What can you learn from Red Dawn?
How fast can bad things happen on a mass scale? Personal home defense is one thing, but what do you do when everything around you is in chaos?This movie is about an American community who quickly finds itself overrun by outside forces. What starts out as an odd power outage turns into a full out attack. This movie helps give you an idea of how fast bad things can happen on a mass scale. (Realistically, a full-scale invasion and the power outage would have all taken place during the night. The community would have woken up to an already seized town.)
Who survived and how did they do it?
Many were captured and many were killed. The ones that remained free reacted quickly and did not hesitate. Teamwork and working as a community helped them stay alive and fight back. They were led by an individual who was an experienced Marine. He worked hard to keep everyone alive. *Warning: while this movie is an excellent motivator, the tactics used by the community are all Hollywood and flawed. Do not use them in your personal defense.*
Hard Choices
There were many times during the course of the movie that the main characters had to choose between giving up or watching someone they loved get killed. Family members were captured. Some decided it was easier to cooperate. Some gave away loved ones in hope of avoiding death. Others watched as those they loved were shot because they did not betray their family’s location. Decisions that they had never dreamed they would have had to make.
*Spoiler*Abandoning Your Friends
Another scenario in the movie is when one of the male characters sees his captive girlfriend during one of their planned guerilla attacks. It was a very risky procedure and highly important. He was a key part of the strategy with several members in his group were depending upon him with their lives. He was faced with completing the mission or saving his girlfriend. There was no time to choose both as he had spotted her in a moving bus full of other captives. The bus was driving away and he had no idea of knowing its destination or how to find her afterwards. He chose to go after his girlfriend and as a result, the mission was screwed up, his friends were endangered and one of them was killed. Not to mention he barely makes it back alive.
Was that a wise choice? First, you have to consider that although his girlfriend was captive, her life was not currently in jeopardy while the lives of his friends were. At that point, it is necessary to choose the lesser evil and do what you said you were going to do when people were depending on you. Especially when they were depending on you with their lives. Can you imagine the kind of dissension that was caused because of his actions?
What would you have done? Enter a comment below and share it with us.
