The Swamp

Red Dawn (1984)
Director: John Milius
Screenwriters: John Milius, Kevin Reynolds (story)
Starring: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell
Running Time: 114 minutes
Budget: $17 million
Box Office: $38.9 million
Streaming availability: None that I could find
On-demand/PPV: Amazon Prime, YouTube for $3.99, probably the other places, as well
Start Time: 9 p.m. (movie starts at 9:10 p.m.)

We'll close our July 4th doubleheader with this one, not the 2012 re-make, so don't be fooled. And a couple of fun notes from Wikipedia...

Peter Bart recalls that things changed when "the chieftains at MGM got a better idea. Instead of making a poignant little antiwar movie, why not make a teen Rambo and turn the project over to John Milius, a genial and rotund filmmaker who loved war movies and also loved war? The idea was especially popular with a member of the MGM board of directors, General Alexander Haig, the former Nixon chief of staff, who yearned to supervise the film personally and develop a movie career."

Milius was signed to direct at a fee of $1.25 million, plus a gun of his choice. Milius set about rewriting the script. He and Haig devised a backstory in which the circumstances of the invasion would take place; this was reportedly based on Hitler's proposed plans to invade the USA. Haig took Milius under his wing, bringing him to the Hudson Institute, the conservative think tank founded by Herman Kahn, to develop a plausible scenario.

I can't decide if the lack of responses means you're all a bunch of Commies or if you are relying on guerrilla tactics to secretly show up tonight.

Gonna be poppin' outta my blind to mow down some Commie bastards. Only after I piss in the radiator.

Should be in

We'll start when the MGM logo fades to black.

The pause point will be at the end of the scene where the addition to the group meets everyone over dinner, so pausing with the new member sleeping in his tent.

Fellow SWT Bobcat!

Man, teenaged me loved this movie. Do I remember right that it was the first PG-13 movie?

Shirley wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:33 am Man, teenaged me loved this movie. Do I remember right that it was the first PG-13 movie?

The second (after Oxford Blues).

Shirley wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:33 am Man, teenaged me loved this movie. Do I remember right that it was the first PG-13 movie?

Yup, because of Temple of Doom.

Red Dawn was first.

So it was. I always thought it was second.

Yeah, Google says my memory of this is right. That might be a first - Google is always proving me wrong.

I have a very clear recollection of this which is crazy since I was 7 when this came out. I recall the huge Red Dawn ad on the back of the entertainment section of the Chronicle and there was an article in there about the new rating.

Apparently I've been whistling the Red Dawn theme all day. All of the sudden really hyped up for this tonight! Set an alarm to remember to watch it and everything.

I am pleased that my recruitment plan has worked and we will be able to attack this assignment with numbers.

"WOLVERINES!"

I should be in. Haven't seen this movie since I was a kid in the 80's and it was on cable TV 10 times a day.

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:51 pm I should be in. Haven't seen this movie since I was a kid in the 80's and it was on cable TV 10 times a day.

I feel like it's one of those classic movies where I've seen the last "X" minutes about 20 times and the first three minutes twice.

United States stand alone.

I am so excited to rewatch. Loved this movie growing up. We used to watch it every timewe would visit my cousins in Michigan.

Gonna try this on my tablet instead of computer today.

Two minutes out.

As a reminder, start where the screen fades to black after the MGM logo.

Hope you guys aren't gonna get trashed. There's reading in this one.

Never seen the whole thing. Was scared shitless of nuclear war as a little kid (bad experience with The Day After) and my parents never really liked us watching violent movies. Let’s go.

The best right-wing propaganda reading!

Roll film.

"West German"?

This may be #1 on the most-watched movies list. I was scared of nuclear war too, but I leaned into that shit. I watched The Day After on repeat when I got it at the video store on a two-day rental.

Surprised no one has dropped the requisite mention that John Milius is the real-life inspiuration for Walter Sobchak,

I probably went 20 years without seeing it after 1989, but holy shit did I watch this over and over.

Fuckin green party

Enjoying this with my 14 year old daughter. Time to indoctrinate her on the hatred of those dirty Commie bastards.

Johnny Carwash wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:11 pm Surprised no one has dropped the requisite mention that John Milius is the real-life inspiuration for Walter Sobchak,

TIL

I will never understand why this town was targeted.

RUFF RYDERS!

because bodie lived there.

Wolverines!!!

Giff wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:12 pm I will never understand why this town was targeted.

I think the gist is to get a stronghold in the middle as they divided the nation in two parts.

I mean, it's a town where 20-year olds drive 18-year-olds to school.

This teacher is the only Black person these kids have ever seen.

I somehow forgot Charlie Sheen was in this.