Synopsis
It is the dawn of World War III. In mid-western America, a group of teenagers band together to defend their town—and their country—from invading Soviet forces.
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Cast
- Patrick SwayzeJed
- Charlie SheenMatt
- C. Thomas HowellRobert
- Lea ThompsonErica
- Darren DaltonDaryl
- Jennifer GreyToni
- Powers BootheLt. Col. Andrew 'Andy' Tanner
- Brad SavageDanny
- Ben JohnsonMr. Mason
- Harry Dean StantonMr. Eckert
Recommendations
- 88
Miami Herald
This is what we call a movie-movie, a movie that throws nuance and self-consciousness and artiness to the wind and concentrates on the slam-bam. It's richly entertaining, it's big, it moves fast. [10 Aug 1984, p.C1] - 75
Slant Magazine
What if Reagan’s America got a taste of her own interventionist foreign policies? Apocalypse, wow. - 75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
It's pure American corn but expertly and entertainingly harvested. The casting is excellent, the performances are so good and the emotional thrust of the film so strong that it is impossible not to enjoy. [10 Aug 1984] - 67
Austin Chronicle
The film has some truly great right-wing anarchic moments, bur for the most part its politics are all too predictably – and only – militaristic, misogynist, racist, and xenophobic; for too much of its running time, it’s just a childishly simplistic masturbatory fantasy for right-wing hebephrenics that’s mostly safe enough to play the White House. - 60
Empire
Red Dawn is at once a mainstream shoot ‘em up action picture and an ideologically demented exercise in American paranoia. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
It packs plenty of rabble-rousing ammunition, but its sloppy execution is unlikely to win any merit badges for marksmanship. - 60
The A.V. Club
As an action movie, Red Dawn is a repetitive headache, and anyone with Blue State sympathies will be appalled at its manipulations and exaggerations. But there's smart subtext beneath the big dumb explosions. - 50
Washington Post
Milius and his co-writer, Kevin Reynolds, commit a fatal blunder by jumping into combat sequences before we've scarcely had time to take in the idyllic heartland setting, a rural Colorado town called Calumet. [10 Aug 1984, p.B4]
