Red Dawn

This imagines a Russo/Cuban invasion of the American heartland by crack airborne troops. Despite scrupulously reconstructed tank battles and partisan raids, its military thesis is patently ridiculous: why would the Russians ignore the massive lessons they learned against Napoleon and Hitler to instigate a suicidal conventional invasion of the American mainland? They wouldn't, but any other scenario, including the obvious nuclear one which Milius ducks, leaves no room for the patriotic struggle he wants to show. Paranoia can of course be an excellent dynamic for movie-makers, and within its own dream-like structure, Red Dawn is both compelling and witty (the town's drive-in becomes a 're-education camp'). But it also contains moments that are repulsive in the grand right wing tradition, all the more so since Milius, who once held the fascination of a rebel, is here voicing sentiments that the Reagan administration actually believes.