Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ucla-cs.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrb!cepu!ucla-cs!reiher From: reiher@ucla-cs.UUCP Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Re: "Red Dawn" Message-ID: <1325@ucla-cs.ARPA> Date: Sun, 23-Sep-84 16:46:13 EDT Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.1325 Posted: Sun Sep 23 16:46:13 1984 Date-Received: Wed, 26-Sep-84 06:05:59 EDT Organization: UCLA CS Dept. Lines: 32 I read a rather perceptive review of "Red Dawn" which points out that, for some films, there are really two films: the real film, and the one the audience thinks it's seeing. Most of the comments you objected to were in a portion of my review which really reviewed the audience, not the film. What worries me is not what's in the film, but what some audiences think is there. I agree that, to his credit, John Milius did not make "Red Dawn" totally one sided, and he didn't appear to be trying to make a "let's go out and whump them commies" film, but this was what the audience I saw it with expected and wanted, and they were so determined in their desires that that is what they got out of it, evidence of what was on screen to the contrary. What really frightens me is that there are apparently a lot of people out there who think it would be a good idea to trash some Communists somewhere. Such people are likely to respond favorably to attempts to get the US more deeply involved in Central America. And while it is true that sometimes a movie, or any work of art, is only a work of art, sometimes it is far more influential than that. "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was a great boost for the abolitionists, and "Birth of a Nation" had a major influence in the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the late teens and early 20's, even though that wasn't what D. W. Griffith had in mind, at all. My objections to "Red Dawn", the movie, as opposed to "Red Dawn", the phenomena, have to do with the fact that, ideology aside, it is a deeply flawed film, not at all up to the standards of Milius' equally jingoistic, but much more entertaining, "The Wind and the Lion". As far as my opinions of internal consistency go, I stand by them. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, but I tend to get annoyed if I later discover that it wasn't worth the suspension. -- Peter Reiher reiher@ucla-cs.arpa {...ihnp4,ucbvax,sdcrdcf}!ucla-cs!reiher