In 2008, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. desperately needed something familiar. The studio was fending off bankruptcy, so executives scoured the studio’s library of old movies to see what could be remade. Soon a contender emerged: “Red Dawn.”
The 1984 hit film starred Charlie Sheen and Patrick Swayze as teenage football players whose hometown is invaded by Communist forces from the Soviet Union. The high-school students grab hunting rifles and fashion homemade bombs. The Cold War had cast Soviets as the evil-empire threat to the U.S. Across the multiplex around the same time, Rocky boxed a Soviet fighter named Ivan Drago and John Rambo mowed down Communist soldiers. “Red Dawn” brought the Cold War battle close to home by placing it in the Colorado suburbs, where patriotic teenagers furiously fought back.
The premise of “Red Dawn” helped it connect with teenage audiences. MGM…
