Again with the texts...

So Ryan is again texting (rather than Bunding), this time about the remake of the classic 80's film "Red Dawn". I grew up with Red Dawn, and saw it as a defining statement on America's independent spirit living into the start of the 21st Century. We have to be able to do for ourselves before we can do for others, and in doing for others (without governmental obligation) we are doing for ourselves... that sort of thing. What I recall most was the thoughts of "What would I do?" that the movie inspired in me. My friends at the time spent hours with me over coffee or Coca Cola, discussing how we would handle an insurrection-like environment should the Russians ever invade (lest we forget, I'm old enough to remember the Cold War as the status quo, and not as a footnote in a history text).

Now, I'm no Swayze fan... not at all... and I never did care for the cast selection in the 1984 version, but the story was good enough to carry the actors. I'm slightly more optomistic about the 2010 cast and their abilities... but my concern now is in the script writers losing the message that carried so well in the original.

Examples of news that hightens my concerns:

The movie seems to be taking place in Michigan rather than Colorado... and we all know that modern America seems to see Michigan in the light of a breeding ground for armed resistance movements against the government (i.e. militias). That might not be the case at all, but the possibility occurred to me, none the less.

Many of the remake cast are young and idealistic enough to make me think they are participating in the project because it suits their perception of what makes America "great", and that perception is undoubtedly miles from mine. I find it difficult to believe that Josh from Drake and Josh Nickelodeon fame is going to be all that excited about making a movie that promotes the importance of gun ownership and armed resistance to aggressive compulsory socialistic institutions like the People's Liberation Army that is occupying large portions of the US in the movie, when the rest of Hollywood is using Communist China as a shining example of a humanitarian, socially-conscientious and progressive society.

There are no stand-out actors on the cast that make me think this is going to be anything special... but the actors in the original were all basically "no names" in '84, as well, so who knows?

I'll keep an open mind, and my fingers crossed, that this remake is worth the time and effort to see... but I'm not getting my hopes up at all. I've yet to see a remake that was as-good or better than the original, and that is saying something. I was mildly (not hugely) disappointed in the Star Trek remake, couldn't finish any of the horror/slasher genre films (Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes) and I was crushingly dissappointed in the apocolyptic films (I am Legend-Omega Man, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Invasion, The Omen, Planet of the Apes ((a turd of epic proportions!)), Village of the Damned)... the list is long indeed.

In fact, the only remakes that I can say I have really thought went well were the made-for-TV (or cable) stuff like Battlestar Gallactica, V, Tin Man and a very select few movies like Gladiator, Thin Red Line, Oceans Eleven, etc. I'd list Spartacus, but I don't equate that show with a remake so much as it is a whole new genre... in the same way Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings is not a remake of the animated version from the 70's.

Well, we can hope huh?