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Blog Entry 7 of 44 Welcome to The Retroplex
I'm usually in full-blown reminisce mode anyway, so why not make the rest of you poor saps suffer along with me, right?

Here, you'll find no shortage (well...unless I can't think of any new material) of meaningless but ultimately harmless bits of ephemera covering the past 20 or so years of pop culture, and my occasional interactions with it. Whether you're into the iconic or the ironic, sooner or later, I'll probably get around to it.
Watch, as the hilarity ensues! Or, if you prefer, gawk like a shocked passerby witnessing a horrible accident!

Blog Url: http://denver.yourhub.com/~TheRetroplex

Avenge me! AVENNNNNNNNNNNGE ME!!!

Contributed by: Jared Keller   on 7/12/2006

Growing up in Colorado during the latter stages of the Cold War, my older brothers, my friends, and I spent no small number of hours watching the 1984 film Red Dawn, and pondering what we'd do if the godless Soviet horde descended upon us from on high.

The answer is obvious; we would have grabbed ourselves a few balaclavas, snagged a spare weapon or three, and blasted the living borscht out of them - all while shouting "Wolverines!", of course.

My buddies and I spent countless hours in our backyards, setting up cap gun ambushes for the commie troopers who, so we assumed, inevitably come a' rampaging down our streets. After all - to a 9 year old, the...um, questionable strategic wisdom in choosing rural Colorado as the site at which to begin one's invasion of the continental US never enters into the thought process. It's so counterintuitive, that it just makes sense, right?

Jared's personal Red Dawn Trivia: For a short period - from the ages of nine, to ten, say - the single thing in my life about which I was most proud was the fact that I attended the same church as a guy named Scott Cox, who was one of the Cuban paratroopers seen at the beginning of the flick. Yeah, I wasn't even tangentially involved, but hey...when you're 9 years old, and decidedly average across the board, you grab what you can, right?

Anyway, your assignment for this week is to go and watch the film - preferably in its VHS glory, as movies like this are best seen in an enviornment that completely suggests a time before the advent of the DVD format. If you have some vintage "New" Coke, or a Jello Pudding Pop (they're available again, by the way...) to enjoy during viewing, so much the better - you'll get the whole period experience. Go watch the film again. See some young actors get their feet wet, including Charlie Sheen, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, C. Thomas Howell, and yes - in an uncredited cameo, even Patrick Swayze's snot bubble. To top it all off, you'll be amazed by both the accuracy of the repro-Soviet equipment, and the incongruity of the Soviets' invasion plans. It's got everything!

NORAD gets nuked, too, so I think that we can say beyond the shadow of a doubt that Red Dawn trumps that other titular 80s Cold War flick, Wargames. Mr. W.O.P.R.? Meet Mr. MIRV. Advantage: Red Dawn.

Oh, also, Red Dawn takes a boldly defiant turn away from most of its Cold War contemporaries, in that it doesn't, so far as I can tell, include Whip Hubley in the cast, though, to be honest, I haven't been able to scan through all of the extras milling about in the prison camp scenes, so who knows? He might be stuck in there somewhere.


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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
Submitted By: Brendan Leonard
posted on 6/30/2006 @ 9:12:29 AM
Rated Blog Entry
A total classic. I may have to Netflix that -- I think the last time I watched it was probably 1988.
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Submitted By: Bill Boucher
posted on 6/29/2006 @ 9:54:55 PM
Rated Blog Entry
Classic flick. Sometimes I pee in the radiator just because.
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Showing 1-2 of 2 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Jared Keller

Littleton

Jared Keller has posted 44 blog entries and 57 comments since joining on 12/1/2005. Jared Keller 's average blog rating is 5.
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