Transcript
Brian Clark: So we're back for ah another episode. We didn't take another year. We actually did it in like a year, not a year, shoot, a week or two.
Seth: make Yeah.
Brian Clark: um So i'm ah you're you're you're going to get annoyed at this the entire episode.
Seth: oh
Brian Clark: Because we're
Brian Clark: I'm just going to hit it. you know hit see
Seth: Oh my god. Christ. Oh my god. so It's so loud.
Brian Clark: It's so loud, but it fits. It fits with the episode because we're going to talk about 1984's Red Dawn.
Seth: Wonderful.
Brian Clark: um Wait, what?
Seth: I said wonderful. I didn't need to hear any names.
Brian Clark: I thought you were like something, i oh sorry, I'm old.
Brian Clark: So I think we were talking before we started. I figured we would just kind of talk more about the movie and kind of how it you felt about it kind of compared to movies, you know, we saw now or we see now or movies that you've seen after you were born because this movie is so different
Seth: Mhm.
Brian Clark: And even when I saw it with you, it kind of caught me off guard because I think I i might have seen this once before you and I watched it.
Seth: One time.
Brian Clark: And yeah, I had seen it a long time ago and I didn't remember hardly any of it.
Brian Clark: And it just, it hit so hard. um And So I guess we could just start with that because it's especially because i mean it has the the opening 10 minutes of that movie are probably the hardest opening 10 minutes of a movie I think I've seen in a long time.
Seth: Yeah!
Brian Clark: um Because I remember when I remember reading like when it came out like that that opening scene was
Brian Clark: A lot of people thought it was you over the top and kind of crazy because, I mean, you know, they basically the Russians parachute in and shoot up a school.
Seth: Ooh, yes!
Brian Clark: um And especially the.
Seth: i thought i remember now i remember the movie now yeah they're all like yeah they're
Brian Clark: Um, cause you remember where the, I think it's, I think it starts at the, like they're in history class, you know, cause they're, cause you know, they're in, he he's in the middle of teaching and he, you see him like walk to this, you know, this big window and he kind of trails off and everybody's like, well, what is he doing?
Seth: He's like, oh.
Brian Clark: And you see all these people um parachuting to the yard outside the school.
Seth: Lying down from the sky.
Brian Clark: And he goes out and he's like, can I help you? And they're like, no, no, you cannot help us. And they just start bolt just blasting.
Brian Clark: So I I guess. And it's strange, too, because like You probably don't have well i might it know you don't have this feeling. you know and Well, in 1984, I was three. So I don't remember how it felt then. But even into the late 80s, early 90s, the Russians were scary.
Seth: Yeah, that's what everyone was was was crapping their pants about
Brian Clark: like You know, the the the Russian army, the Russian military it was a scary thing. And, you know, there was the almost normal worry of, you know, hey, you know, eventually stuff's going to kick off between the United States and Russia and we're going to go to war. And I guess
Brian Clark: How do you kind of place that now with the way things are in the world?
Seth: Well, hell, I feel like even now Russia is still like this big figure that everyone still kind of stigmatizes and looks at as, oh, these guys are kind of malicious and scary. And like, cause like, you know, world tensions are like higher than they've been like now than they've been in a long time. Like, I feel like and i feel like not even just like with like russia like but with other countries like i feel like we still have that fear that you know someone could be like a little too confident one day and decided to do something stupid i feel like i don't know i will say i don't think they'd be making move they they make many movies around the topic anymore
Brian Clark: Well, it almost seems like now with movies that come out using Russians as a a villain, it's just not done.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: it's um i can't think I can't think of the last movie, the newest.
Seth: I can think of TV shows.
Brian Clark: I don't think there's a lot of movies that are like newer, like post, say 2010, that have Russians as a villain.
Brian Clark: a they They did a remake of this in 2012 -ish.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: And originally it was supposed to be the Chinese.
Seth: Mhm.
Brian Clark: And that got um that got sent to the trash can because China is such a huge market for movies that they're like, no, you're not going to make a movie with us and the villain. And of course, Hollywood was like, yeah, we're not going to do that. And they chose the North Koreans, which is laughable.
Seth: yeah
Brian Clark: I don't know that the North Koreans could take over a gas station, let alone take over the United States.
Brian Clark: I could be wrong. um But even like even into um like the early 2000s, and I think this movie is on our list, um Some of All Fears, which was a Tom Clancy book who wrote a lot of stuff about the Russians. ah lot I think most of his early books were all about Russia in some way or another.
