Professional critics never cease to amaze me at how unprofessional they are, giving Dan Bradley's Red Dawn a mere 12% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes; 12% is not a grade but a declaration of war and, for Red Dawn, a badge of honor that liberal critics are so united in being against this film. Is it fair of me to accuse all the critics who have panned the film as doing so because they support socialism and are liberal? Yes. The media in America is liberal (and Red Dawn makes the same point) and liberal media outlets hire liberal film reviewers. It's not what they say that shows they are liberal, rather, what they fail to say in their attacks on the film demonstrating the unwarranted attacks against it. If a critic gave the film like a 40% approval rating (which is still an "F" grading,) they would base that on lousy special effects, poor acting, directing, cinematography, or the lack of coherence in the script, etc., yet the typical comments are, "A ridiculous remake; it may be updated but it's not any smarter," because, essentially, that's what liberals think of concepts such as patriotism, duty, sacrifice, courage.
So, can I demonstrate the film is done well?
Of course I can, because it is.
For example, in the trailer above, at 0:31 seconds, the camera focuses on a snow globe of the Seattle skyline and the "snow" rises from heavy pounding in the distance (an example of chaos theory); where else have we recently seen snow globes employed? House At the End Of the Street, a decidedly anti-socialist film. At the start of it, we see a house "underwater," referring to home mortgages "underwater" from the economic recession; for Red Dawn, it's the bursting of the American isolated bubble of comfortable capitalist success a prosperous city like Seattle symbolizes (please see Everything Is a Secret: House At the End Of the Street for more). Unlike the 1984 version when the communist invasion starts while the heroes are in class at school, the 2012 version launches the invasion when the heroes are asleep in their homes: symbolically, being so concerned with our own problems (being in the home), we are "asleep" to the external forces invading our basic rights (the communities where we live and realize our inherent civil rights by freedom of movement as well as the private ownership of where we live as opposed to the state ownership of where we live).
When Matt runs out of the house as the invasion has started, seeing the parachutes and the planes, something strange happens: an explosive is fired from somewhere, hitting a North Korean jet, which blows apart, crashing into the neighbor's house. Where on earth did that missile come from? It didn't. When something inexplicable like this happens, it's because it carries a symbolic message rather than a concrete role within the narrative. Matt's psychological processes have been visualized so we can identify with what he's realizing and how traumatized he is by it. The "missile" (or whatever it is) hitting the North Korean jet is Matt "engaging" with the events of the invasion (symbolized by the jet) and realizing only a small piece of what is happening (the piece of the jet coming apart) and just that much of his ability to mentally process what is happening is destroying him (the house blowing apart). They did a pretty good job on that,...
This is a brief clip after the invasion has started:
I would think liberals would particularly hate this scene, because it visually demonstrates the "impact" we should be seeking out with liberals and the "vehicle" of socialism. The two opposing roads Jed and the North Koreans drive on can be seen as the direct "paths" (the roads) liberals want us to go on instead of the road conservatives want to take; while Matt wants Jed to steer away from the on-coming "crash" Jed is ready to fully "engage" (the impact of the two cars hitting). We saw an impact scene similar to this in The Dark Knight Rises when a bus is used to stop the vehicle carrying the bomb throughout the city; the bus was used because it's part of President Obama's agenda to raise gas prices so high that Americans have to forgo their privately owned vehicles and take public transportation (the bus) so the state has greater control over citizens (and we see the citizens of the city being "bused" on school buses).
Why does Jed have problems getting the truck started?
Jed has a hard time getting the truck to start again because he's driving a DODGE, manufactured by Chrysler, which--to the great dismay of capitalists--accepted public bailout funds from Obama instead of privately managing their bankruptcy which is the usual way such things are handled; of all the vehicles Jed could have been driving, the "vehicle" of the crash symbolizes the 2008-10 auto bailout that conservatives should have been more forceful about in clashing with socialists on what to do. See why liberals would hate this film so much? It's meant to invigorate conservatives against the liberal take-over and that's the last thing liberals want.
Let's discuss some of the other important symbols in the film. Within a short time of the film starting we realize Matt and Jed are orphaned. In art, the mother usually symbolizes the "motherland" and the father symbolizes a culture's tradition or the "founding father." The father of Jed and Matt, of course, is executed by the North Korean, and that's exactly what communism--and President Obama--have done to the Constitution and the intent of all the founders of this country (not just the leaders in Washington), executed it.
