Wolverines!!!

Wolverines!

The war cry made famous by the 1984 film “Red Dawn” is about to be heard again. Earlier this month, MGM announced that they planned on remaking the patriotic cult hit. They’ve already hired writer Carl Ellsworth and director Dan Bradley for the project.

Written by John Milius and Kevin Reynolds, the original plot was simple and centered on a group of high school students (Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, Lea Thompson, Jennifer Gray) that banded together in the mountains of Colorado to fight a communist block invasion led by Russia and Cuba.

The movie, with a budget of about 4 million and considered a mild hit, played upon the fears of Americans prevalent since the Soviet Union exploded its first Nuclear Weapon in the 1950s – a communist takeover.

The problem with the remake is now that the Cold War is over and Russia is our friend, who might invade the United States that will invoke the same reaction as “Red Dawn” did.

During the announcement, Ellsworth said, “The tone is going to be very intense, very much keeping in mind the post-9/11 world that we’re in. As “Red Dawn” scared the heck out of people in 1984, we feel that the world is kind of already filled with a lot of paranoia and unease, so why not scare the hell out of people again.”

In coming up with the original premise, Milius consulted government and military officials to develop a plausible scenario that required only a little public suspension of disbelief. If Ellsworth and Bradley consult the same sources, they’ll discover there is no one on the pointy end of the sword ready to parachute in and change American values.

So who will invade the United States?

Ellsworth statement seems to point to an Arab connection.

Hopefully he’s not suggesting Mid-East countries or worse, terrorists? Even set in a distant future, both would require a suspension of disbelief so large that elementary students would have problems believing.

It would also be irresponsible.

American’s have enough Arab prejudices and fears without adding another, especially an implausible one. Arabs are too fractured to be of any real threat. If Ellsworth does any kind of research he will discover they don’t even have the means to get here. Besides, if they really wanted to mess with us, all they would have to do is cut off our oil supply.

China?

China would have problems taking and holding Taiwan, let alone part of the United States, but at least it’s more plausible and in the future doable.

However, there is one scenario that if written properly, Ellsworth could strike fear into the hearts of men and elementary students alike and would be in keeping with his statement – a war in which America invades itself.

With the Patriot Act and the United States security forces now falling under one entity – The Department of Homeland Security – it would not have to be a stretch for a series of terrorist related attacks to lead to martial law.

Getting a taste of ultimate power and we know that ultimate power corrupts absolutely; it might lead to a small group of individuals banding together to fight the powers of corruption.

Hopefully, Ellsworth, the man who wrote Disturbia and is in the process of adapting “Y: The Last Man” for the big screen and Dan Bradley, who has worked on “Spiderman 2,” “Spiderman 3,” “The Bourne Ultimatum” and the upcoming “James Bond” film “Quantum of Solace” can take a movie that was once reviled as being the most violent film ever and not trash it’s memory, but instead, leave us with a more potent and timely one.