Brian Clark: um, was supposed to have, um,
Brian Clark: villains that were, um, Bader Meinhof gang and, um, Middle Eastern adjacent, not Hezbollah, but close.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: And, and when they made that movie, They ended up changing it from Bader -Meinhof and Hezbollah to Nazis. It's just like, come on. you know Let's have real villains.
Brian Clark: um
Brian Clark: but And the other thing, too, that that was weird about Red Dawn, looking back on it now, it was the the invading force was Russia, Cuba,
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: Nicaragua and I don't remember the other country and they invaded through Mexico.
Seth: Yeah. It's like a really weird smash together team.
Brian Clark: Yeah, and I remember that one of the sold the ah pilot that they find, um which
Brian Clark: used
Brian Clark: You know they they they find that Pilot who had gotten shot down he's out in the middle of nowhere and he said something along the lines of that a bunch of the Cubans and Nicaraguans crossed the border illegally and infiltrated military bases in the Midwest.
Seth: Mm hmm.
Seth: Mm hmm.
Brian Clark: And it's I just saw that. I thought, huh, where have I heard that before?
Brian Clark: um
Brian Clark: So I guess you know, the movie starts out, there you know, everybody invades, they all run off in the, there was that scene in the parking lot where everybody's trying to get out. and It's like a, it was like the crashing at the beginning, at the end of Blues Brothers.
Seth: Yeah, it was very insane.
Brian Clark: um
Brian Clark: They all go and run off to the woods. What, I guess what's your, cause especially cause you get this line, they all go off into the woods.
Brian Clark: big game mr quarterback he can go every everyone
Brian Clark: ah damn jo I guess
Brian Clark: You know, looking back on it growing up, that was kind of the normal way everybody kind of at least expected kids to act. I guess when you, when you look at that now, like, I'm not saying like, how do you think you would act if the Russians parachuted in, you know, in behind your school and you had to run off to the woods.
Seth: Dude, at my school, I feel like everyone would be pulling guns out at their own. We're all hicks. I feel like you'd be every man for himself. It would be insane.
Brian Clark: I remember. um I can't remember if it was World War Two or just or it might have been might have even been a Russian quote. um Where. Somebody was talking about invading the US and. um They said that it would be a it would be foolish to do so because. OK, now I'm at the look.
Brian Clark: fact check. um
Seth: Yeah, don't want to spread misinformation, boy.
Brian Clark: So it was a lot of people because a lot of people say it was Admiral Yamamoto of Japan who's saying you cannot invade the mainland the United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: Apparently he didn't say that. But even if he didn't say it, It's kind of true. I feel like it would be a fool's errand to try to invade because, I mean, like I always, you know, you've probably heard, you know, all the people saying, oh, you know, all these right wing people are going to, you know, go up against the government.
Brian Clark: They're going to, you know, resist and take over.
Seth: Mm -hmm.
Brian Clark: And I'm like, you guys are going to get absolutely demolished.
Seth: Dude, because I was watching, uh, War of the Worlds with Mom a couple days ago, and I was like, I was thinking about, like, I was like, how today, like, what would we actually be able to deal with this? And I was like, I was, I was, I was thinking, like, I feel like we would find a way. Like, we are, we are insane. I feel like if,
Seth: Someone invaded the earth doesn't have to be aliens If someone invaded our country, I feel like we would find a way because I feel like we are genuinely so crazy like I feel like We would find a way to do at least something to fight back because everyone has guns, everyone has knives, everyone knows how to make insane shit. I feel like we'd be firing fireworks at people. why That's what I'd be doing. I'd be sitting out on the porch with the Roman candles shooting at people.
Brian Clark: Like I saw a video the other day um from Georgia, not the not the state, the country Georgia, over by Russia. And I'll have to see if I can find it for it because it's absolutely insane. This guy had, he basically made what I would, the best way I could describe it is a Gatling gun made out of Roman candles.
Seth: Oh my god, my idol
Brian Clark: And They had, they like, you know, there were police barricades that were knocked over and he goes up and he lights it and he's just, and you just hear him go, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop. And there's police with water cannons, like trying to spray him and he keeps moving it and they can't.
Brian Clark: And it's like, I'm like, this guy is, I mean, yeah, it's George.
Seth: What a legend!
Brian Clark: Yeah, well, and I was like, this guy is in Georgia, the country, but he wouldn't be out of place in Georgia, the state.
Seth: like
Brian Clark: you And I feel like it it's different. Like when I look at this now, I have a different feeling of it because, you know, when this movie came out, you know, if if I needed to call somebody, I had to remember their number or have it written down because you're looking up in a phone book, which half the kids your age probably don't know what what that is.
Seth: i know the phone book is you should get those on the on the doorstep when we got newspaper delivered
Brian Clark: I didn't say you, I said other kids your age.
