Red Dawn – the final episode of the Cold war

• Main Authors: Ivan Kovačević, Vladimir Ribić
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Belgrade 2016-02-01
• Series: Etnoantropološki Problemi
• Subjects: film; Red Dawn; Cold war; Soviet invasion; guerilla; the fall of communism
• Online Access: https://eap-iea.org/index.php/eap/article/view/84

In the period of renewal of the Cold war, after 1980, movies which abandon the idea of the dentate appear, and they represent the response to Soviet expansion taking place under the auspices of diminished military confrontation. Of course, the Hollywood reaction to the real expansion of communism was not at adequate response, but it is a part of the wider restructuring of American politics regarding the Soviet Union, which was evidenced by strengthening defenses through the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), forcible intervention in Grenada, helping anti-communist movements around the world etc. In opposition to part of the US political scene which shut down attempts to stop the spread of communism across the world, action through popular culture, especially film, created a new climate in which multifaceted pressures on the socialist block were prepared. The movie Red Dawn can be considered part of the reaction of US politics on the particularistic view of the dentate as a shield for military and political spread of the USSR in Africa and other parts of the world. This pressure played on the inherent weaknesses of Soviet society in the 1980’s, a society which, after a brief period of failed transformation fell apart at the start of the final decade of the 20th century.