DIRECTOR John Milius makes no bones about his silly politics in Red Dawn (Pearl, 9.30pm). The Soviets are a nasty bunch of marauding thugs who need any excuse to invade the American heartland, where for centuries people have been very happy thank you eating apple pie, following the World Series and bothering no one.
In Red Dawn the Commies land in the quiet town of Calument, Colorado. High school students, many of them still hung over from last night's crack party, look out of their window and see paratroopers dropping in on their football field.
The invaders are in fact a mixed bunch - Russians, Cubans and Nicaraguans. But that is not really important. They are all foreigners and deserve to get their butts kicked.
A group of students (led by Patrick Swayze and including Charlie Sheen and Lea Thompson) escape to the hills, where they form themselves into a guerilla group called the Wolverines and start a campaign of underground warfare against the enemy.
The premise, despite its naivety, is not all bad. Why then did Milius spoil Red Dawn with posturing and violence? Jennifer Grey also stars. She later teamed up with Swayze in the teen film Dirty Dancing.
THE Vietnam war drama Casualties Of War (World, 9.30pm) was based on a real incident detailed in a New Yorker article, subsequently published as a book.
The film focuses on one patrol, led by the psychotic Sean Penn, and its inhumane treatment of an innocent Vietnamese girl (a convincing performance from Thuy Thu Le).