Colonel Ernesto Bella's turn at the end of Red Dawn is a great twist to this film. He writes a letter to his sweetheart or wife in Cuba explaining that he is ready to begin his new life and resign from the army. In a few scenes he has the opportunity to kill Jed and Matt Eckert, but lowers his rifle and lets them retreat in peace. This is a real classy touch to the film and helps bring a peaceful ending to a good war film.
I forgot about that part. Thanks for the reminder. I was just thinking today about shedding a lot of my nostalgic DVD/BRD in the library, but this deserves another viewing for sure.
Siskel and Ebert reviewed this film in 1984. Siskel mentioned that he didn't like the way that the film ended or that it "petered out" at the end.
Give me a break. How is carrying the dead body of your literal brother in arms through the snow after a suicide assault mission considered petering out?! Perhaps he thought First Blood petered out as well because the protagonist ended on the floor in tears… sheesh!
If so, it's one of very, very few. Milius is about as subtle as a sledgehammer. It would be easy (and obvious) to dismiss Red Dawn as nationalistic Reagan-era masturbation (which it is), but the rise of the far right in America over the past decade would make such an assessment a rather hollow victory.
If one wasn't paying attention, one might have missed the universal values of camaraderie, peace, and love of one's own country contained within the film. Further, there is part of the plot that deals with one of the Wolverines betraying their trust. It's sad coming from a friend. The film does well in exploring the passion and emotion of war with good performances from all of the lead characters.
The contemporaneous Robin Williams-Walter Matthau comedy, THE SURVIVALISTS, acts as a corrective for RED DAWN. RED DAWN is what the preppers and other assorted loonies imagine themselves to be, while THE SURVIVALISTS is what all the would-be Wolverines really are: marks for fascist fantasies sold by snake oil salesman who don't believe a word of what they're saying.
Rather, love of one's country is a deep bond among the Wolverines. People in general relate to that passion and root for them because of it. Hard to root for Colonel Bella for most of the film, until he decides to spare the Eckerts.
Uh-huh. Milius, a former NRA board member (and effectively the mouthpiece for Dirty Harry), was all about peace. And 'love' of whose country, one might ask? The USA is rendered as incredibly whitebread in Red Dawn... Ironically, according to data analysis by Parrot Analytics, the film has seen something of a resurgence in the context of the invasion of Ukraine - even as the current wave of far-right American jingoists would be likely to sympathise with the Soviets in the film, right? Oh, brother! https://www.thewrap.com/red-dawn-ri...n-teens-fighting-russian-invasion-is-red-hot/
This is the other film where the closing scene features Patrick Swayze being instructed to Vaya Con Dios
All I took from this flick is that American teens would make great insurgents, like the Vietcong or the Taliban.
That's a great premise for a film. Red Dawn from the invader's perspective. It could be a similar setup to Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. It would also be an interesting parallel with the Ukraine situation.
Red Dawn features my second favorite Basil Poledouris score (after Conan the Barbarian), followed closely by Robocop.
What are you even talking about? We are discussing a specific scene from a movie, not your political thoughts and theories.
I mean, it kind of does. Stallone's half-intelligible monologue doesn't help. The ending of Morrell's novel, where Col. Troutman kills Rambo out of mercy, is much better. I'm not sure if that was filmed, but I suspect not. Kirk Douglas (originally cast as Troutman) left the production because Stallone wanted to change that ending.
I liked the ending too. At least two other spots stood out-the camp fire scene where Powers Boothe describes a siege where fires light up the sky-"It's medieval", and the very short exchange between Matt and Jed "how the mountains pay us no attention at all...".
I like both endings. I never read what Morrell thought about the film ending though. As for his monologue, I didn’t quite get it when I was a kid, but it resonates now with my deeper understanding and experience with PTSD. It didn’t end in death, no, but it sure ended in deep sadness. but enough about First Blood. How ‘bout them Cubans!
