Red Dawn (1984)
It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers bands together to defend their town, and their country, from invading Soviet forces. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: John Milius
Written By: John Milius, Kevin Reynolds
Starring: C. Thomas Howell, Harry Dean Stanton, William Smith, Ben Johnson, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, Patrick Swayze, Powers Boothe, Frank McRae, Jennifer Grey, Ron O'Neal, Darren Dalton
Country: USA
Where to Stream
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Red Dawn belongs to 16 collections
1. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)
2. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)
3. #1 at the US Box Office (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 10 stars)
4. Rifftrax (collaborative: moderated by x-human - 8 stars)
5. 500 essential cult films (not seen) (public: cayh - 5 stars)
6. Remade (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 4 stars)
7. Coheed's Films I Need To See Or Try To Track Down (public: Coheed - 3 stars)
8. Cold War (collaborative: moderated by iceblox - 2 stars)
9. mwgerb's Netflix Instant Queue (public: mwgerb - 2 stars)
10. Djross worst of all time (public: djross - 1 star)
11. Ratings (collaborative: moderated by cheapthrills)
12. Friendly Fire Podcast subject films (collaborative: moderated by jimmyjazz)
13. Andy Owns (collaborative: moderated by andycarhart)
14. Djross worst movie of the year (public: djross)
15. Owned (public: ribcage)
16. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 12 | alleyd84 | 100 98th |
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It is a well known fact that the USSR collapsed when the Soviets realized they could not defeat Patrick Swayze
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| 7 |  |
djross | 10 0th |
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To describe this film as the work of right-wing fantasists would be an insult to right-wing fantasists everywhere. It is not merely mediocre: nearly every scene shows that those responsible felt committed to presenting a kind of “powerful nightmare”, in order to reawaken some sort of masculine, militaristic American will, which they perceived as having been dangerously weakened over the course of the twentieth century. The result is literally unbelievable.
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| 5 |  |
MartinTeller | 33 3rd |
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AMERICA! FUCK YEAH!
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| 5 |  |
doctor7 | 26 15th |
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Right wing political garbage disguised as an action film. It's amazing to see how many digs it can make against leftist political views. Don't support gun registration because if you do then when the reds invade they can use that information to FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE. I may have been hard on you as a child son but now you know why. That's right, now you're prepared for the commie invasion. What? You'll take my gun from my cold dead hands. Gun is then taken from cold dead hands. So bad it's funny.
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| 5 |  |
Bmunise | 80 16th |
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It's fun to laugh at just how precisely John Milius is like Walter Sobchak.
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| 5 |  |
FrederikA | 20 4th |
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This is...wrong... so very many shapes and shades of wrong. Especially the fact that it's neither tongue-in-cheek nor 80s-gung-ho action, but a _serious_ movie, makes it almost unfathomably propagandistic. Harry Dean Stanton shouting AVENGE ME! to his sons was a particularly enjoyable moment, and if the movie hadn't been so damn boring, it would definitely had made the Guilty Pleasure list.
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| 5 |  |
Paxton | 78 83rd |
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Just when this movie couldn't possibly get any better, Powers Boothe falls from the sky. You know me, John Milius. You know me well.
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| 4 |  |
BillyShears | 65 42nd |
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Avenge me son. AVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENGE ME"
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| 4 |  |
overrated | 28 19th |
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Along with Top Gun, Red Dawn's a ridiculously implausible 80's propaganda piece that alternates between unintentional comedy and Republican masturbation fantasy. Somewhat surprised there isn't a glistening snow-volleyball scene.
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| 4 |  |
Antares | 50 12th |
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As an action film, it's marginal. As a serious drama it's negligible. As a cheesy, gung-ho piece of Reaganist patriotic propaganda, it's fucking Citizen Kane!!! This movie's crap, but for some weird un-explainable reason, if it's on, I wind up watching it.
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| 3 |  |
Booster | 35 11th |
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Not really any different than the one-dimensional flag waving movies you see elsewhere. A shame, too. Amazing premise.
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| 2 |  |
BBBD | 65 29th |
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Typically I love anti-Commie propaganda, but since I didn't see this movie as a kid, I couldn't help but notice how corny it is.
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| 2 |  |
auritech | 35 24th |
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This film is a relic of the 80s in every single way; acting, directing, subject matter, and writing. It is cringe inducing cheese, but at least there are moments they try to inject a bit of humanity into it. Worth a view, but don't expect much.