Brian Clark: Yeah, we used to get them on the doorstep and I would put them in the recycle.
Brian Clark: But it was, you know, if you called somebody, you had to know their number, look it up in the phone book, you knew who your neighbors were, you knew where people lived, you know,
Seth: oh
Brian Clark: people had stuff like that and looking at it now, it's it's a little different because it's like, you know, heck, there's times when I, if I have to try to remember what your number, your phone number is, I have to look at my phone because I don't remember it.
Seth: i remember your phone number i remember months on the right and remember my own phone number i remember your mom's phone number i feel like i'd be fine i'd be like yep i'm calling everybody with an amazing casting
Brian Clark: So, but I just, and I'm not sure, because like, you know, in the movie, you've got this really diverse group of kids. And I look, yeah, I mean, you you can't get a better cast than it was in this movie. But there's a small part of me that looks at that group and like,
Brian Clark: I don't know that like even when I was your age, that I would be able to grab that many kids who thought like me to be able to do anything like that.
Brian Clark: And I don't know i don't know how that would work with kids your age.
Seth: Yeah.
Seth: Uh, yeah.
Brian Clark: Granted, it's different here. and
Brian Clark: I feel like it's a little different here because like all the hillbillies, okay, I hate to say I use hillbillies, but I mean, yeah, all the hillbillies back in Indiana, I don't know you would have been able to gather a couple to go with you to do anything.
Seth: Oh, hell no.
Brian Clark: what They would have probably turned you over to the Russians, but I don't know how you feel like that would work now.
Seth: here in Maine, I feel like Mainers already have this, while we're all kind of like loners a little bit and we kind of stick to ourselves, I feel like already we have a better sense of teamwork than a lot of other people do because we don't give a shit where you came from. Like we don't care.
Seth: like I don't think that that's really a big concern to a lot of people up here because like I feel like Maine being like a coastal state we have a lot of diversity but at the same time we don't um but I feel like up here I have quite a bit of people even that I'm not friends even if I'm not friends with them I feel like a couple of my classmates I'd I'd be I'd be I'd be willing to put in my group and run off and try and figure stuff out with cuz like and I have plenty of friends who I'd I'd feel comfortable with that but like here I feel like if I was just on the street with a bunch of random people I feel like I'd be okay yeah
Brian Clark: Like, if if stuff really hit the fan just out of nowhere, even if you were like in Bangalore, you would just be able to grab a couple of people and be like, hey, you know, we're gonna take care of each other and figure this stuff out.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: So, yeah, it's... I think it's it's just such a weird thing, you know, because they coalesce into this group. And I'm like, you know, when I think back to the friends that I had in high school, I was like, I could probably grab some of them and like, hey, you know, we're going to go figure this out. But I don't know how long long we would last because we were massive geeks.
Seth: No.
Brian Clark: You know, i I don't know how far we would have gotten, you know, it's different now. Um, I guess we could talk about too, about the casting of this movie.
Brian Clark: Cause you've got Patrick Swayze, who's
Seth: Oh, the beloved Patrick Swayze.
Brian Clark: he's going to be in a lot. He's going to be in some more movies that we watch. Um, Leah Thompson. she's a She's. I hate doing this because I'm like, i I see somebody's name. I'm like, oh yeah, they weren't.
Brian Clark: We'll have to watch Back to the Future sometime because she's in that and she's good in that. Although that movie is kind of weird. Charlie she charlie Sheen, Jennifer Grey.
Seth: yeah
Brian Clark: I want to see there. were Oh, why do I think that there was more people that were in this that were in?
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: um
Brian Clark: Oh, shoot. ah The Outsiders.
Seth: um Patrick Swayze is one of them and the kid who plays Ponyboy is. and there's another one i feel like this three of them
Brian Clark: Because Darren Dalton, who was in The Outsiders, and then was Charlie Sheen in The Outsiders?
Seth: but um meaning like
Brian Clark: Oh, I'm trying to look too. No, he was not.
Seth: There's, there's four of them.
Seth: Wait, no, it's, wait. Oh, it was only, wait, there was only two of them.
Brian Clark: I guess I could.
Seth: It was T.
Brian Clark: Oh.
Seth: Thomas Howell and Patrick Swayze.
Brian Clark: Yeah.
Seth: I thought there was three of them.
Brian Clark: No, there's there was three.
Seth: Darren Dalton.
Brian Clark: Yeah, he played Randy Anderson.
Seth: Yeah, Randy, okay.
Brian Clark: Whoever that is, I don't know.
Seth: But William Smith was some Russian guy and the store clerk from the outsiders.
