[W]What stands out about this film is how it celebrates both the glory of war and the sacrifices it makes.
To the many people who have seen John Milius’ films Red Dawn This film, which premiered in August 1984, embodied the height of ’80s action. It’s unashamedly pro-gun control, telling the story of a group of high schoolers in Calumet, Colorado, using guerilla warfare to fight off the Soviet invaders who’ve sent their parents to prison camps. It’s unashamedly American, from the statue of Teddy Roosevelt in Calumet’s town square to the national anthem playing in the background as the kids fire automatic rifles at Russian soldiers. It’s unashamedly cartoonish, especially in one scene where the only adult protagonist, an Air Force colonel who parachutes in to save the kids, chuckles as he drops a grenade into a tank hatch.
Sure, it’s easy to dismiss the film as silly, and outdated in today’s discussions of “Jesus and John Wayne” approaches to masculinity. But what makes it stand out — and perhaps one of the reasons it wasn’t surpassed by the lackluster 2012 remake starring Chris Hemsworth — is that it celebrates both the glory of war and its sacrifice. In fact, that tension permeates Milius’ life and work, making him an important storyteller of this fascinating era.
The futility of war
Milius is perhaps the most colorful member of New Hollywood, the first generation of Americans to attend film school and who redefined Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s. Milius He describes how he became friends with George Lucas at the University of Southern California and became part of the so-called “USC Mafia.”Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Other writers, such as co-writer Willard Huyck, have made fortunes writing adventure stories on Earth or in a galaxy far, far away. Milius’ contributions include an Oscar-nominated Apocalypse Nowscriptwriting for movies, etc. Dirty Harry and Saving Private Ryan,director Conan the Barbarian.
The obsession with war from a man who has never been to war Red Dawn Initially, it seems to give students a perspective that sees war as an exciting opportunity.
At first, the record made Milius seem like New Hollywood’s lone conservative: Whereas many of his USC students had protested the Vietnam War in rebellion against their World War II veteran fathers, Milius was the son of a World War I veteran and was eager to serve in the military. 2003 IGN InterviewWhen his asthma made him ineligible for the Vietnam War, he said he was “totally demoralized” and “couldn’t go to war. I guess the war has been on my mind ever since.” Apocalypse Now His character was shaped by many conversations with soldiers who had not been to war. The reason why a man who had never been to war was so obsessed with war was Red Dawn Initially, it seems to give students a perspective that sees war as an exciting opportunity.
Milius sounds like a Mel Gibson prototype, but his stance on the counterculture complicates that image. A conversation with Francis Ford Coppola In 2010 Apocalypse Now On the Blu-ray, Milius says he liked the beatniks he met while surfing on the East Coast, but not the hippies that came after him, but in the 2013 documentary, USC Mafia member Walter Murch recalls Milius once saying, “Look, I’m really a hippie. Everybody thinks I’m right-wing, but I’m really a hippie. Except the hippies didn’t elect me to be king, but I want to be king!”
Milius enjoys escaping labels rather than taking clear conservative or liberal positions. He is the ultimate baby boomer rebel, too radical for the establishment and flower people. Red DawnSo he plays someone who hates war and someone who loves war.
Midway through the film, after the Air Force colonel is killed in battle, the high school students Lord of the Flies The situation changes: one of the kids, Darryl, is exposed as a Russian spy. Jed, the kids’ leader, decides to execute Darryl and the captured Russian soldiers. Jed’s brother Matt refuses to join the firing squad and questions the right to execute the Soviets. “What’s the difference between us and them?” Jed replies, “Because… we live here!” and fires his pistol at the Russian soldier. His friend Robert kills Darryl. Not a particularly heroic answer.
Alfio Leotta is John Milius’ films The film also offers a surprisingly sympathetic villain. Cuban Colonel Ernesto Bra, who helps command the Soviet forces, becomes disillusioned with the fighting. At the end of the film, he writes to his wife that he will resign after the operation. When Jed and Matt launch a final guerilla attack on Bra’s camp, Bra aims his rifle at them but does not fire.
In the end, only two high school students survive. Jed and Matt are injured and collapsed while sitting on a swing in a park in Calumet, a blatant metaphor for the loss of childhood innocence. Their friends, Danny and Erica, flee Soviet-controlled territory. “We’re free,” Danny says. “Free?” Erica asks. To what end? The next scene shows a plaque commemorating their sacrifice. National anthem-like music plays, and an ending narrator recites the plaque’s inscription, which says that Erica, Danny, Jed, and their friends fought “to keep this great country from disappearing from the earth.” It sounds totally pro-war. The height of Reagan-era masculinity.
But given Erica’s words, the question remains. Nat Segalov reports. Big Bad John: An interview with John Milius Milius saw Red Dawn “It shows the utter futility, the hopeless futility of war. At the end of the film, despite all the heroism and courage shown, and the reasons and vengeance on both sides, all that remains is a lonely monument on a deserted battlefield.”
