Red Dawn was centered on
the imposing threat of growing communist forces. A small Colorado town is invaded and its only
hope of survival is high-school militia that refers to themselves as the
‘Wolverines’, their school mascot. The
movie begins with parachuting Cubans landing on the school’s football field, while
the history teacher Mr. Teasdale “delivers a foreshadowing-heavy lecture about
Genghis Khan”. A couple of things I
found interesting about Mr. Teasdale, he is the only African American character
in the movie and he is the first causality as well as the only one who attempts
to arbitrate with the invaders, neither out of fear or vengeance.
This, like most other 80’s and 90’s action
films, followed Hollywood’s racist rule that, “the first guy to get killed is black”. I thought it was interesting that he was not
only the lone African American character but the only, supposed,
“intellectual” as well. His sudden
demise came from his ignorant belief that he could employ diplomacy over action
in a real emergency. This illustrated
the idea that “America
is being made weak by effete intellectuals”, who also happen to misspell “Ghengis
Khan” in their pre-death lectures.
His death should have been anticipated since he did not use sensible
logic and is unfit to survive such an epidemic. The moral of Mr. Teasdale’s
role: knowledge is only power when your quaint, inland hometown is not being
invaded by communists.
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