Red Dawn

Peter Bart of Variety informs us that the movie Red Dawn is going to be remade. He liked it even less than Carol and I did. I think I remember us leaving after about forty-five minutes or so. The jingoism was loud, clumsy and inane. Bart explains what happened:

Peter Bart:

MGM, for example, is recrafting a curious ’80s movie called "Red Dawn," and I can’t quite figure out why. I’m embarrassed to admit I was involved in putting together the first "Red Dawn" in 1984. Indeed, the original movie was a classic example of a good idea gone bad.

When I first pounced on the project (I was MGM’s senior VP for production at the time), it was a sharply written anti-war movie called "Ten Soldiers" written by a bright young filmmaker named Kevin Reynolds, then a Spielberg protege. The movie was set in the near future as a combined force of Russians and Cubans launched a surreptitious invasion of the Southwestern U.S. Ten kids take to the hills when their small town is captured and they turn into a skilled and lethal guerrilla band.

In due course, the movie started as a sort of "Lord of the Flies," but then the chieftains at MGM got a better idea. Instead of making a poignant little antiwar movie, why not make a teen "Rambo" and turn the project over to John Milius, a genial and rotund filmmaker who loved war movies and also loved war? The idea was especially popular with a member of the MGM board of directors, General Alexander Haig, the former Nixon chief of staff, who yearned to supervise the film personally and develop a movie career.

For the rest go here: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118009233.html?categoryid=1&cs=1

Ed here: General Haig of "I'm in charge here!" (meaning the United States) when constitutionally he wasn't in charge of anything excepted his rather dramatically tailored uniform? Gee, how could a film with him go wrong?