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| 2 |  |
SirStuckey | 65 45th |
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WOLVERINES! It's so hard to rank movies like this. I know for a fact it's not a good movie. I'm not going to debate the cinematic merits of it with anyone. But I will be damned if I don't enjoy the hell out of this movie every time I watch it. It's goofy 80's cheesy action fun. Ignore the fact that the kids never miss with a bullet and forget about the incredibly melodramatic dialogue. Just give it a chance and you may just have a good time.
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| 1 | lebowski99 | 82 81st |
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Ah yes the 80's. The Red Scare at it's height and Red Dawn capitalizes. Though definitely cheesy and ridiculous I still love it. The idea of High School kids bringing down the trained armies of foreign countries is a pretty cool thought. As a kid who hated "the commies" a few of the scenes had me fist pumping.
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| 1 |  |
TheDenizen | 40 17th |
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Totally forgettable, except for the scene where that one dude pees in the radiator of his truck.
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| 1 |  |
TheDiceman | 35 12th |
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Poor.
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| 1 |  |
Kojiless | 58 61st |
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Because the first place I would take over if I was Cuban would be small-town Montana. Wolverines!
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| 1 |  |
Ayavaron | 100 97th |
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I can tell this movie isn't very good, but there is something that's just incredibly charming about the movie. There's something really really special to it that makes the movie irresistable to me. Technically, it's not a good film but there's something realyl wonderful to it that I simply can't put a finger on.
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| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 33 1st |
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Jingoistic fear mongering nonsensical garbage. Not that I had high hopes for a cold war action film, but the overwrought emotional dialogue and the sheer absurdity of the narrative, played completely straight, makes this really tedious to sit through. Some of the 'smaller' moments and intrafactional tensions are not bad, though.
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| 1 |  |
joseywales | 61 36th |
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Take that ya dirty commies!
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| 1 | Skenkere | 30 12th |
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There are some people who swear this is like the coolest movie ever, or consider it a classic. I really can't understand that at all, it was fucking terrible. It's worth laughing at for its ridiculously over the top red scare, nationalistic tone, but really this movie is not good, stop pretending it is.
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| 1 |  |
nilkynarfy | 45 29th |
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So sincerely fascist, it's hysterical. Reprehensible and basically terrible, but hysterical.
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| 1 |  |
SelfishOtter | 40 15th |
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Absolutely retarded, but a bit entertaining it its own cheesy 80s way. I can only wonder what type of man cranks this stuff out with a straight face.
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| 1 |  |
Shmendrek | 1 10th |
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Wow this is so realistic, especially for a 75-minute-long G.I. Joe commercial. Probably the best right-wing propaganda film to come out of the cold war era.
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| 1 |  |
fyngyrz | 4 3rd |
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Stinker.
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| 1 |  |
spamhead80 | 75 53rd |
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This is everything that a cheesy 80's action movie should be!
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| 1 |  |
lauratron | 52 12th |
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Hilariously Bad. And what the fuck is with those matching duffel coats??
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| 1 |  |
spleen | 3 2nd |
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Red-neck Dawn
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| 1 |  |
mwgerb | 44 34th |
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The melodramatic dialogue never works at all, from the father-son talks, to the death scenes, to the closing narration, and that makes it hard to take seriously. However, at times it's pretty effective as an action film, even it's laughable and forgettable as a propaganda film.
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| 1 |  |
guy piranha | 55 30th |
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Red Yawn.
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| 1 |  |
bof | 27 6th |
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Ultra-reactionary flag-wavery that makes Top Gun look like Battleship Potemkin both in terms of ideology and film-making. But certainly good for a laugh or ten for lines like "Well, when you grow up... then you'll know these things, Danny. Now get up here and piss in the radiator" and the continuing conundrum of "why the hell are the Russians, Cubans and Nicaraguans so hell-bent on defending a small town in the Rockies, and how can they suck so badly at it if they took LA within a few hours?"
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| 1 |  |
3dRevelation | 50 13th |
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Should have been entitled Dusk Dawn to highlight it's oxymoronic nature.
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| 1 | Uhrmacher | 87 73rd |
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An 80's camp classic.
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| 1 | Zipster | 60 4th |
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I may be a staunch liberal Democrat, but I'm also a lifelong cinephile. I do not need a movie to reflect my own worldview in order to appreciate its effectiveness. The problem with Red Dawn, for me, is not so much the paranoid nationalism of its ideas or the macho fantasy of their execution. It's the lack of nuance given to the undeveloped characters, stiff action sequences and overly reductive plot. In short, not only is it conservative bullshit, it's boring conservative bullshit.
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| Average Percentile 38.27% from 1143 Ratings |  |