The red tide

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Movie
German title The red tide
Original title Red Dawn
Country of production United States
original language English
Spanish
Russian
Publishing year 1984
length 114 minutes
Age rating FSK 18 (previously indexed )
Rod
Director John Milius
script Kevin Reynolds ,
John Milius
production Buzz Feitshans ,
Barry Beckerman
music Basil Poledouris
camera Ric Waite
cut Thom Noble
occupation

The red tide ( Red Dawn , actually "Rote Morgendämmerung") is an American film directed by John Milius in 1984 . It tells the story of an invasion of the United States by Cuban , Nicaraguan and Soviet troops, which leads to the formation of a guerrilla group of American teenagers who strike back cruelly. The action film has elements of war , youth and dystopian science fiction films . Numerous critics rate the work as a reactionary propaganda film .

The film was released on August 10, 1984 in American cinemas. The film opened in the Federal Republic of Germany on December 21, 1984 and triggered violent reactions; After protests by peace activists , the film was quickly canceled in some cities (including Berlin , Düsseldorf and Freiburg ). The German television premiere was on October 14, 1995 on RTL . In 2012, a remake called Red Dawn was shot.

action

In the opening credits, a few sentences explain how an invasion can occur. Among other things, Soviet troops invade Poland, Cuba and Nicaragua conquer El Salvador and Honduras and NATO is dissolved. A sentence that was missing in the German version is the following:

“Greens Party gains control of West German parliament. Demands withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil. "

“The Green Party gains control of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany . [She] demands the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from European soil. "

On a September morning in the small town of Calumet, Colorado, a local high school teacher is teaching the Mongol massacres when paratroopers land in a nearby field. The paratroopers open fire and kill both the teacher and some students. Panic breaks out. The brothers Jed and Matt Eckert, along with their friends Robert, Danny, Daryl and Aardvark, flee into the wilderness with Jed's pickup after they hastily bought weapons, camping equipment and provisions at Robert's father's gas station. While on the way to the mountains, they encounter a Soviet roadblock, but are rescued by an attacking army helicopter. In downtown Calumet, Cuban and Soviet troops are trying to restore order after a hasty occupation. Cuban Colonel Bella instructs the KGB to go to a local sporting goods store and obtain the store's gun sales records on ATF Form 4473, a form listing citizens who have bought firearms.

After a few weeks in the forest, the youngsters sneak back into town; Jed and Matt learn that their father is being held in a re-education center. You visit the place and talk to him through the fence; Mr. Eckert orders his sons to avenge his inevitable death. Then they visit the Mason family and learn that they are behind enemy lines in "occupied America". It is revealed that Robert's father was executed for lack of inventory in his shop. The Masons hire Jed and Matt to look after their two granddaughters Toni and Erica.

After an incident in which three Russian soldiers were killed, the occupiers order a mass execution of all prisoners - including the fathers of Jed, Matt and Aardvark. In response to this, the young people begin armed resistance against the occupation forces, calling themselves “Wolverines” after their school mascot. Despite the reprisals, the occupying forces achieved nothing and suffered heavy losses.

Map of the events described in the film:
Blue: The United States and its allies Canada , the United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China
Red: The Soviet Union and its conquered territories and its allies Cuba and Nicaragua
Green: The neutral states of Western Europe
The red ones points indicate some major cities such as Washington, DC , Omaha ( Nebraska ), Kansas City ( Missouri ) and Beijing ( China ), by atomic bombs were wiped out.

The Wolverines find a downed pilot, Lt. Col. Andrew Tanner, who briefed her on the current state of war: Several American cities, including Washington, DC, were destroyed by nuclear strikes; the Strategic Air Command was incapacitated by Cuban saboteurs; and paratroopers were dropped off from fake airliners to take key positions in preparation for subsequent attacks over Mexico and Alaska. The middle third of the US has been taken over, but American counterattacks have halted Soviet advances along the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi, and the lines have stabilized. The US’s only allies, Great Britain and China, are badly damaged militarily. For fear of nuclear fallout, both sides forego the further use of nuclear weapons.

Tanner helps the Wolverines organize raids against the Soviets. Shortly afterwards, during a visit to the front, Tanner and Aardvark are killed in the crossfire of a tank battle. Daryl is captured by the Soviets after being betrayed by his father - a collaborator. KGB officers use torture threats to force Daryl to swallow a tracking device and rejoin the guerrillas. Spetsnaz are transported into the mountains with portable radio triangulation devices, but there they are attacked by the Wolverines. The group traces the source of the signal to Daryl, who confesses and begs for mercy but is executed by Robert after Jed previously shot and killed a captured Soviet soldier.

The remaining members decide to withdraw from Calumet and join the Free American Forces, but are attacked by Mi-24 attack helicopters, killing Robert and Toni. Jed and Matt attack Soviet headquarters in Calumet to distract the troops, while Danny and Erica escape. The plan works, but Jed and Matt are badly wounded. Although Colonel Bella encounters the brothers, unable to kill them and lets them go. Nonetheless, it is implied that the brothers die in the park where they spent time as children.

