Red Dawn
Short description
Red Dawn depicts a near-future America under sudden attack. In a small Colorado town, paratroopers descend onto a school football field one ordinary morning, marking the start of a large-scale invasion by Soviet and Cuban forces. As the town is overrun, a group of eight teenagers escapes into the surrounding mountains. Naming themselves the Wolverines after their high school football team, they wage a guerrilla campaign against the occupying troops, striking at the invaders while trying to protect their families and community.
John Milius directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Kevin Reynolds. It followed Conan the Barbarian in Milius's filmography and came before Flight of the Intruder. The cast is led by Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Darren Dalton and Jennifer Grey. Made for 17 million dollars, it returned 38 million worldwide.
Audience ratings sit at 6.4 out of 10 on IMDb from around 68,000 votes and 6.3 out of 10 on TMDB from roughly 925 votes. A critics' rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 27 reviews places it somewhat below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the Russian camp, American prisoners of war are shown the film "Alexander Nevsky" (1938).
- In West Germany, the film was criticized and even withdrawn from release in some cities (Berlin, Düsseldorf, Freiburg).
- In one edition of the Guinness Book of World Records, this film is listed as the most violent, as it contained a record number of acts of violence at the time.
- The first promotional trailer for the film included a scene in which a tank drives into a McDonald's restaurant where enemy soldiers are eating. This episode was not included in the film, as shortly before its premiere, a mass shooting occurred at a McDonald's establishment in the Canadian town of San Isidro.
- "Red Dawn" was the first film released with a PG-13 rating. In fact, the first film with this rating was "The Boy from "Flamingo"" (1984), but it had to sit "on the shelf" for five months.
- The submachine gun carried by Strelnikov is a Jati-matic GG-95 PDW manufactured in Finland. Only about 400 of them were produced.
- A mock-up of the Soviet T-72 tank was created with such accuracy that when it was brought to the studio, two CIA agents arrived and inquired where it had been obtained.
- Before filming, the actors underwent an 8-week, rather intensive military training course.
- The original title of the screenplay was "Ten Soldiers".
- The plot of the film (which, among other things, deals with the invasion of Soviet troops into the US from Mexican territory) was based on research by the CIA and the War College, which identified weaknesses in the American army.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
