Red Dawn (1984)

Red Dawn was a 1984 alternative history movie that centers around a group of highschool-aged children forming a resistance cell to fight a joint Soviet-Cuban invasion of America. Red Dawn was born out of the 1980s era of renewed Cold War panic surrounding the strengthening of the Warsaw Pact’s militaries, causing much concern in the west. At first glance, one might assume that this movie is just another B movie made to capitalize on the Cold War paranoia which gripped the U.S. at the time. The 6.3/10 rating on IMDb and the 50% rating on Rotten Tomatoes certainly doesn’t help. Regardless, I firmly believe that Red Dawn was one of the best movies to come out of the Cold War, and the main reason is its attention to detail.
Red Dawn is by no means a masterpiece. The entire movie plays like a propaganda film, and a sappy one at that. The plot is solid, but it tends to drag in places, and it gets far too emotional. The movie will always hold its status as a cult classic, an entertaining movie to watch every now and then, but it’s never going to enter the movie hall of fame. Now, compared to many other similar movies from that time period, it is actually quite good. That still does not mean it’s a great movie overall. Red Dawn is also a good example of Patrick Swayze's early work, showing his development as an actor.

Red Dawn is by no means highly realistic. However, the attention to detail by the director is spot on. In the opening scenes, Soviet paratroopers are seen raining from the skies. Not only are their camouflage patterns accurate to the standard Soviet airborne camouflage, but their rifles are AK-47s mocked up to look like AK-74s, which were standard issue for Soviet airborne divisions.

Soviet paratroopers in Red Dawn.

In other scenes, we see Soviet T-72 tanks and ZSU-23-4 Shilka anti-aircraft tanks, along with BRDM-2 scout cars and BTR-60PB APCs. These are actually mockups, many of which are based on the chassis of the M8 high speed tractor. Some of these mockups, known as VISMODs by the U.S. military, were actually ones that were borrowed from the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California. Interestingly, many of these mockups made appearances in later movies, such as Rambo and The Pentagon Wars.

A Soviet T-72 MBT mockup.

A Soviet BTR-60PB APC mockup, based on the M656 truck.

Some other very nice mockups can be seen in the aircraft. In one scene, the kids are hunted by a Soviet Mil Mi-24A attack helicopter. The mockup is so convincing, at first I thought they had gotten their hands on a real one! In fact, it is a mocked up Aérospatiale SA 330 Puma transport helicopter. Another good mockup can be seen in the Soviet Yakovlev Yak-38 VTOL fighter that can be seen during the prison camp liberation scene. It is a scratch-built mockup that is actually quite convincing!

A mockup of a Soviet Mi-24A attack helicopter.