Cheesy movie wankage

[emmagrant01]

So I'm watching Red Dawn on TV. I remember seeing that film in the theater when I was about twelve, and the thing I remember about it back then was that in my kid mind, it seemed so real, like something that could really happen.

And watching it now, it looks like the fucking stupidest movie ever made. Hello, the Russians (okay, Cubans, but later the Russians) would invade a one-horse town in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, by air drop? The sheer amount of right-wing fear-mongering propaganda in this film is mind-boggling. We have to have our guns, or we can't protect ourselves from the enemy! You have to know how to kill and butcher animals, just in case you need to survive in the woods when they come for you! You should be hard on your boys -- how else will they know what it means to be men? You have to cloister and protect your daughters, or they'll be raped, or worse. And for God's sake, men don't cry!!

The dialogue is terrible, and the acting not much better. At least it's slashy. Heh. Patrick Swayze/Tom Howell OTP!!!

But you know what scares me about this? When this film came out, I really believed that shit was possible -- even likely. I was completely brainwashed. And you know, it's not that different from what's happening now, is it?

ETA: Oh, look! It's the scene where the Russians line up a bunch of American prisoners by a mass grave and shoot them while they sing America, the Beautiful! Those nasty Russians! *eye roll* "No crying!" Patrick Swayze says! "Hold it back!"

ETA 2: And the illegal aliens from Latin America were part of the evil plan!!! And no one is on our side but England! Those damn wussy French.

Hang on a sec -- that sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Hmmm...

Comments

[mermaidqueen.livejournal.com]

Egads.

Yeah, for a long time I thought the Pilgrims were some really nice folks, helping out the Native Americans as best they could. Probably the least of my childhood brainwashing.

Propaganda always came off as being really creepy to me.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oh, I bought it all -- hook, line, and sinker.

[kerryblaze.livejournal.com]

We must be around the same age! I saw it when i was like 12, too and OMG I had an escape route planned and everything in my school because I really thought it could happen. I had the biggest crush on Charlie Sheen after that movie! And

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

And? ;-)

Yeah, we must be the same age! Charlie Sheen is totally hot, though. ;-)

[kerryblaze.livejournal.com]

Speaking of slash movies, I've got My Own Private Idaho on DvD and still haven't watched it. I think that was the movie that made me say... Two guys?! um, yeah, River + Keanu = HOT! And a slasher was born!

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oh, YES!!! That was the first really slashy movie I ever saw, and the whole itme, I was like "KISS HIM!!!" Oh, River... *sniff*

[tastyeyeliner.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister.

I felt that way with The Day After.

What a load of bullshit...

At least Bush's support rate is down.
Nationally it was 38% of people happy with his performance, but this was the AOL count:

How would you rate President Bush's overall performance?
Poor 73%
Good 10%
Excellent 10%
Fair 7%
Total Votes: 197,265

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes -- I remember The Day After too! That movie scared the shit out of me. :-P

[mermaidqueen.livejournal.com]

My dad built a cinderblock "bomb" shelter (which is now our laundry room) because of that movie. I'm kind of glad I never saw it.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

... whereas when I first saw it, I thought the movie was a complete hoot. To think that John M%ilius wrote Apocalypse Now...

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- you didn't live in this country, so you weren't subject to Reagan-era propaganda. :-P

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Actually, I did at the time, and I loved the old cowboy...

*ducks*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*sigh* I see he got you good. Another brain washed.

[gabilady.livejournal.com]

I had bad dreams and bad daydreams after that movie...whoa. I still think about it sometimes.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about it in years. Hmmm...

[sullacat.livejournal.com]

o_O

OMG, are you dissing an 80's classic of cold war politics? Next you'll be saying that Rocky IV wasn't the most vapid 80's music video, truly wretched propaganda piece of shit classic underdog story of how truly great America is? I mean, the RUSSIANS were cheering for him.

God bless Ronald Reagan!

*faints*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

You're so funny! Hee!

[jamoche]

Funny you should mention that - just saw that Stallone is going to make another Rocky movie - and another Rambo.

