Red Dawn’s Motives
The propaganda piece I chose is John Milius’ 1984 film, “Red Dawn”. This fictional film is about a hypothetical invasion of the United States by Russian and Cuban soldiers. While the events that take place in this film are not completely impossible, the chances of them actually happening are slim to none. This film was used to incite fear of Russians, Cubans, and anything or anyone who was affiliated with communism in right-wing conspiracy theorists.
The creators of this piece obviously had a biased view and agenda when making the film. This becomes apparent in a variety of ways. One of these ways is how the invading soldiers are portrayed. We definitely see the invading Russian and Cuban soldiers being cast as unprovoked villains. There is also a part of the film where captured American civilians have been put into a detention camp inside a drive in movie theater where they are shown a propaganda piece themselves in an effort to convert them.
It is obvious that the director had hoped to stoke the tensions and fears of individuals who were already scared due to the Cold War era, and prey upon this with every opportunity in this unrealistic and purely fictional film. I feel that they probably succeeded with their targeted demographic, but flopped with others.