Erica says the US pushed back the Soviet invasion some time later. A memorial plaque can be seen with the partisan rock in the background, on which the name of each (presumably) fallen Wolverine is written. The rock is fenced and an American flag flies nearby. The inscription on the plaque reads as follows:

“… In the early days of World War 3, guerrillas - mostly children - placed the names of their lost upon this rock. They fought here alone and gave up their lives, so that this nation should not perish from the earth. "

“... In the early days of World War III, guerrillas - mostly children - wrote the names of their fallen on these rocks. They fought here alone and gave their lives so that this nation would not be wiped off the earth. "

production

In this film, Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze , the later dream couple from Dirty Dancing , stood together for the first time in front of the camera. Gray later cites this cinematic collaboration, in which they played a love scene together - which was cut for the final product - as the reason in an interview (1987) that they harmonized so well with each other during the test shoots for their hit movie.

Indexing in Germany

In Germany, the film was indexed in the uncut version for many years. The indexing is suspended since 30 November 2,001th For the non-indexed version, the film was shortened by scenes with a total length of 12 minutes and 20 seconds to 109 minutes.

Remake and later influences

In 2010 there was an Australian / US production called Tomorrow, When the War Began . The film adaptation of the 1993 book of the same name by the author John Marsden has a similar plot and takes place in Australia. While the origin of the invaders remains in the dark in the literature, the invaders shown in the film are of Asian origin. However, in the film, as in the original book, the focus of the plot, in contrast to Red Dawn, is more on the worries and fears of the teenagers and less on the action scenes.

Also in 2010 a remake of the material should come to the cinemas. Directed by Dan Bradley , who had previously only appeared as a stunt coordinator and second unit director ; the script for the remake was written by Carl Ellsworth , Jeremy Passamore and Tony Gilroy . The plot of the film is moved from the 1980s to the present, this time the communist invaders come from North Korea . Originally the story was completely different, because the invaders came from the People's Republic of China . That was also the reason why the film had to be completely re-cut and a lot of work had to be put into the digital post-production to replace Chinese symbols and posters with North Korean ones. This happened after the film was almost completely finished. In addition, financial reasons for the MGM film studio were decisive for the long delay. The film was released on November 21, 2012 in the USA.

The Wolverines mission from the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 video game is based on the film.

synchronization

role actor speaker
Jed Eckert Patrick Swayze Benjamin Völz
Robert Teasdale C. Thomas Howell Frank Schaff
Matt Eckert Charlie Sheen Nicolas Boell
Toni Mason Jennifer Gray Melanie Pukass
Erica Mason Lea Thompson Maud Ackermann
Daryl Bates Darren Dalton Frank Schröder
Danny Bates Brad Savage Oliver Rohrbeck
Lieutenant Colonel Andy Tanner Powers Boothe Manfred Lehmann
Tom Eckert Harry Dean Stanton Rolf Schult
Mayor Bates Lane Smith Hermann Ebeling
Jack Mason Ben Johnson Arnold Marquis

Reviews

The red tide came about two years after Reagan's speech about "The Empire of Evil" and so the controversial film is then also a product of the Ice Age of the Cold War .

The Time Magazine wrote:

“'The Red Tide' is an allegory cleverly designed to turn the morale of the Vietnam War. The United States is occupied by communist troops (Cubans and Nicaraguans in the service of the Soviets), and American teenagers as heroes and heroines retreat to the mountains of Colorado to build a guerrilla force. So now Americans are the Viet Cong, the common people, the underdogs, fighting for their own country. The Soviets are now the oppressive great power (like the Americans in Vietnam ), the conquerors with superior forces and the deadly attack helicopters. So the guilt lies with the Soviets, and a peculiar, sublime absolution comes over the American cinema audience. "

The Süddeutsche Zeitung criticized:

"Milius' youthful heroes are a paragon of cleanliness, intelligence and willingness to make sacrifices, while their Soviet counterparts are characterized by brutality and stupidity."

Hellmuth Karasek ironically remarked in Der Spiegel with a view to Ronald Reagan's upgrade programs regarding the neutron bomb and the SDI program:

“The film, obviously intended for moral armament, misses its goal in the most alarming way and is really devastating to the military. Because what does the West need, what does the free world need rockets, neutron bombs and laser cannons, if it is enough for a few students to go to partisan war instead of football after school? "

Others

The Guinness Book of Records listed The Red Tide as the "film with the worst scenes of violence" from 1986–1988 , referring to a "study of violence in film".

Awards

Brad Savage was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1984.

literature

  • Jonathan Bernstein: Pretty in Pink. The Golden Age of Teenage Cinema. New York, 1997. ISBN 0-312-15194-2

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The Red Flood . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2010 (PDF; test number: 54 968 V).
  2. ↑ Red tide - contained? In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 1985 ( online ).
  3. ↑ Red Dawn. Internet Movie Database , accessed June 10, 2015 .
  4. ↑ Interview with Jennifer Gray on YouTube
  5. ↑ The Red Dawn , under ofdb.de .
  6. ↑ Red Dawn remake: villains now North Koreans instead of Chinese. Filmstarts.de, accessed on March 17, 2011 .
  7. ↑ Claude Brodesser-Akner: The Long-Delayed Red Dawn Remake Could Have Been Scarily Topical . www.vulture.com.
  8. ↑ Time No. 1/85
  9. ↑ Hellmuth Karasek: World War as a Western . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1984 ( online ).
  10. ^ The new Guinness Book of Records 1986 , Frankfurt / M.-Berlin, 1985, p. 279
  11. ↑ The new Guinness Book of Records 1988 , Frankfurt / M.-Berlin, 1987, p. 281