I have long been a student of resistance movements. From Francis “The Swamp Fox” Marion on up to the various European resistance movements in WWII and later in Eastern Europe resisting the Communists, the exploits of Wendell Fertig in the Philippines, and even Mujahideen of the 80’s fighting the Soviets, and to a certain extent, the Fedayeen of today’s Iraq, I have marveled at the willingness of some people, many of whom have no military training at all, to stand and fight against a well-trained and well-equipped enemy. I often wonder how our country, our people, with our Second Amendment and our history of revolution would fare against a foreign invader of superior strength.
Not surprisingly, my interest spills over into the books I read and the movies I watch. Among my favorite books are “Jack Hinson’s One-Man War: A Civil War Sniper”, and “Behind Japanese Lines: An American Guerilla in the Philippines” and among my favorite movies are “The Patriot” and “Red Dawn”. In fact, I’ve got the Special Collector’s Edition of Red Dawn. So you can imagine my joy when I found out that there was a remake of Red Dawn in the works. For two reasons: first, being one of my favorite movies, I always wondered how it would look with modern special effects and military hardware. The second reason is that much of it was filmed in my hometown of Detroit. Apparently, Detroit bears a striking resemblance to a bombed out warzone, making it the perfect place to film a war movie.
The big difference, originally, was that the enemy had changed from the USSR to the Peoples’ Republic of China. This makes sense because A) the USSR no longer exists, and B) China can field an army equal to the entire population of the United States. Despite their protestations to the contrary, I firmly believe that the next global conflict will be a result of their expansion into Russia, so I was looking forward to seeing just how this version would measure up.
Unfortunately, I had forgotten a small, but important, detail about the era in which the original had been made; John Milius directed the original Red Dawn. Now, John Milius is a far cry from being a conservative, but he is a gun guy and a stickler for accuracy when it comes to the details of his depictions of the military. Moreover, when he was at the height of his career, a peak that coincided with the making of the original Red Dawn, he had the juice to push his projects through, no matter how politically incorrect they were.
The same cannot be said of those that are involved with the remake.
The current version of Red Dawn was made under MGM Studios at a time when MGM was in dire financial straits. Around that same time, the script for the movie was leaked to some obscure website which is apparently read by Chinese government officials. Consequently, MGM was barraged with protests from China regarding the depiction of China as an expansionist, totalitarian power bent on conquest. Nepal, and Tibet aside, MGM decided that the Chinese were right, especially since MGM makes millions off of China when it distributes films overseas. So, in the interest of keeping the relationship between MGM and China friendly, MGM decided to digitally alter the movie to make the enemy North Korea. I mean, North Koreans, Chinese, what’s the difference? You’ve seen one Asian Commie, you’ve seen them all, right?
Wrong.
There is a huge difference. Now that China is emerging as an economic powerhouse while simultaneously upgrading and modernizing their military, they can, should they so desire, project power directly to our shores. If they did decide to invade, there is a very real possibility that they could successfully gain a foothold on the Continental United States, likely with the full consent and cooperation of our own Progressives.
On the other hand, North Korea couldn’t successfully invade Texas. Hell, Mexico has been trying to take Texas back for 150 years and they can't do it. A small, backward country run by a psychotic despot, North Korea would be hard-pressed to successfully defeat the South Dakota National Guard ( to their great credit, the SDNG has served admirably overseas. It also has a huge number of competitive shooters in its ranks, thereby making them a formidable bunch no matter who the enemy is). For North Korea to successfully land on our shores, there would have to be a series of catastrophic coincidences so unlikely that it would require Divine Intervention to accomplish them.
A more likely scenario would be for the North Koreans to land here, discover the abundance of food and services, desert the North Korean Army, apply for political asylum en masse, and then open convenience stores and restaurants all over the country.
When faced with political pressure from China, MGM folded like a cheap suit. Instead of making, marketing, and distributing a decent movie with a plausible plot, they have buried the project in the hopes that it will be forgotten. If it ever does see the light of day, it will require the same amount of suspension of disbelief that “The Lord of the Rings” required while providing nowhere near the quality.
Once again, Hollywood has proven to be populated by craven eunuchs that would rather appease the Chinese than please American movie goers. Will I see it if it is ever released? Maybe when it goes to DVD.
