist threat fantasy films died out with the end of cold war. Given the current globalizing world where communication is much better, I doubt the public would buy into that.
May 19th, 2008
Darren J Seeley
I disagree with Meli…if a “Pretty In Pink” remake were done, we may not like it, but c’mon. It is the themes of Pretty In Pink that hold up today. Red Dawn on the other hand, the same cannot be said. In fact, Doug is on the money.
They can’t really call it Red Dawn. It is bad enough that the film itself was cheeseball stereotypical, and the only times the film had watchability is when Powers Boothe’s character came in (aside from youth hunting deer/drinking blood of deer, pissing in the radiator and William Smith’s “Fox and the chicken” speech to his Russian and Cuban comrades)
Now, I suppose there could be a remake if America were suddenly infiltrated by hordes of Al Quida and North Koreans…but again, like the original, broad strokes would have to be done to the point of propaganda and borderline stereotypes if not borderline racism.
So…here is my proposal.
The title is Red Dawn.
The invading armies are Area 51 escapees from Mars who are…
May 19th, 2008
Omri
Clearly the new movie should be titled “Yellow Peril.”
May 20th, 2008
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