“Red Dawn” (1984)
There’s just something about teenagers taking up arms in the face of a fascist empire (“The Hunger Games” anyone?) that makes for the stuff of great cinema. John Milius was definitely both ahead of and completely of his time with his 1984 film “Red Dawn,” which he wrote and directed. Instead of a dystopian future, “Red Dawn” takes place in a small, timeless Colorado town where a Communist air invasion occurs on the front lawn of the high school in the middle of class. Half the football team (including Charlie Sheen) and big bro Patrick Swayze take off for the hills in a pickup truck. After a few weeks, they venture back into town, find their father in an internment camp, and their nation divided into “Occupied America” (hmm, prescient? Or were those OWS organizers just versed in ’80s camp classics?) and “Free America.” A friendly couple provides them with information and supplies and asks them to take their granddaughters, played by Lea Thompson and Jennifer Grey (you could not get more classic ’80s if you tried). The band of teens decides to stage all out guerrilla warfare (with the help of a downed Air Force pilot) on those Commies, and the result is part “The Warriors,” part “Inglourious Basterds,” and all awesome. Of course, you can’t ignore the extreme politics of the film — it’s a Ted Nugent wet dream– but it was the very height of that Red Scare/end-of-the-Cold-War-moment in the mid ’80s, when every bad guy was Russian, and blindly upholding the values of the red, white, and blue was easy enough to embrace. Also, “Red Dawn” was the very first film released with the PG-13 rating, so “The Hunger Games” owes more than just delight in teen murder to this little-remembered gem. It’s worth sticking this on your queue if only to remember when Charlie Sheen was the coolest dude in Hollywood.
“Apocalypse Now” & Other Screenwriting Work
Milius hasn’t, to date, directed all that many movies, and some of them (“The Wind And The Lion,” “Farewell To The King“) we’d have a tough time recommending. But any look at his career would be remiss without examining what he’s arguably best at: screenwriting. After penning the exploitation-y “Dirty Dozen” knock-off “The Devil’s 8” and an Evel Knievel biopic that starred George Hamilton, Milius turned heads by writing (without credit) some of Clint Eastwood‘s tough-guy monologues (“Did he fire six shots or only five?”) in “Dirty Harry.” The following year, Milius was partly responsible for two rather underrated Westerns: John Huston‘s “The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean” and Sydney Pollack‘s “Jeremiah Johnson,” each of which showcase excellent performances from one-time Butch and Sundance Paul Newman and Robert Redford, respectively. Directing work took precedence for most of the next few years, although Milius did return to Harry Callahan, penning the sequel “Magnum Force” (with Michael Cimino), but inarguably his finest hour came with his script for Francis Ford Coppola‘s “Apocalypse Now.” Milius was hired for a Vietnam-based version of Joseph Conrad‘s “Heart of Darkness” (originally called “The Psychedelic Soldier” — thank god they changed it) for Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope way back in 1969, and over the next decade would rack up at least ten major drafts, at first with George Lucas attached to direct (intending to shoot it as early as 1971). It was only after Lucas was distracted with “American Graffiti” and “Star Wars” that Coppola decided to direct, revising the script himself in 1975. But while he shares credit, the script feels Milius through-and-through. Coppola had told him to “write every scene you want to go into that movie” and the epic, episodic script is full of enough great, rich scenes and moments to fill half-a-dozen movies. Milius would write other scripts — including story work on “1941,” the USS Indianapolis speech on “Jaws,” “Clear And Present Danger,” the unproduced “Sgt. Rock” and “Conan: Crown Of Iron” (the latter of which was nearly directed by the Wachowskis) and most recently, the HBO series “Rome” (one of his finest achievements) — but it’s “Apocalypse Now” that stands as his masterpiece.
— Rodrigo Perez, Katie Walsh, Oliver Lyttelton, Gabe Toro
