9 March 2025

Review: Red Dawn 4K UHD

4K UHD: Red Dawn (1984)

This Friday evening, we at 60MW Towers watched this beautiful 4K UHD re-release of Red Dawn, was the day President Zelensky visited the Whitehouse in Washington, America, in the hope of securing continued help (Trump wants all the mineral rights to Ukraine in exchange for this).

Zelensky, the President of Ukraine has been at war with Russia for the last 3 years. Russia invaded, first neighbouring Crimea in 2014, then attacked Ukraine.

As I write Trump has been President of America for a month and in that time, he has supported Putin (dictator of Russia) and called Zelensky a ‘dictator’ who ‘started the war’ (not true). After watching Red Dawn, we switched over to the news, to see President Trump and vice president JD Vance, berate bully and humiliate Zelensky in a way that has never happened before.

How ironic then, that Red Dawn (1984) could be a depiction of the aftermath of this disastrous meeting.

It’s rare that either Dave or I have missed a classic 80s film, and I’m amazed to say this was a first time watch for me (though Dave had watched it many times on VHS).

Based on a screenplay by director by John Milius and Kevin Reynolds, the film is about the end of the NATO alliance (only a matter of time now for Trump to pull out of this in real life), Mexico having a civil war and Cuba and Russia joining forces to invade America starting WW3.

It tells the story of a gang of teenage guerrillas (known as the Wolverines after their football team) hiding out in the mountains of occupied Colorado, learning to survive and become the resistance. Starring the cream of 80s young talent: Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey. You can’t go wrong with a cast like that.

It’s a very gung ho sort of film, but definitely NOT a ‘make America great’ ‘fuck yeah, ‘Merica’ sort of film. It has a heart and as more and more of the kids’ families get murdered you actually care about the characters. The main problem with the film is – this small group of kids, instantly become competent killers, and are able to assassinate trained soldiers effectively at will. Also they all survive until the last bit of the film and no one (except Powers Booth) joins their ranks. However, none of these plot ‘mishaps’ do anything to spoil your enjoyment of the film, and I must admit, its pretty hardcore in its unflinching look at kids caught up in something they’re not old enough to deal with.

There’s a lovely performance from a very young Leah Thompson, who’s obviously suffered rape and abuse at the hands of the opposing army, leading her to become distant until they group find a crashed US Airforce captain (Powers Booth) who helps her trust again (apparently there was a cut sex scene between the characters, cut because of the huge age difference). Also cut was a sex scene between Grey and Swayze.

I have no idea how I missed this classic bit of 80s cinema, but I’m delighted to have watched it and in gorgeous 4K in this excellent release.

Interestingly, at the time it was released, Red Dawn was considered the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records with a rate of 134 acts of violence per hour, or 2.23 per minute.

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