Back in 1984 one of the most popular sleeper hits at the movies was “Red Dawn”. The plot is that Soviet and Cuban troops manage to sneak past the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Coast Guard and launch an invasion of the continental United States. As far fetched as that idea was, the opening sequence of hostile paratroops landing outside an American high school was riveting.
The rest of the film concerns the activities of a small group of thoroughly ticked off American high school students (including Pat Swayze and Jennifer Gray – no dancing for either of them in this movie), who arm themselves and prove themselves extremely proficient at taking out the bad guys. If you’re looking for a masterpiece of American cinema, Red Dawn is not it. However, if you are addicted to near constant gunfire and an astronomical body count, Red Dawn is the movie for you.
Twenty eight years later, some studio executive figured it would be a great time to do a remake. With a slight plot change, this time the hostiles are Chinese. Apparently they were well along in filming when someone with a brain in their head and an appreciation for the extent of revenue derived from international audiences, pointed out that a film depicting Chinese troops as brutish semi-human invaders was not likely to go over well in the People Republic of China. So someone in special effects came up with a simple solution: with a little bit of help from computer generated effects, the Chinese emblems on tanks, trucks and aircraft were transformed into those of the Peoples Republic of North Korea. Never mind that an invasion of the continental United States is completely beyond the wildest imagination of anyone in the PRNK, Kim Yung Un’s boys make excellent screen villains.
So decide for yourself, is the globalization of films a small step toward world peace?
– KENT MITCHELL