Red Dawn (1984)

Director: John Milius

Writers: Kevin Reynolds, John Milius

Composer: Basil Poledouris

Starring: Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, Charlie Sheen, Darren Dalton, Jennifer Grey, Brad Savage, Doug Toby, Ben Johnson, Harry Dean Stanton, Ron O'Neal, William Smith, Vladek Sheybal, Powers Boothe, Frank McRae

More info: IMDb

Tagline: In our time, no foreign army has ever occupied American soil. Until now.

Plot: A group of high school students become guerrilla fighters when their town is invaded by Central American and eventually Soviet soldiers at the beginning of WWIII in this apocalyptic fantasy. The pressures of their desperate existence begin to wear away at the "Wolverine's" unity as the Soviet bloc forces hunt them down.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Nah.

I'd swear I saw this when I was in high school nearly forty years ago but it was only a little piece here and there on HBO.  It's not a bad film.  I rather liked it.  Everything was going just fine until Powers Booth showed up and then it got ten times cooler.  And then Powers Booth isn't in it anymore and I missed him.  Having William Smith in your movie is a huge plus, too.  He was in badass mode as the Russian general.  What really impressed me is his extended monologues IN RUSSIAN!  There was very little editing in his big speech to his troops, leaving a string of long takes.  As if it weren't possible, I gained even more respect for Smith.  A lot of people died, including several main characters, which elevated the picture higher than I would have thought.  I'm a big fan of John Millius so I'm going to give him the credit for that one.  Hey, he wrote and directed CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982).  Badass.  Simply badass.