By: debbie lynn elias
In 1984, the movie world was rocked by John Milius’ RED DAWN. Politically set in the Cold War era, WWIII had begun with Soviets invading the United States – and by Soviets, I mean from Cuba, the USSR and Nicaragua. In a small Colorado town, a group of teenagers calling themselves the Wolverines banded together to take a stand and save their homeland. Not a box office explosion at the time of its release, since then, the film has developed a cult following and become beloved not only for the strength of character and confidence it gave to teens in a world gone mad, but served as an early vehicle that helped catapult the careers of Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson and C. Thomas Howell.
Fast forward some 28 years and RED DAWN returns. Written by Carl Ellsworth and Jeremy Passmore, and directed by stunt coordinator/2nd unit director, Dan Bradley who marks this as his feature debut, the basic elements of the original film remain intact but with a 21st Century twist. The Cold War is over, but we face new threats. For the first time in history, 9/11 marks an attack on American soil by a foreign enemy; nuclear capabilities have spread; and, the geopolitical climate has shifted with new enemies, strong enemies and America is still in the midst of its longest war in history. Calling on the youthful talents of Josh Peck, Isabel Lucas, Josh Hutcherson, Connor Cruise, Adrianne Palicki and Chris Hemsworth, together with veterans Brett Cullen and Jeffrey Dean Morgan, RED DAWN hits theatres ready to take on a new audience.
During Los Angeles press for the film, Josh Peck and Adrianne Palicki, who play Wolverines Matt and Toni, talked about the making of RED DAWN, its precious history and its place in the world today.
When asked about the appeal of the film, Palicki describes it film quite simply. “There are explosions. There’s this group of kids. They’re trying to take back America.” For Peck, these are “[T]he kind of movies that would resonate for me when I was young – insane circumstances that would never happen to me – [but] now but I imagine what would I do in the situation.” Of course, on a personal level, Peck is beyond gleeful about being asked to participate in the project. “I wish 12 year old Josh could have seen this Josh. I don’t think he would have believed. It’s pretty great. Just being able to do what I love everyday and being part of this small percentage of actors to do this job, it’s a great gift. And then in the respect of something as cool as this, boyhood fantasy come true, it’s pretty awesome.”
Prior to being cast, neither Palicki nor Peck had seen the original RED DAWN. According to Palicki, “Of course I knew a lot about it, especially from my guy friends who, when I told them I was doing the movie were upset, but happy, and like ‘Don’t **** it up!’ I decided to watch it after I booked the role. I wanted to know what to expect and actually see what everybody is so crazy about. I saw why. I think the movie that we did is not so much a remake as it is a reboot. There’s a lot of elements from the first one but there’s definitely our own twist on it. Dan Bradley did his own twist on it. New cast. New bad guy. Good special effects.” Peck waited until after shooting before seeing the original. “It was just one of those things where I met with Dan [Bradley] and I read the script and I knew I was immediately intrigued. Just by chance that I hadn’t already seen it, I knew there was going to be elements that I loved about it and I think it’s hard to avoid some sort of mimicry or trying to imitate certain things that you love, so I didn’t see it until we were done. But I watched it the night we were finished and I really understood why people loved it so much.”
Understandably, much of the fan base of the original RED DAWN, have already expressed concerns about the film being rebooted. Peck candidly notes that, “Fans of the original RED DAWN are weirdly protective of the film. As soon as it came up in any sort of conversation, they’d be like ‘Chill out on my movie, bro! Be careful. This movie means a lot to me, friend.’ So I knew this was not to be taken lightly.” But Peck is confident this reboot will satisfy even the most diehard of fans. “Knowing the components and the people involved between the cast and our director, Dan, I knew that it was all people that would proper homage to the original and really cared about making a film that not only gave tribute to the original but also utilized the new opportunities we’re afforded with 25+ years of new technology, new techniques in capturing action and whatnot. I felt like we were a cause for good.”
Part of that good means a lot of action, which is what makes Dan Bradley the perfect director for Palicki. “One of the prerequisites of being in this film – one of the questions I was asked – was, ‘Are you willing to do your own stunts?’ It’s partly what makes [Dan] such a brilliant action director. He prefers to use the actors in a stunt so you can actually see their face when it’s happening. It really doesn’t take you out of the film. I think that he’s brilliant at what he does and making it so safe for us; knowing that we were in great hands with the action stuff and then he turned to us and said, ‘I’m gonna turn to you guys for the acting stuff because that’s not necessarily my speciality yet’, so it was this really great collaboration.
