Red Dawn

Red Dawn was the first movie I saw simply because I didn’t have to pay an incremental cost for it. I had a spare couple of hours while my daughter was at an event and made use of it to see this movie, despite my particularly low expectations.

To my surprise, I actually enjoyed it. It wasn’t great by any means, but I wasn’t bored or particularly annoyed. It probably helps that I really don’t remember much about the original version.

I find it somewhat interesting how some movies trigger a resistance to my ability to suspend disbelief, and others don’t. I’ve noticed before that if a movie (or TV show) attempts to explain something, and does a poor job at it, I’m likely to be very annoyed. On the other hand, if no real explanation is attempted, it’s much easier to simply accept the premise.

How does that apply to this movie? Well, there’s never really any attempt to explain exactly how or why the precipitous events occurred. Partly, this is because the characters themselves simply don’t know. Mostly, however, I credit the writer and/or director for avoiding any temptation at a narrative explanation.

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