For many the movie Red Dawn holds a special place. It was not a groundbreaking movie at the time it was made. It had a few claims to fame, but at the time it was no award winner.
Looking back on it however many AK47 enthusiasts feel this was their introduction to the AK47. The movie is about the Russians and Cubans attacking the United States and in particular, a group of kids in Colorado who are thrown into the fight unexpectedly one day at school. They escape the initial attacks and eventually learn to fight back at the invaders using their own weapons against them in true insurgent fashion.
This means they use the AK47, PKM, RPG and lots of other Soviet weaponry which was really new to the big screen at the time the movie was made.
In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil… Until now.
Red Dawn from the movie poster
|
|
Soviet Union suffers worst wheat harvest in 55 years…Labor and food riots in Poland. Soviet troops invade…
Cuba and Nicaragua reach troop strength goals of 500,000. Greens Party gains control of West German Parliament. Mexico plunged into revolution… NATO dissolves. |
 |
Red Dawn was the first movie to be released with a Motion Picture Association of America PG-13 rating |
|
|
The Rough Riders”Far better it is to dare mighty things .. than take rank with those poor, timid spirits who know neither victory nor defeat.” Theodore Roosevelt, 1899
|
 |
Patrick Swayze as Jedd Eckert and Charlie Sheen as Matt Eckert, brothers who stick together and fight till the end |
 |
Lea Thompson as Erica Mason and Jennifer Grey as Toni Mason sisters who survive the invasion and travel via the underground to their grandfathers farm where they are finally handed off to the Wolverines to care for. The sisters eventually start to fight too and turn hard core by the end of the movie although one does die |
 |
C. Thomas Howell as Robert Morris the coolest dude in the movie, and Doug Toby as Aardvark (Arturo) who will live on as the guy holding the AK high over his head as he yells ‘WOLVERINES” after a successful attack on some commies |
 |
Brad Savage as Danny who is a wuss (you’ll see) and Darren Dalton as Daryl Bates who is a wuss and a traitor |
 |
These Mc Ds scenes are into he trailer.. The original trailer that comes on the laserdisc shows a scene with a tank rolling up to a McDonalds restaurant where enemy soldiers are eating. This scene does not appear in the final cut, and may have been removed due to a mass murder at a McDonalds in San Ysidro, CA, just weeks prior to the film’s opening.- Wikipedia |
 |
The illustration of Genghis Khan in the high school classroom at the beginning of the film is a caricature of director John Milius. – Wikipedia |
 |
Red Dawn starts out at the high school in the town of Calumet, Colorado. |
 |
A group of young people who become partisans, utilizing guerrilla warfare to resist the resulting occupation… well wouldn’t you if they shot your car ?? |
 |
The group of kids runs away after seeing their school and cars get shot at. They head to Robert Morris’ Dad’s store and stock up on the essentials; soda, bow & arrow, radio, cans of soup and more soda.. they also get a few guns |
 |
There’s a scene where they shovel ammo off a shelf into a box for the kids to take along on their escape.. but I noticed as I was preparing these images, they are really shoveling boxes of ‘primed cases’ (the shiny brass part of a bullet, but not the complete bullet so these wouldn’t really help them unless they planned to reload in the hills… anyway a classic like this one shouldn’t be picked apart, so lets move on. |
 |
So well stocked and still scared the kids head out of town, but encounter a roadblock… we all remember the next scene, and we all know what to do if we need to fill the radiator on our truck..“It is World War Three down there, people are being killed.” ~Jedd Eckard |
 |
Eventually the group gets up to the mountains and finds a place to hide out. They decide to wait it out, and start to hunt.. Robert Morris gets his first taste of blood (literally) That deer looks a little stiff, no? |
 |
Not the first time many of us saw this sticker, but it’s been a common saying since the movie.. too bad for this guy it turned out to be true “They can have my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers“ |
 |
A great scene where the Commie general and some guy talk about form 4473, the ATF form we all fill out to buy guns in the US This may be the first and only time the form has been mentioned in a film.. and how true is it that an invading army could use these to locate gun owners?? |
 |
Eventually the kids get bored of being scared in the hills so they come down to visit and find their town has been taken over and most of the fathers are in a prison camp made out of the drive in theatre. Now they are mad=”Boys! Avenge me! Aveeeeenge me!”