We learn that Jed's and Matt's mom had died "six years ago." What happened, if I right, in 2006 to have "killed" the mother land? On October 9, North Korea performed its first nuclear test and on July 15, Twitter was launched. North Korea developing nuclear capabilities means the entire world was put in jeopardy because of the unstable political situation of North Korea (being realized in Red Dawn which begins with a montage of news reports condemning North Korean aggression). Twitter? How could Twitter e considered as the "death of the motherland?" Youtube (launched in 2005) is mentioned by name in the film (when Robert is going to post the football coach's reaction online) but the birth of Twitter reminds us of the liberal media in general controlling what we know and don't know and when and how we know it in spite of free and open communication social networks like Twitter, which have become completely dominated by liberals. This is blatantly demonstrated in Red Dawn after they finally get the TV on in the cabin then Jed turns it off, realizing the news station is collaborating with the communists. With all this social media, we have the illusion we are free and informed, but are being indoctrinated by liberal politics.
What about Matt?
Jed's younger, reckless brother certainly reminds me of another reckless American: Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) from Battleship, and, if you will recall, Battleship--like Red Dawn--is about war with North Korea. Matt being like a "wild cowboy" and risking others is a sign of immaturity and the consequences of the "me generation," but he outgrows it. This is not only a positive role model for this generation, but encouragement for older generations that the youth will rise up to the occasion and take leadership to take back the country.
One, last, item that liberals really really really hate: where is President Obama during all this?
The film opens with a montage of Obama and Clinton verbally condemning North Korea,... and not doing anything about it. So the film recognizes the real-world president, and then he's not seen ever again and the army doesn't come to help the Wolverines, Marines come out of retirement on their own to help (meaning that the president fails in ordering the military to come to the aid of Americans in distress; as we discussed with Taken 2, the best art is prophetic, and Red Dawn knew that Obama would fail to aid Americans in an invasion just as he failed to aid the Americans in the Benghazi attack). So much for the Commander In Chief. Instead of condemning a fine film, liberals should complain to their president about his terrible policies allowing communism to spread and his despicable public image.
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner
So, can I demonstrate the film is done well?
Of course I can, because it is.
 |
| One of the first lessons of film criticism I learned to ask was: "Why is this film being made now?" The first version of Red Dawn from 1984 might have been a response to the media circus of American school girl Samantha Smith's visit to the USSR: the ten year-old sent a letter to the Soviet leader asking him if there was going to be a nuclear war and he invited her to come visit during which she told Americans the Soviets are just like us and want peace, hence, why Red Dawn of 1984 shows the heroes during school and the end of one education (formal, in-school) and the start of another, hands-on education in warfare (battling a dangerous ideology): high school students aren't as easily duped as a ten-year old. Red Dawn, in 1984, was a war cry to Generation X to learn the lessons of communism's inherent evils so there would not be a communist take-over in America like what we are seeing today because each generation has to learn its own lessons and make its own decisions. Why did film makers in 1984 know they needed to teach Generation X? Because the core of communism is that it be spread throughout the whole world, the whole world becomes communist for at least two reasons: one, a socialist state cannot compete with a strong capitalist state and the rich in a capitalist state will know the communist state wants to overthrow them, so the rich will take actions to destroy the communist state (not to mention that citizens under communism will start realizing life is better under communism and start defecting or over-throw the government). So why is it being made today? Liberals will deny that Obama's administration is implementing socialism, however, those of us who voted against him know that at best he's dumb and at worst he's dangerous, and liberals know he's implementing socialism but they think conservatives are dumb enough to be duped. So of the two-fold reason why Red Dawn has been re-made today, the first part is to validate the fears and anxieties of Americans against communism being brought into this country and encourage us to stay strong in spite of the liberal media lying to us that Obama is not a communist and that we are all alone in our fears. The second reason the film has been made will be discussed below. |
 |
| Liberals don't like seeing the face of communism presented in Red Dawn because they have convinced themselves that the historical reality of communism--as it existed in the Soviet Union and the Gulag, Vietnam, North Korea, the gross violations of human rights in China--didn't really exist, socialism and communism exist only in their imagination and as they conceive it, not as it has manifested itself throughout history at anyone who believes that Hitler was a socialist is condemned by liberals as being a Nazi; that is why it is so infuriating arguing with liberals because they make it up and change it at will as they go along. |
This is a brief clip after the invasion has started:
I would think liberals would particularly hate this scene, because it visually demonstrates the "impact" we should be seeking out with liberals and the "vehicle" of socialism. The two opposing roads Jed and the North Koreans drive on can be seen as the direct "paths" (the roads) liberals want us to go on instead of the road conservatives want to take; while Matt wants Jed to steer away from the on-coming "crash" Jed is ready to fully "engage" (the impact of the two cars hitting). We saw an impact scene similar to this in The Dark Knight Rises when a bus is used to stop the vehicle carrying the bomb throughout the city; the bus was used because it's part of President Obama's agenda to raise gas prices so high that Americans have to forgo their privately owned vehicles and take public transportation (the bus) so the state has greater control over citizens (and we see the citizens of the city being "bused" on school buses).