Brian Clark: Oh, okay. So now we're up to four.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: Oh, I got it. Oh, that's not who or what I thought he was in. I was looking at the, oh, he was in the, ah he he played football. The ah teacher to be getting played football.
Seth: Mmm.
Brian Clark: in the NFL. So the the big thing about this movie is there's a lot of it.
Brian Clark: the The weird thing for me is you watch this movie and the big thing is they are insurgents. um I guess it's the best way I could describe it. And, you know, they're fighting back against the Russian occupiers who are trying to take them over. And, you know, of course, you would expect that, you know, anybody would look at that like, OK, that's a great thing. That's you know, anybody would do that. I just don't know how you kind of look at that now at your age. At the same time, looking at
Brian Clark: you know, like how people are looking at, you know, like what's going on in Gaza and all those places like that. Or it's like, how is this good? But that is it.
Seth: she yeah uh... uh... i have things to say about that but i can't say that here cuz they're not appropriate uh... i i don't even know like i don't feel that's the bad thing is like i feel like us as a country would be united but I don't think, I don't think anyone else would come, would would be at our aid.
Seth: Like maybe Europe, I don't know, some someone, maybe, I feel like we'd kind of be on our own. If in today's standards, I feel like we'd be on our own, everyone would be like, huh, huh, look what you got yourself into now, who's gonna help you?
Seth: Like, I don't know.
Brian Clark: Well, in the movie, um At one point, he talks about how um you know the the the pilot, when yeah all the guys are all the kids are like, you know what's going on?
Brian Clark: Because they're out in the middle of, I think it was Colorado.
Seth: Now.
Brian Clark: They're in the woods. They're like, we don't even know what's going on. And I remember he was at one point, he's is like you know you know the UK is kind of on their own, but it's like, they're not going to last that long.
Brian Clark: And he kind of made it sound like nobody's coming to help us. It's just us.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: And I'm um kind of of the same way.
Seth: Wish.
Brian Clark: It's like, I don't know if if things kicked off like that. If, you know, we would be on our own, not necessarily, I don't think because nobody wanted to come to help us, but I think it would be everybody else would be dealing with the same thing.
Seth: yeah
Brian Clark: um And the other crazy thing about this movie is that the scenes of like where all the parents are, the kids as parents, they're in like reeducation camps and the kids have to go and break them out or where there was a scene where a bunch of the parents got shot you know, in a mass grave by the Russians, because I don't remember why, but, you know, that was shocking then. But I feel like now it would play differently.
Seth: Yeah. Everyone's pulling out their phones and recording.
Brian Clark: Well. On the one hand, I think people might do that, but at the same time, it's like, If things are that bad, where are you going to post it?
Seth: yeah
Brian Clark: Well, Twitter will probably still be around.
Seth: I hate Twitter.
Brian Clark: Sorry, I couldn't resist to get that dig in.
Seth: ah ha
Brian Clark: um So I guess having watched this movie and what just looking at it as a whole at your age and kind of knowing what you know growing up when you look at this movie, what is what do you think? What do you what is your takeaway of it?
Seth: What do you mean, my takeaway?
Brian Clark: Like. When you watch this movie, I mean, granted, knowing this was. This was what people thought and feared. When I was a little kid,
Brian Clark: When you watch it now, does it still give you the same kind of like, oh, this is kind of freaky. Or is it just you kind of look at like, it's a great action movie, but there's nothing else to take from it, I guess.
Seth: my feelings well first of all it is a great action movie i think it is i also it's a to me it's absolutely devastating absolutely devastating movie to me we work why it's It's so... because like i don't really and I guess I don't think about movies on that standpoint because I'm weird and autistic. but ah I sad at the end of the movie. like i was I was devastated by you know what happened to the characters. like i wasn't really
Seth: i guess I guess it's that to that much of a degree where I'm not concerned about it. Like, I don't follow the original message of the movie. I'm just like, sad movie with kids that I like die.
Brian Clark: Mm hmm.
Brian Clark: And it's the other crazy thing, too, is it's like you get to the end and it's like. It seems like most a lot of the cast dies. It's it's weird, too, for that.
Seth: Yeah. It's like I have hope.
Brian Clark: I.
Seth: I have hope for certain characters and then they die. I'm like, oh, this is wonderful.
Brian Clark: Because I think. Let me think. I'm looking at the cast again, because the character that Leah Thompson, she dies. I think. Patrick Swayze's brother dies.
Seth: Yep, and he dies too at the end.
Brian Clark: I didn't even. Yeah, so it's like you get to get
Seth: They die.
Brian Clark: you get to the end of the movie and like 90 % of the people die. It's like, I was so invested in these people and they're all dead.