But preparing for the action meant Army boot camp under the direction of former Marine and military training advisor on the film, Jon Barton. Being one of only several girls taking names and kicking ass, Palicki found participating in boot camp with the guys to be “really cool because a lot of us didn’t know each other before this and we all kind of show up at 6:00 o’clock in the morning in the middle of nowhere in the Valley at this boot camp, not knowing what to expect. We all had the exact same experience. We all had to start from scratch. We pretty much became the Wolverines. This tactical training is how we really came to know each other and become friends. It really worked because that’s exactly what happened with the Wolverines.” Mastering her training well, Palicki is quick to boast “I can totally kick the shit out of Josh [Peck].” And of course, while Palicki has had a lot more training since RED DAWN, in preparation for her role as Lady Jaye in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
Boot camp did, however, provide some lighter moments, especially when it came to MREs (Meals Ready to Eat). Still served today to the military in the field, Peck recalled MRE’s as “not the tastiest. Then poor Isabel, Isabel Lucas, she was a vegetarian so she was eating vegetarian MRE’s which is a whole other level of taste bud assassination. It was pretty intense.” Grimacing at the memory, “I think the first initiation was, there’s like a packet of coffee grounds, instant coffee and creamer, and we all had to rip off the top and down that shit. Like, ‘We’re tough. We’re having instant coffee. No water.’ That was our first initiation.”
With weapons handling being part and parcel of boot camp training and an integral part of the film’s action, both Peck and Palicki have attained proficiencies in different areas. As Palicki describes it, “I got to shoot a 50 cal off a humvee that was moving at 60 mph and it was maybe one of the greatest moments of my life” while Peck was “shooting that AK-47” and displaying admirable knife work. Sadly, he “didn’t get to kill anyone with a knife but that would have been pretty cool, too.” But even with all the training and acquired skills, all of the cast came away with battle scars. Palicki still “[has] scars still on my hands. Poor Julian [Alcarez], his entire back was bleeding through his shirt. It really did put the fear of God in you. They weren’t actual bullets, thank God, but it gave you some sense of that fear what it would be like if someone was actually shooting at you.”
Setting RED DAWN apart from many popcorn action flicks is the character development. Standout according to Palicki was the “awesome” collaboration with the producers, the writers and the actors. “One thing they really wanted to have in the storyline was this relationship between Jed [Chris Hemsworth] and Toni [Palicki], which is very difficult in a movie like this because it’s an action movie. It’s not the point of the movie but at the same time it’s important to humanize these characters because in an action film, it’s so much more disheartening to see somebody you love get hurt. We had to really walk – Chris [Hemsworth] and I – a thin line of, ‘Okay, that look’s gonna happen there. That look’s gonna happen there.’, just to try to develop something between the two of us so that it wasn’t over the top but it was there. So at the end of the movie when that [spoiler alert] happened, it makes sense.”
For Peck, establishing a sibling relationship with Hemsworth and father-son dynamic with Brett Cullen was critical to his character of Matt. “Brett’s one of those brilliant journeyman actors who’s been working for 30+ years and has sort of perfected exactly what it is he does. So when you have an actor that’s generous like that, it’s sort of like you know that you’re being met there and you’re just in it together. That’s always a gift that you’re afforded in that opportunity. Same thing with Chris [Hemsworth]. Chris and I were behind that log and we’re watching this happen and we were just ‘in it.’ We gave over to that moment, how uncomfortable it could be and inevitably was. With scenes like that, I think any of us, the idea of someone that close to us being put in a position of immense violence immediately brings up so many emotions for us. … I was lucky to be surrounded by great actors who helped me to be better.”
So, at the end of the day, after boot camp, filming and a seemingly interminable wait leading up to this release, one has to ask, given today’s geopolitical climate, when an actor does a film like this or reads a script like this, does it give pause for reflection in one’s own life and where we’re going? Thoughtful on the subject, Palicki opines, “There are definitely political aspects of the film – being invaded, having your country re-governed and somebody telling you, ‘This is what you’re gonna do now because we think it’s best.’ There’s always the fear to of somebody invading and now we’re living in a world where the possibility, after 9/11, of actually having people come on our soil and do that to us. There’s that palpable fear. When you watch these soldiers invade [in RED DAWN], it’s really scary – even now, watching it for the 7th time, I still get chills because that’s a possibility. Similarly, Peck believes that “with a movie like this, it does walk a very fine line. You want to satisfy both sort of impulses in which one is to root it in reality so that it has real stakes and sort of can appeal to this inherent fear that I think everyone has, ‘What if your family or your family system was threatened by something so beyond your control.’ But then there’s such a fantasy element to it. . .I hope on one level the movie is just pure escapism and it’s just a great action film where you can get immersed in this world. And in other ways, if it resonates with what’s going on today.” But as Adrianne Palicki summarizes, “It reminds you that people are actually going through this in other places.”
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