Why does Jed have problems getting the truck started?
 |
| What's so ironic about this shot is that it provides the second reason why this film is made: no, it's not to see Chris Hemsworth in action, but it does invoke The Expendables 2 wherein Chris' younger brother Liam plays Billy; both Chris' and Liam's characters are Marines who had been on tours during the War on Terror (Billy in Afghanistan and Jed in Iran); whereas Billy chose to leave the army because he couldn't take seeing his buddies die, Jed fights on because of what causes his friends and family to die. In Expendables 2, Barney (Sylvester Stallone) wants to retire because he's getting too old for fighting, he can't because Billy's generation "isn't there" to continue the fight in his place, they are choosing not to fight (basically Generation Y). In Red Dawn, Captain Tanner (Morgan) has come out of retirement to help the Wolverines (Jed's group) but it's Jed leading them. This is where Jed's younger brother, Matt, comes into play and we'll discuss him below, but--like Billy in Expendables 2 and like Jack McClane in the upcoming A Good Day To Die Hard (Bruce Willis), he has to make the choice himself to carry on the fight against communism instead of just giving into it because that is an option the film presents but the kids successfully turn it down. |
 |
| Another great visualization the film achieves is when Toni leads North Koreans to where Jed and others are hiding beneath trash and pop up to take out the communists. If you are conservative (and in this day and age, that means anti-communist, even if you are a Democrat who doesn't want socialism) the liberals look at you as being trash and we have all been in arguments and we have all been the unfortunate victims of that infuriating self-proclaimed liberal superiority complex they have; but Red Dawn tells us that we should use it to our advantage and let them believe we are "low" like garbage because that is how we will trap them in their own garbage: the lies, the trillions of dollars in debt, the Benghazi attacks, Fast and Furious, the layoffs getting ready to take place, the failed green energy companies costing tax payers billions of dollars, etc. |
 |
| There are two other films Red Dawn invokes in dialogue: Savages and Moonlight Kingdom. When Jed and Matt find their father, during the initial invasion, he tells them to go to the cabin (and where else have we seen Chris Hemsworth in a cabin in the woods? The Cabin In the Woods). The group spends most of their time in the woods, but at one point Robert (Josh Hutcherson) has to kill a deer and Jed and Matt trick him into drinking some of the blood; why does this happen? Savages and Moonlight Kingdom have put in their two cents worth in the political debate for a return to a non-economy culture like Native Americans and Polynesians, or the "Mountain Man" tradition. When Jed hands Robert a cup with venison blood to drink, Robert asks if he has to drink the spirit of the deer, or be united to the earth (like Avatar when they have killed something and pray over it) and that joke is a reference to not taking that option of giving up and going to a non-economy based culture, rather, or fighting and taking our country back. |
Jed's younger, reckless brother certainly reminds me of another reckless American: Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) from Battleship, and, if you will recall, Battleship--like Red Dawn--is about war with North Korea. Matt being like a "wild cowboy" and risking others is a sign of immaturity and the consequences of the "me generation," but he outgrows it. This is not only a positive role model for this generation, but encouragement for older generations that the youth will rise up to the occasion and take leadership to take back the country.
The film opens with a montage of Obama and Clinton verbally condemning North Korea,... and not doing anything about it. So the film recognizes the real-world president, and then he's not seen ever again and the army doesn't come to help the Wolverines, Marines come out of retirement on their own to help (meaning that the president fails in ordering the military to come to the aid of Americans in distress; as we discussed with Taken 2, the best art is prophetic, and Red Dawn knew that Obama would fail to aid Americans in an invasion just as he failed to aid the Americans in the Benghazi attack). So much for the Commander In Chief. Instead of condemning a fine film, liberals should complain to their president about his terrible policies allowing communism to spread and his despicable public image.
Eat Your Art Out,
The Fine Art Diner