Seth: What the fuck?
Seth: ah but
Brian Clark: But I guess just to kind of wrap things up, I guess, when you, granted, you know, this movie was 1984 and computer graphics were not a thing, what do you think Because like you know we try to look at when you and I talk about movies, you know we we talk about you know who's in it. And we've both agreed that the you know the casting in this movie is fantastic. and I don't think there's a miss anywhere in it.
Brian Clark: um
Brian Clark: What do you think about like how it's made? because it's There's a lot of practical effects in this movie. There's actual tanks. There's actual planes. They granted some of the... Go ahead.
Seth: No, I was just saying I don't know I don't even think that like it was bad like it they did it pretty well
Brian Clark: Like there was one, I remember there's one scene that stands out that I look at when I look at like that is goofy as all get out. um when the Russians are going up against the school and one of the Russian soldiers fires an RPG into into the building, you look at that, you're like, that is on a wire.
Seth: Yeah.
Seth: What the fuck? ah
Brian Clark: I was like, that that's that's on a wire.
Seth: ah
Brian Clark: but Everything else looks really good. And I guess there's not really any Like, yeah, there's a soundtrack, but there's no like music.
Brian Clark: But I guess the big question is, you know, this movie is from 1984, which is if I do my math right.
Brian Clark: Oh, my God, that makes me feel so old. That is 40 years ago.
Seth: Damn.
Brian Clark: So how does this 40 year old movie, how does it hold up?
Seth: Well, on the account, I will say, on the account of being offensive, it's not. It's not an offensive movie. I feel like, I mean, other than villainizing Russia, but you know, who doesn't?
Brian Clark: yeah
Seth: So I guess it doesn't count. oh Um, there's no really weird sexual shit in it. Like they don't force that.
Seth: There's no, there's no, so nobody says any slurs.
Brian Clark: Yeah.
Seth: And like,
Brian Clark: I will say that there is that kind of weirdish kind of romance between the pilot and one of the kids but it you but at the same time it's not forced it's not try to figure how like looking at it now you're like yeah that's kind of weird but it's also it's like it's a time of war you know things are a little different
Seth: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Seth: And I feel like it's just a like a kid having a crush on ah on a guy like like
Brian Clark: Yeah.
Seth: Like a cool military guy, you know?
Brian Clark: Yeah.
Seth: And I feel like I said like the effects and like how the movie was made like it doesn't look horrible for its time. It looks really good for its time. And I think it held up very well, but maybe I'm just biased because I like the movie.
Brian Clark: No, I don't think you're biased. I like it, too. And like I said, I think I'd seen it once before.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: It's, as it happens a couple of times, there are several movies that we've watched. I'm like, you know, the second time I watched it, I'm like, man, I don't remember this being this good.
Seth: Yeah!
Brian Clark: So I guess we should. I know we've got some movies kind of that we've watched already that we can kind of circle around and and talk about, but we need to watch another movie coming up, especially because
Seth: to
Brian Clark: Well, mom doesn't work. Well, she hasn't updated her account her calendar. So I don't know if she works this Friday or not. She probably does. So we need to spin for a new movie.
Seth: We do.
Brian Clark: So let me see what the app gets me.
Seth: Oh my gosh.
Seth: Brother, we forgot to do name checks again.
Brian Clark: Oh, my gosh, we'll have to remember that on the next one.
Seth: That's what we get.
Brian Clark: Oh, we got a good one.
Seth: What do we get? What do we get?
Brian Clark: OK, this is a good one that I like, but this movie is also it is ancient, but it's really, really, really, really good.
Seth: What is it?
Brian Clark: Have you ever heard of have you ever heard of Bridge Over the River Kwai?
Seth: No.
Brian Clark: This is a movie about World War II. It's actually kind of grounded in... um It's not like based on a true story, but close. And it has got an insane cast.
Brian Clark: ah
Brian Clark: second and I'll give you a preview of who is in this.
Brian Clark: Hold on a second, I don't know why I can't find it on IMDB. There we go.
Brian Clark: and
Brian Clark: Alec Guinness is in this movie.
Seth: Mmm.
Brian Clark: you Who you also know as Obi -Wan Kenobi.
Seth: Is B1 Kenobi?
Brian Clark: I'm trying to...
Brian Clark: I want to say...
Brian Clark: See, he's fantastic in this movie. This is ah it's a really good movie. It's it's kind of got a, I don't want to say a twist -ish ending, but sort of.
Seth: Yeah.
Brian Clark: But it's it's really good. So I guess that's our next movie. So I guess we're all done.
Seth: All right.
Brian Clark: Sounds good.
