Coming on the heels of news that there might be a re-make of “Red Dawn”, some tosser in Slate thinks the movie should be seen as an allegory for the invasion of Iraq. Really:

In my memory, Red Dawn celebrated America and its virtues. But its guiding ideology is actually fascism…

[W]hat’s most unsettling about Red Dawn today is not its infatuation with the warrior death cult. It’s that the movie’s historical parallels have been turned upside down. In 1984, the Soviets of Red Dawn represented, well, the Soviets, and the Wolverines represented both the Americans and also the plucky Afghan mujahideen then defeating the Red Army in a guerilla war.  But on re-viewing, Red Dawn isn’t a stark reminder of Cold War fears. Rather, it’s a pretty good movie about Iraq, with the United States in the role of the Soviets and the insurgents in the role of the Wolverines. [emphasis added]

I guess you could see it that way… if you were totally committed to brutally torturing common sense to construct a mountain out of a molehill of superficial similarities for the purpose of weaving together some sort of shallow anti-American narrative “insightful and instructive commentary” about a 1980’s action film.

Notice, too, the subtle swipe at “Conan the Barbarian”. Inexcusable all around.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 9th, 2008 at 10:56 am by Vincent and is filed under Blowing Stuff Up, Crazy, Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.