New Red Dawn Movie

I liked the original one...I will probably check out the new one and see if it is as good as the original.  I was a senior in high school when this movie came out and I was heavily involved on the ROTC program in high school,  We were patriotic to the point of jingoistic.  We had a president that was proud to be an American and he had helped give us our pride back after the malaise of the Carter Years.   We as kids had dreams of leading the revolt against the Soviets if they invaded.   Funny kid dreams, Now I am much older and wiser, but I still remember the idealism of that time and I wish we had it back as a nation.

"Because We Live Here"

"Because we live here."

New column over at VDare.com is a brief look at the new Red Dawn remake movie in theaters today, and a much longer look at the man who directed/wrote the 1984 Red Dawn -- John Milius [“I Would Have Done It About Mexico.” American Hero John Milius Denounces RED DAWN Remake, VDare, 11-21-12]:

Well, don’t worry: in the upcoming remake of Red Dawn, the cast has the Politically Correct mandated diversity that we’ve come to love and expect from Hollywood.

More significantly, and ignominiously, the original story of the Chinese invading America—standing in for the now defunct USSR from the first film—was scrapped after filming was finished, with the North Koreans (!!) digitally interpolated...so as not to offend our Chinese overlords. [‘Red Dawn’ Villains Switched from China to North Korea, ScreenRants.com, November 21, 2011]

Milius had already blasted the upcoming remake, which he deemed completely unnecessary. 24 Frames’ Rachel Abramowitz reported:

"I think it’s a stupid thing to do. The movie is not very old," says Milius, who’s not involved in the new film but was given a chance to read the new script. "It was terrible. There was a strange feeling to the whole thing. They were fans of the movie so they put in stuff they thought was neat. It’s all about neat action scenes, and has nothing to do with story."

In the original film, the Soviet Union has invaded the continental United States, and a group of young men and women (Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey) band together as a guerrilla group, nicknamed the Wolverines, to fight off the occupiers. In the 2010 edition, directed by Dan Bradley and starring Chris Hemsworth and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, the villains are the Chinese.

While the new baddies might tap into American fears about a rising China, to Milius it makes little political sense. “There’s only one example in 4,000 years of Chinese territorial adventurism, and that was in 1979, when they invaded Vietnam, and to put it mildly they got their [butts] handed to them,“ says Milius, noting that China built a wall to separate itself from invaders. “Why would China want us? They sell us stuff. We’re a market. I would have done it about Mexico." [ Original 'Red Dawn' director takes aim at the remake, March 26, 2010]

Mexico, eh? Judging by the state of California, Arizona, Texas and, increasingly, the entire United States, Milius might be onto something.

Read the rest there. Comment on it here. Just remember Milius is known for writing some of the most gripping dialogue in all of American cinema history.

But one line uttered with righteous indignation from Patrick Swayze in the original Red Dawn is all that matters: "Because we live here.