I remember seeing (and sniggering at) Red Dawn with my friends from karate, so I was slightly past teenaged.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Next you'll be saying that Rocky IV wasn't the most vapid 80's music video, truly wretched propaganda piece of shit classic underdog story of how truly great America is?

It did indeed hold that title until the 90s, when Independence Day came out. *shudders*

[djin7.livejournal.com]

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, "Red Dawn" actually held the title of "Most Violent Movie Ever Made" for some time.

Which is why it was cool in the early 80's.

*g*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It wasn't even rated R, though. In fact, I believe it was the first movie ever to be rated PG-13. Weird...

[djin7.livejournal.com]

I think it had to do with the actual number of violent scenes per minute. Not the extremity of the violence itself.
But it does seem very tame nowadays.

[robriki.livejournal.com]

Do You Know What I'm Going To Do Next Saturday!!!!!! I have that book! He's gonna box with the Marines, and shoot guns with them......er......and eat lots of spaghetti.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

WTF? I have never heard of that one!

[robriki.livejournal.com]

It was written by Helen Palmer, who was Dr. Seuss' first wife. If you take out the shooting with the Marines, it's actually kinda cool. He has all these different adventures throughout the day, and ends up bringing home the Marine band for dinner. She died in 1967, so I think off the top of my head it's from the early 60's.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

0_o

Dude. Just... dude.

[paranoidgrl.livejournal.com]

Patrick Swayze/Tom Howell OTP!!!

OMG Yes! Their love is so deer-killing!

And then Howell is all "Where's my dad?" at the drive-in movie concentration camp (seriously, all the Russians can find is the drive-in movie theater to use as a concentration camp?) and turns into vigilante psycho guy.

I remember we took this movie very seriously in junior high. I still randomly shout Wolverines! on occasion.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Their love is so deer-killing!

*grins* I see you remember it well.

Wolverines!!!1!1!!

[hearts-n-roses.livejournal.com]

I adored that movie as a teen. Now, not so much for basically the same reasons as you. I think when I was a kid I mostly enjoyed the eye candy...lol.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

The eye candy is good. If only they would like, not talk. Or attempt to act. Or emote. Or play out "Lord of the Flies", teen angst style.

If they would just stand there and pose in their 80s hair and outfits, that would be fine. Ya know? ;-)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

I believe that Red Dawn is the first PG-13 movie. The rating was created for one of the Indiana Jones movies, but Red Dawn was released first. So there's that.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remember that -- and my parents angsted a bit about whether or not they should let me see it, because I was only twelve at the time. Heh.

[aoi-shu.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the movie, but all the american movies about Russia are hillarious, especially when they try to make Anna Karenina or some other classic and end up with aristocrats drinking vodka from a huge glass and eating pickled cucumbers^^. MWAHAHA...oh well...

And those action movies...Hollywood still thinks USSR is there... *sweatdrop*.

But it is good for fun^^.

Shu

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oh, that one was just so, so bad! :-P

[slippery-fish.livejournal.com]

Oh God, yes, I remember that movie. It's just so very,very bad.

[inyadreems.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it, but I'm a bit surprised that it was made in the 80s - they had lots of cold war propaganda films going back to the 50s -all those SciFi invasion terrors. (I love them!)

And no one is on our side but England! Yup we've had arse-licking governments for years.

[doro-chan.livejournal.com]

At least it's slashy. Heh. Patrick Swayze/Tom Howell OTP!!!

I thought that too.
I don't think it is that bad though. Really. It's just the typical American action/war movie. So the plot tends to be a bit... far fetched. And of course it's full of American heroism. I got used to that some years ago, you just can't avoid them, and at least the American action movies are better than most German.

But the best American propaganda I ever saw was a comic from the 50s we had in history. In the beginning, they show how everything is good and everybody is happy, and then the evil, evil communists (the leader looked like Lenin) plot how to overthrow the government. They ruin the crops and so on and in the end there is total chaos. I wish I knew the name. It was so hilarious.

[cormallen.livejournal.com]

Back in the Motherland (two years before I left there it was still called the USSR) we didn't have anti-evil-capitalist movies. However, in my Young Pioneer meetings, they did often mention the possibility of those vile Americanos attempting to blow us all to smithereens.