Christian Chivalry and Pagan Cruelty
if Red Dawn The portrayal of war as both thrilling and terrifying is not uncommon in Milius’ stories. Apocalypse Nowhe is perhaps best known as a director Conan the BarbarianIt was the only live-action fantasy film of the 1980s to faithfully (and successfully) adapt the original story. “Grimdark” Fantasy Project game of thrones.
C.S. Lewis points out that pagan warriors glorified toughness, but medieval Christianity invented chivalry, which asserted that “the brave should also be humble and merciful.”
but, game of thrones Imitating Wagner’s Paganism ConanMilius doesn’t uncritically glorify violence: At least in his director’s cut, the film ends with Conan wrestling with the idea that revenge has erased his purpose in life and that he must find something else. Red Dawnwhich ends with “Freedom for what?” Conan’s pagan warrior code, vengeance or violence for survival, offers no vision that lasts across a lifetime.
In fact, pagan is the right word here. In his essay “The Necessity of Chivalry” CS Lewis points out that pagan warriors prized toughness, but medieval Christianity brought new standards. Christianity invented chivalry, arguing that “the brave must be humble and merciful.” The combination is counterintuitive, but without it, “mankind would split into two groups: those who can handle blood and iron but cannot be ‘quiet in the hall,’ and those who are ‘quiet in the hall,’ but useless in battle.” Humanity seeks brutality and passivity. Christian chivalry teaches that violence may be necessary, but there is more to life than violence. Its code of honor allows the warrior to be quiet, which, in Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, means being powerful but controlled.
Most of Milius’ films, whether he directs or writes them, explore this tension between brutality and honor. They follow warriors who want to glorify violence; young Conan declares that there’s nothing better in life than killing his enemies and hearing their women moan. These warriors also know that violence has a price. As Christ & Pop Culture contributor Cole Bargett points out, Dirty Harry is a conflicted cop who struggles with the consequences of his worldview. Red DawnEven the survivors, Erica and Danny, are like Captain Willard. Apocalypse Now: There are too many scars of war in high society. Milius’ adventure drama Wind and the Lion There’s a memorable scene in the film where Teddy Roosevelt says America is like a grizzly bear – ferocious, but its ferocity scares off others.
Indeed, Teddy Roosevelt is key to understanding Milius’ Christianity.semen-Pagan worldview. He appears as a statue in the town, Red Dawn And as both protagonists Wind and the Lion TNT miniseries Roughriders. Milius contributed the preface to a biography of R.L. Wilson. Theodore Roosevelt: Hunter and conservationist. As Benjamin J. Wetzel shows: Theodore Roosevelt: Sermon from the PulpitRoosevelt had a vibrant faith as a child before loss turned him into a skeptic. He fled from loss to become an adventurer who boasted of “the hard life” and whose religious education taught him the King James dialect that he used effectively in public speaking. In short, Roosevelt lived his life caught between Christianity and Social Darwinism. Christine Cobbes du Maez writes: Jesus and John Wayne The second part, the myth that Roosevelt created about his transformation from asthmatic New York boy into rough-riding bear hunter, helped create an image of the macho American that we often mistake for Christian masculinity.
Talking about Chivalry and Paganism Today
Milius cannot decide which side he prefers: the pagan path or the Christian warrior path. As Cobbes du Mez and others have pointed out, this is precisely the problem faced by many Christian nationalists today…
The struggle to distinguish between pagan and Christian attitudes toward violence has played out throughout history, from the Spanish-American War to modern American culture wars. Some find this conflict especially difficult to reconcile. Segalov reports that Milius once said he was born Jewish but a “practicing pagan.” “I actually think that the Apache religion is the most reasonable of all religions.” But Milius complains to Segalov that in American culture, “the sturdiness of virtues of honor, loyalty, and honesty” have been replaced by hipness. Pretty chivalrous values for a guy who directed a film in which Robert lets out a battle cry while being shot at by a Russian helicopter after executing his friend by firing squad.
The tension between Christianity and paganism makes Milius a curious filmmaker, but one always worth exploring. His hunger for fame sets him apart from directors like Michael Bay, who depict violence at any cost. His hunger for glory sets him apart from friends like Steven Spielberg, who recognizes that honor requires a Judeo-Christian worldview. Spielberg returned to Judaism in the 1990s, the same decade he hired Milius to write the screenplay for Star Wars: Episode I: The Last Jedi. Saving Private Ryanmore evenly balancing the call for heroism and the harshness of war. Red Dawn.
Tensions between Christianity and Paganism Red Dawn It’s vague, but relevant. It probably describes America today much better than it did when it emerged in the Reagan years. It’s about honor and revenge; the glory of battle and the sorrow of battle; nationalism and fighters across the border (Colonel Buller and Jed, for example) finding that war makes them cruel. Milius can’t decide whether he prefers the pagan path or the Christian warrior path. As Cobbes du Mez and others have pointed out, many of today’s Christian nationalists have that exact problem, and it’s because Red Dawn It may not be a classic, but after 40 years it’s still an important film, and at its worst and best it forces us to think about war, manhood, and honor.
Source: Christ and Pop Culture – christandpopculture.com
