Red Dawn - DVD

Content: The residents of the small town of Spokane are astonished when one day fighter jets appear in the sky with hundreds of paratroopers jumping out of them, turning the residents' peaceful daily lives into a bloody nightmare. The impossible seems to have occurred: America is being attacked by North Korea. Most residents surrender to this completely unexpected attack and allow Spokane to be occupied by Captain Cho (Will Yun Lee) and his men. However, a small group of teenagers led by brothers Jed (Chris Hemsworth) and Matt Eckert (Josh Peck) manage to escape into the adjacent woods. From here, the resistance is to be planned. While the convinced Marine Jed primarily has the liberation of Spokane in mind, Matt's thoughts revolve solely around his girlfriend Erica (Isabel Lucas), whom he wants to free at any cost from the hands of the brutal occupiers. Tensions between the brothers grow, which also affects the rest of the small troupe. But in order to defeat Captain Cho's army, which is not only superior in numbers, the Wolverines must overcome their conflicts and stand together as one man. For only then will Spokane have a chance of being freed from the hands of the North Korean occupiers...

In 1984, director John Milius had then-young stars Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and future Dirty Dancing stars Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey go into battle against evil Soviets. Although the film was accused of an almost arrogant patriotism, The Red Tide developed into a real cult film over the years. Reason enough for Hollywood to retell the story of the Wolverines once again. As early as September 2009, filming began on the remake of Red Dawn, with which Dan Bradley, second unit director on films such as Mission: Impossible - Phantom Protocol or James Bond: Quantum of Solace, was allowed to make his directorial debut. However, the film just didn't come off under the best of circumstances. First, the release was put on hold due to the studio's financial problems, and when a new start date was finally found, it too had to be postponed again in order to turn what should have been Chinese attackers into North Koreans. These additional digital changes cost another nearly $1 million and pushed the budget to a hefty $65,000,000.

When the film finally hit theaters in late 2012, it failed to recoup its budget at the box office. Whether that was due to the constant release date shifts, however, may be doubted. After all, the film has with Chris Hemsworth (Avengers) and Josh Hutcherson (The Tribute to Panem) but two quite attractive stars, especially among younger audiences. And also the visual realization is director Dan Bradley very well done, of which you could already get an idea in the well-cut first trailer. In terms of action, Red Dawn can really convince. Especially the invasion at the beginning is really well and explosively staged.

But what the film really suffers from is its script. It's not just that the patriotism has been amped up a notch compared to the original, rather than focusing on a slightly more logical scenario. Moreover, in many scenes the film simply comes across as a promotional film for the American gun lobby. In the course of the current discussions about tightening gun laws, the argument kept coming from the supporters of the gun lobby that it is the constitutional right of every American to want to protect themselves with guns against outside attacks. And if the evil North Koreans suddenly invade a small American town, then of course you have to have rapid-fire rifles and other large-caliber weapons at the ready.

Then, of course, it's just as well that Jed is a Marine who comes directly from a war zone and can thus ensure the right drill among the Wolverines. There fall then also already times so sentences like war is ugly and hard. But when you're fighting on your own doorstep, you're fighting for your family. That makes things easier. Accompanied by music exaggerating with pathos, such scenes of course leave a very bad taste, which is reinforced by the very stereotyped drawing of the enemy image.

If you can overlook this and can rather amuse than upset about the very clichéd dialogues, then you get at least a solid action film, which visually has some really strong moments to offer. So if you're just looking for something for the eye, you can safely grab this one. But who questions the message or simply a good, logical story would like to get, which will be able to win this hymn to American patriotism certainly only a few good sides.

Picture + Sound: From a purely technical point of view, the DVD can definitely convince. The sound comes very powerful and dynamic from the boxes, whereby especially the action sequences can score with numerous well-implemented surround effects. The visual realization of the film pleases with a decent image sharpness, a coherent color scheme and well-matched contrasts and black levels. Good!

Extras: The DVD has quite a bit of bonus material to offer, though it is primarily very short promo features with no real informational content. It starts off with five short promo featurettes on the story (approx. 2:27), the Wolverines (approx. 2:34), the action (approx. 2:47), the boot camp where the actors were prepared for their roles (approx. 2:31), and Girls & Explosions (approx. 2:11). Here, film clips, interviews, and short B-roll footage are edited together into little promotional clips that offer brief glimpses into the production, but never come close to looking beneath the surface. And exactly that would have been very interesting for a production that had to overcome so many hurdles.

Continues with three actor interviews of Chris Hemsworth (approx. 4 min.), Josh Hutcherson (approx. 3:30 min.) and Connor Cruise (approx. 2 min.), which also only offer the usual promo phrases. A little better are the short B-Roll clips, which look at the set (approx. 11 min.), or in the boot camp (approx. 4 min.). The trailer and other program tips from the provider round out the additional offerings.

Conclusion: Red Dawn may be technically superior to the 1984 original. But the explosive remake's script is even plainer and more patriotic than John Milius' The Red Tide. If you can overlook the stereotypical character sketches and dialogue overflowing with pathos, you'll still get plenty of neatly staged action with appealing visuals that should entertain fans of bold US actionware.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp