A Wolverine is dead. Long live teh Wolverines.
You just knew that once Patrick Swayze (R.I.P) passed away, it wouldn’t take long for the geniuses at NewsBusters to start waxing nostalgic for one of his very worst roles:
WaPo Patrick Swayze Obit Gets to His Drag-Queen Movie Before ‘Red Dawn’
By Tim Graham (Bio | Archive)
September 15, 2009 – 08:35 ETHere’s a sign the Washington Post is a liberal newspaper: today’s Adam Bernstein obituary for Patrick Swayze begins obviously by noting his big hits “Ghost” and “Dirty Dancing,” but doesn’t get to “Red Dawn” until paragraph 23. Even then, Bernstein wrongly suggests he had a supporting role:
Mr. Swayze remained a busy supporting actor on television and in film during the next several years, appearing mostly in tough roles in films such as “The Outsiders” (1983), “Uncommon Valor” (1983) and “Red Dawn” (1984).
“Road House”, “Next of Kin”, and “Point Break” appeared in paragraph 12. The next paragraph even brought up the drag-queen turn:
Most of the action films met with critical disappointment. So did his attempts for a more daring career, from the drag queen Vida Boheme he played in “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” (1995) to the suicidally forlorn American doctor who finds redemption in Calcutta in “City of Joy” (1992).
“Red Dawn” was not a prestigious film, but it was a breakout lead role for Swayze, and a completely shocking product coming out of a Hollywood: a movie about American teens fighting a resistance against a Soviet invasion of the United States.
There are clearly no fortysomething Reaganites working in the Washington Post newsroom.
I have seen “Red Dawn.” It is a sucky film that is only appealing to sucky film-watchers. The acting is overwrought, the action sequences are choppy and the plot — in which the Soviet Union wastes countless tanks and helicopters trying to occupy a worthless town in the middle of nowhere — could very well be the dumbest idea to ever crawl out from the wingnut lizard brain. The greatest disservice that you could do for Patrick Swayze’s legacy would be to associate him with this film — it’d be like memorializing Tom Hanks by wistfully discussing the prominent role he played in “Bachelor Party.”
I was deeply disappointed that no one in the media noted Swayze’s love of model trains. The Swayze Train was made with genuine parts, unlike Sebastian Bach’s cheater train.
I love NewsBusters. Wingnuts freak out over the funniest things.
BTW, we haven’t had a posted episode of NewsBusted in a while…
“Red Dawn” was not a prestigious film, but it was a breakout lead role for Swayze
So suddenly an ensemble cast has a “lead role”?
BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!
The Swayze Train was made with genuine parts
it was so good that Ozzy Osbourne wrote a song about it (altho Swayze later threatened to tear his arms off so he changed hte name to “Crazy Train”)
Hey, I like “Bachelor Party” a helluva lot more than most of Hank’s movies. But then I’m an idiot so there’s that.
Oh, and Tim?
There are clearly no fortysomething Reaganites working in the Washington Post newsroom.
LOL. That’s because they’re all in editorial.
cf, episode 54.
If you don’t know Trailer Park Boys, Netflix or bit-torrent that shit pronto. Funniest show on television, and they wouldn’t sellout and produce it in America because then they couldn’t curse so proficiently.
There are clearly no fortysomething Reaganites working in the Washington Post newsroom.
Maybe because, you know, 40-something Reaganites are fucking too stupid to work for a newspaper, having been raised under the Reagan Department of Education and all that?
Nicely played, Tintin. But don’t you sometimes feel bad when they make it so easy? No. Nor should you.
Tom Hanks will always be remembered for “Turner & Hooch.”
Nicely played, Tintin. But don’t you sometimes feel bad when they make it so easy? No. Nor should you.
This was Brad. There’s no wig or toilet. But I do often find their styles similar.
Red Dawn is being remade. It is filming in Pontiac and Mt. Clemens, MI.
See today’s Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20090915/METRO03/909150332/1034/ENT/Mount-Clemens-gets-its-close-up
Nothing causes more wingnut fapping than RED DAWN. Nothing. Not even tax cuts or the Clenis.
“Red Dawn” was not a prestigious film, but it was a breakout lead role for Swayze, and a completely shocking product coming out of a Hollywood: a movie about American teens fighting a resistance against a Soviet invasion of the United States.
What bothers me about this statement?
Hm. John Milius…where have I seen that name before?
Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, Apocalypse Now, Conan the Barbarian were all written wholly or in large part by John Milius.
Errrrrrrrrrrr, what was this jackass’s point again?
Speaking of LEAFS SUCK,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youngblood_(1986_film)
This guy is just pissed because he didn’t get to do that Chippendale’s audition with Swayze.
Even then, Bernstein wrongly suggests he had a supporting role
I think I see his problem now. For wingnuts, EVERYONE in “Red Dawn” was the star. At least, on the American side.
a completely shocking product coming out of a Hollywood: a movie about American teens fighting a resistance against a Soviet invasion of the United States.
Um….Sadly, no. so very shocking no one noticed it.
Opening weekend: $8,230,381 (USA) (12 August 1984) (1,822 Screens)
Top grossing films for 1984
“Romancing the Stone” grossed $75,078,260 – close to 10 times Red Dawn’s opening gross.
So the conservative blather is all about his movie roles.
If only there was something going on right now in politics that could be linked to his cause of death, his unfortunate passing…but I guess not. Movie roles it is, then.
Wolverine Productions Delaware LLC, like many other movie makers that have recently shot films in Michigan, is taking advantage of the state’s film tax incentive, according to the Michigan Film Office. The program gives producers 40 cents back for every $1 spent on filming and an addition 2-percent rebate if the movie is shot in certain communities, including Mount Clemens.
ah, so government subsidized film-making.
I can’t believe Brad neglected to link to his classic AlterNet piece, “What a Cheesy 1980s Teen-Flick Can Teach Us About the Bush Doctrine.”
g,
Actually, it did very well, considering it was intended to go straight to video.
Oh, yeah, and it’s done well enough since. I was just responding to the quote “a completely shocking product.”
I think he meant the whole “conservative film” genre.
Considering Milius’ credits which have some archetypal Reagan-era films in it, you’d think he’d make a less stoopid statement.
I’d never thought of as a post-apocalypse wonderland for movie-makers, but there you go.
“of the Detroit area”. Robocop was a prescient thing.
WOLVEREEEEEEEEEEENS!
Damn. Beat me to it.
Ah, the wonders of the Free Market.
Ah, wingnuts and their love/hate relationship with the silver screen. I finally saw “300” this weekend on cable, and figured out why the wingnuts love it so. It provides a perfect vehicle to allow them to “experience” physical privation and testing, living by a warrior code, sacrificing everything for a noble cause, all without ever having to leverage their lard butts and man boobs out of their La-Z-Boys. For them, watching “300” is almost as good as enlisting and shipping out to Iraq. Then there’s the obvious homoeroticism. “Red Dawn” is the same deal. It allows them to think “Gee, I could have enlisted and stared down the Russkies back in the 80s, but somebody needed to organize the ‘affirmative action bake sale’ for my college’s chapter of the Young Republicans.” RIP, Patrick. Your toughness in battling your cancer should shame them, but won’t.
I rate for Road House.
“It’s my way or the highway.”
“Pain don’t hurt.”
“You’re too stupid to have good time.“
Robocop was a prescient thing.
Also in remake mode
I wonder if Peter Weller will put his ancient Greeks down long enough to do a cameo?
My dad felt Red Dawn was practically a documentary. “Realistic as hell”, raved my dad as we walked out of the theater in 1985. Also watched with my dad: WarGames and Firefox. And the Ken Burns Civil War documentary. My dad’s definitely a wingnut but not a loony one. I think he just likes war stuff.
And Dr Strangelove is one of his all time favorite movies. Go figure.
Why does it seem like every movie conservatives love can be described by a second grader making up a story?
“And then, know what? He-Man come running in and pulls out his sword. And then know what? He shouts “By the power of Greyskull,” and know what? He kills every Commie in the world except for the good ones, but then they get eaten by aliens. And then, know what?…”
Cmpletely shocking! The early-mid eighties were a time when portraying commie soviets as bad guys just was not done. And the idea od a Soviet invasion of America that has to be fought off by a small group of seriously out-numbered and out-gunned loyal Americans? Totally original.
I just happened to watch To Wong Fu the other day with my daughters, and he was really good in it. I had forgotten what a great drag queen he played. Sensitive and feminine. That’s what I call acting.
Red Dawn? Meh.
To be perfectly fair, it’s halfway between that and remembering him for Mazes and Monsters. The former has the populist appeal to youthful vigor, while the latter has the vapid and illogical fearmongering.
Red Dawn is epic in its imbecility. The Soviets supposedly transport an elite airborne unit thousands of miles into the interior of America — to launch a surprise attack to occupy a high school in Colorado. Fuck securing ports, airports, missile bases. They wanted that fucking high school in the middle of Bumfuck, Colorado.
@Loneoak:
Trailer Park Boys for the Win.
Alex, it was a cockpunch to America, it was.
Also watched with my dad: WarGames and Firefox
I watch Firefox but it never does anything interesting other than crash when I’m downloading a large file.
“it’d be like memorializing Tom Hanks by wistfully discussing the prominent role he played in “Bachelor Party.”
Let’s not go bad mouthing “Bachelor Party”. That movie has one of the great sport scenes in history (Hanks playing tennis against his future in-laws).
Bachelor Party and Red Dawn grossed about the same. I am surprised.
And the Overton Window keeps rolling along.
Milius was the inspiration for the character of Walter Sobchak in The Big Lebowski.
Tom Hanks will always be remembered for “Turner & Hooch.”
What? No love for “Bosom Buddies”?
What? No love for “Bosom Buddies”?
The Jeri Ryan discussion is several threads to your left.
When Tom Hanks is taken from us, I think Joe Vs. The Volcanoe will rank as his Magnum Opus
Conan the Barbarian were all written wholly or in large part by John Milius.
And upon hearing those cursed words from those foul, curving lips, the mighty Cimmerian ripped the forearm from the mewling cur, and employing the limb as a club, beat the cringing cur to death.
Oops. I overcurred.
I assume the WaPo mentioned Grandview, U.S.A. in the lead paragraph.
Interesting that Wong Foo bothered the old boy so much. Something you want to share with us, Tim?
And the Overton Window keeps rolling along.
If God had intended the metaphors to mix, he would not have hidden all the goalposts in a haystack.
And the Overton Window keeps rolling along.
Fucking Pelican Institutes.
Bachelor Party and Red Dawn grossed about the same.
Bachelor Party had a donkey, so depending on your tolerance for bestiality, the gross was maybe a bit more.
Myself, I have a very low tolerance for mindless jingoism and pointless death, so Red Dawn is a total hurl.
Great minds think alike.
I concur with LittlePig.
Q: What is the unit of currency among cringing curs?
A: The thew.
1 Gold thew = 10 SIlver thews.
1 SIlver thew = 10 bronzed thews.
But didn’t Road House pretty much have all the testosterone any full fledged man would need? I mean, Swayze even cries in Red Dawn. What a whimpy film.
Comment on 9/12 from someone who works in DC
And upon hearing those cursed words from those foul, curving lips, the mighty Cimmerian ripped the forearm from the mewling cur, and employing the limb as a club, beat the cringing cur to death.
Screenplay by John Milius.
Your estate should have chosen your agent more wisely.
I’m surprised that NewsBusters brings up “Red Dawn” because it could very easily be transposed onto george bush’s Iraq war. America is now the USSR and the Iraqi insurgents are the heroic resistance.
but doesn’t get to “Red Dawn” until paragraph 23.
I imagine that it will be in the first paragraph of C. Thomas Howell’s obit.
I can only thank Jah that I was already a mature adult (well, you know …) in the ’80s, & little or none of the pop ephemera of the time had any impact on me, unlike people who were in the grasp of puberty/adolescence at the time.
He was in a car with all protesters and when the train stopped and the lights briefly went out (a not uncommon occurrence), people on the train actually started shouting that it was an Obama conspiracy. The President had stopped the train so that they could not make it to the Capitol to fight for “their” America.
Well, that may be the way to counteract them. Just allow them to experience everyday occurances of normal urban life, and they’ll slink back to their gated lairs to cower behind their security systems.
Perhaps have a panhandler and maybe some street construction going on, and they’ll quiver in their boots.
Perhaps have a panhandler and maybe some street construction going on, and they’ll quiver in their boots.
The scent of stale urine! This is great! This would be like shark repellent!
And if we bought a cropduster and kept spraying across the country, I bet we could corrall them in Alaska or someplace like that!
The scent of stale urine!
Please, use the correct term: Eau de Bronx.
Stale urine wouldn’t bother those bottom feeders.
I dunno, Lesley. It makes me gag every so often and I’m native.
Why does a picture of Hugo Chavez accompany this post?
I have seen “Red Dawn.” It is a sucky film that is only appealing to sucky film-watchers.
That doesn’t begin to describe its reeking awfulness. I had to sit through the fucking thing because it came out during the 15 minutes of my life I was a movie reviewer. The experience made me realize why some critics get so cranky over bad movies. It wasn’t a script so much as a collection of bumper stickers. (There’s a scene of a wingnut’s gun literally being pried from his cold, dead fingers.)
Hey, I thought Conan the Barbarian was a very fun film.
It’s not a very good adaptation of the source material, but there’s plenty of good films that are bad adaptations (most film versions of Dracula and Frankenstein, the 1935 version of The Black Cat, Kubrick’s version of The Shining).
Hey, I thought Conan the Barbarian was a very fun film.
It’s not a very good adaptation of the source material, but there’s plenty of good films that are bad adaptations
You go to the movies with the barbarian film you have, not the barbarian film you wish you had.
CROM! Milius is a Stygian dog.
5.8/10 14,651 votes
Down 14% in popularity this week.
Epic. Masterpiece.
Also amusing. Red Dawn gets its highest (yet still mediocre) marks from males under 18, and females over 45.
Somehow I don’t think the women over 45 are voting based on their hatred of communism.
Nobody puts Swayze in the coroner’s.
What, too soon?
Wait — there are other Hollywoods?
Aside from Bollywood, that is (also, did that change to “Mollywood” or something? I would also include Dollywood, but that’s actually a theme park and not a metonym for a whole bunch of movie studios).
Anyway, I liked Red Dawn, because I was about the right age for it when I saw it on TV. It’s like that bit in A Christmas Story where the kid is fantasizing about gunning down fleeing burglars with his BB gun, but lasting two hours.
WaPo Patrick Swayze Obit Gets to His Drag-Queen Movie Before ‘Red Dawn’
Yeesh, the poor guy’s not even cold yet. Why humiliate him needlessly?
I resent the suggestion that we are worse than Hitler. I’ll have you know that no ape has ever killed more than five other apes.
Six, tops.
I’m assuming you lot still use the term “ape” to mean “non-human ape”, which I won’t even go into.
On the other hand, Harry Dean Stanton’s in it, so it has that going for it.
Growing up in Texas, in a HARDCORE rural wingnut, Christian household, I have to admit a bit of nostalgia for ‘Red Dawn’. Honestly though, I was ten at the time, so make what you will out of that. That movie was remembered as awesome, but on subsequent viewings later in life it sadly failed the test of time.
It might be more appropriate, in the wingnut ten-year-old-brain type context, to say “let’s honor Liam Neeson by prominently touting ‘Krull’. Another movie which seemed pretty ‘kewl’ at the time.
But, in the context of those times, that place, that “etcetera”, it was escapist fantasy. Fertile ground for a mind looking to rebel from the oppression and still did not know just where the oppression was coming from. Therefore, it translates well as a passion-play for the conservative base, as it perfectly caters to the GOP persecution complex and fear of the ever present, and usually brown, “other”.
Actual, Doctorb said it better, and a lot more simply, than I ever could:
And there is the core of it in a nutshell. The unspoken fantasy of every wingnut male, and probably more than a few of the females, that all the snooty liberals in power are going to get their “come-uppance” in the form of the big scary bad guys du jour, (Communists, terrorists, Nazis, Satanists, or any combination thereof) gunning them down in the middle of their misguided latte-sipping, hippy ways. (Point-in-case, the black teacher goes out to “negotiate” with the Communists and gets gunned down in cold blood! )
Meanwhile, the salt-of-the-earth rural boys (that no one expects) hunt, fish, and use guns, fighting back and surviving in ways the commies never anticipated!!!
-Cue Dramatic Trailer music here.-
Therefore, in conclusion, Red Dawn is to wingnuts what Citizen Kane is to Movie buffs. Or, more appropriately, what Mien Kampf is to Nazis.
Yeah, take that Godwin.
Milius also did the screenplay for Clear and Present Danger. He does like his militaristic fantasies. It must have hurt a bit to reprise the Iran-Contra corruption, though. I respect Clancy for not shying away from honestly depicting Republican excesses. Although, I have to wonder if it’s more a case of his being like one of my friends who loves A Few Good Men because he thought Col. Jessep’s speech about “you can’t handle the truth” was admirable and true.
Conan was fun! And I was 18 in 1985, so Red Dawn hit me right when I was really into wargaming and role-playing; I could totally identify with that kind of hypothetical scenario. This was also during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan so it also struck that parallel, of the heroic, outgunned Mujahedeen fighting against the invader. The same Mujahedeen who are now the Taliban…sigh.
Growing up sucks. You learn the truth. Ignorance is bliss, maybe that’s why it’s so hard to get people to give up their ignorance and face the truth.
When I was 14, I thought Red Dawn was Teh Awesome. But not because I thought it was some sort of conservative manesto. I didn’t learn that until last year. I liked it because it featured some dudes kicking some ass. Bad acting? Implausible plot? Who cares! It’s the same reason I liked Rambo when I was 14. In constrast, I watched part of it a few years ago. It really did suck. I mean it’s no Chuck Norris level of suckitude, but it’s definitely close.
This movie is still awesome. It’s amazing that anyone thought that the Cubans and Nicaraguans would invade through Mexico (and win!).
The movie is an unintentional but brilliant self-parody and it only gets better with time. They need to make more of these red-meat wingnut fantasies.