Red Dawn

Red Dawn came out in 1984 when I was a senior in high school. I just love this movie.

Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years... Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade... Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. El Salvador and Honduras fall... Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil... Mexico plunged into revolution... NATO dissolves. United States stands alone.

Here are two reviews from the Internet Movie Data Base:

A film depicting the invasion of the United States from the north and south by communist forces from Cuba and Russia in the beginning of WWIII and the efforts of partisans from a small mid-western town to turn back the invasion. This film is one of the basis of the beliefs of the citizens militias and patriot groups about the possibility of a U.N. takeover of the U.S. The movie and the theory of the New World Order proposed by the militias are similar, invasion by a foreign force, a big gun grab, arrest of gun owners, military equipment being moved on railroads, enemy helicopters re-education facilities (concentration camps), and a citizen force that strikes back.

It is the mid-1980s. From out of the sky, Soviet & Cuban troops begin landing on the football field of a Colorado high school. In seconds, the paratroops have attacked the school & sent a group of teenagers fleeing into the mountains. Armed only with hunting rifles, pistols & bows and arrows, the teens struggles to survive the bitter winter & Soviet KGB patrols hunting for them. Eventually trouble arises when they kill a group of Soviet soldiers on patrol in the highlands. Soon, they will wage their own guerrilla warfare against the invading Soviet troops....under the banner of 'Wolverines'!

Although it is not realistic to think these high school students could survive in the winter for any extended amount of time in the Colorado high country on beans and deer meat with no shelter. The show is still really fun.

Here is my favorite quote from the Colonel Andy Tanner (Good Guy) played by Powers Booth:

You think you're tough for eating beans every day? There's half a million scarecrows in Denver who'd give anything for one mouthful of what you got. They've been under siege for about three months. They live on rats and sawdust bread and sometimes... on each other. At night, the pyres for the dead light up the sky. It's medieval.

Here is my favorite quote from Colonel Ernesto Bella (Bad Guy) played by Ron O’Neil:

I can't remember what it was to be warm. It seems a thousand years since I was a small boy in the sun. How did I come to this high, desolate place where there is nothing but loneliness? So much is lost. I want to look into your eyes and forget. It all seems so far away.

I want to visit Las Vegas New Mexico, this is where the film was shot, the original buildings are still there in the same condition as when the movie was made. The Scientologist's also have a Holy Hubbard Alien Bunker built into the mountains near the town. Las Vegas is only a couple hours south of Bear Ridge and I think it would be a cool trip...WOLVERINES

Check out the original trailer at YouTube: Red Dawn