|
|
|
On the way back to the hills they stop by a friends house and get a few girls to join the group. The super hot Lea Thompson as Erica Mason and Jennifer Grey as Toni Mason. THey spend a while being pissed and scared then get into the hang of things and become as tough as the guys and they kick butt11:59
The Chair is against the wall John has a long mustache |
 |
Lea Thompson manages to look good while fighting commies as Erica Mason |
|
|
So some commies drive up into the hills to explore on their day off and find a look out point and stop for pictures. This ends in a fight and the wolverines are born.Arapaho National Forest
Founded by President Theodore Roosevelt under the Forest Service Act of 1905, the forest comprises 40,000 acres of virgin timber and of the largest strands of blue spruce in the American west. Park camping facilities closed in winter. American history, I know this well. Arapaho National Battlefield Here was a great peasant uprising in 1908 of wild Indians. They were crushed by president Theodore Roosevelt leading imperialist armies and cowboys. The battle lasted all winter. More than 35,000 were killed. It was the greatest battle of the American west. |
 |
The Wolverines use clever methods to ambush the commies all around the area using their own weapons against them |
 |
These covered dug outs worked well. The one commie kinda faints as he is shot, dropping like a girl |
 |
Robert Morris develops a blood lust and to illustrate it they show him carving the number of kills on the stock of his AK47.. I count 35. He uses a cool butterfly knife to cave the marks too |
 Doug Toby as Aardvark (Arturo) who will live on as the guy holding the AK high over his head as he yells ‘WOLVERINES” after a successful attack on some commies |
|
|
|
Toni Mason leaves an interesting package for the commies at the propaganda storeSoviet-American Friendship Center
People of America Arise and Join the Revolution what is a wolverine? It is also the name of the local school sports collective You must kill every one of them eventually |
 |
As they take out the commie patrols they start to mark their kills with the school mascot, the Wolverine |
 |
All good movies have a montage, this is the one for Red Dawn, we see the group take out lots of commies in various ways |
 |
The Wolverines shoot all the coolest Soviet weaponry like this RPG and these RPKs? |
 |
Another shot of an RPG and a DShK? OK the wolverines don’t shoot this large one, but it was a cool pic.. |
 |
Remember when I wrote “Brad Savage as Danny who is a wuss” well here is the proof. Look at this guy shooting the RPG and AK |
 |
Danny being a wuss shooting an AK and Toni shooting the larger RPK like she has a pair.. |
 |
Doug Toby as Aardvark (Arturo) in the classic ‘AK in the air’ image that to many of us means Wolverines. Erica shooting a DShK ? |
 |
There are many explosions.. |
 |
Erica finds a pilot and he explains what is going on in Chinawhilethe US is invaded |
 |
Did someone ask for Soviet winter camo? Red Dawn has it all |
 |
There is drama too.. like what do you do with a traitor?? |
 |
The pilot and Aardvark (Arturo) are killed but take out a tank with them |
 |
Eventually they needed to end the movie, so the Wolverines let their guard down and get pretty well shot up |
 |
Two fake Russian Hind Helicopters (but fairly good movie copies) come in and start to take out the Wolverines, Robert Morris jumps on his horse and shoots while riding to cover |
 |
Eventually his blood thirst overwhelms him and he takes on a flying tank (Hind) one on one (and looses) |
 |
Erica also gets shot and dies, but in one of her last scenes there is a very interesting pistol grip on the RPK(?) near her head.. |
 |
After she is dead a commie finds her but lets take a closer look at the AK he is holding.. Bakelite 7.62×39 Magazine triangle side folder.. woo hoo yet another AK variant in Red Dawn |
 |
So in a last ditch effort to free some of their friends in town the remaining Wolverines head back to town to blow things up, get shot a bunch more, then die, They stop to hand out AK from this truck along the way |
 |
One of the bad guys is this guy. He has a GG-95 PD (Jati-Matic submachine gun) from Finland .. another cool gun, but not an AK |
 |
The Cuban bad guy is this guy, this is the end of the action, and about the end of the movie..  |
 |
Jedd carving the names on the rock with a RPK on his back.Partisan Rock
In the early days of World War 3, They fought here alone
|
|
Red Dawn (Collector’s Edition) |
Red Dawn DVD Release Date: February 4, 1998 |
Red Dawn VHS |
{ Comments on this entry are closed }
