Script review – “Red Dawn” by Kevin Reynolds (1983 shooting script) (warning: spoilers)

The copy of the script I read only credits Reynolds was writer but surely it went through John Miliius' typewriter. It’s been a while since I saw the film but from memory this followed it reasonably closely. The structure seemed the same; Act one: we plunge into the invasion pretty much straight away our heroes turning guerrilla; Act two – a downed American pilot tells them about what’s going on with the war and things get harder; Act three – the Soviets send in a crack team of counter-insurgency experts to beat the Wolverines.

There are some key differences. For instance, the script has an extra girl character, Sandy, who joins the wolverines and has a romance with Jed (the lead guy) –and she ends up killing herself in order not to fall into the hands of the baddies (they gave this scene to Toni in the film). Erica, who falls in love with crashed pilot Andy (the sweetest romance in the script) dies with him in the script, whereas in the movie she survives. The only survivors in the script are Toni and Danny – and Colonel Bella doesn’t let Jed and Matt go off together to die peacefully (they just die here).

I didn’t quite buy the set up for a US-Russia war – it’s as believable a one as they could have come up with, but I still didn’t buy it. (Tomorrow When the War Began was more believable because it was Australia.) But the central idea is such a strong one I can understand why they went for it.

The first third of this does read like a John Milius wet dream, as the whole movie was accused of being – teenagers taking off for the hills, playing soldiers, killing Cubans, doing the fantasy war game thing. But Milius has a gift of surprising and the film gets better as it goes on – more complex, and darker. The kids are responsible for their friends and family being killed, they have to kill one of their number, most of them die. Also there are moments where the enemy is humanised – a Cuban officer expresses enthusiasm for Indian history right before he’s killed, a captured Russian soldier is very brave and has a moment of connection before he’s killed, the tough Russian officer who does after the kids at the end admires them, the main Cuban antagonist is weary of war. The kid characters aren't much - the girls are a bit crazy and gun-toting because they've been raped (Milius was never one for great female characters), the officer is stoic, there's a Quisling Mayor; the most interesting kid is the guy who goes ga-ga and starts scalping Cubans.

Definitely not a movie for everyone, but it wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve and you can see why it’s got such a big cult.