Sins of Fathers

It is difficult for non-American to understand a film like Red Dawn. Usually the ridiculous premise is explained away by calling it an expression of Cold War paranoia. It is curious though since it is the imperial power contemplating itself being conquered. The psychology here is most interesting. The only way they can reference the emotion and narrative of this fantasy is by borrowing from their enemies. This complete role reversal helps to explain and suppress the guilt of being the oppressor. Instead of being the oppressor, they inhabit a fantasy wherein they are the victims. It is just too hard to face it if the fantasy is the exactly replica of reality. So, it employed a fantasy that is the inverse of reality instead. The most telling thing in Red Dawn is that the Cuban commander thinks that he is there to help Americans, reciting lines like a good American military man would in other movies. When the US was exercising police power and interfering with everybody, the horror of this action on others returns to visit like a ghost in a mirror. And in so doing, the horror in reality is perversely justified not only as necessary but also just. It is no accident then, tomorrow, decades after the Vietnam War ended and no US military personnel is being held as POW, John McCain’s experience in the “Hanoi Hilton” is shown as a mini series for TV. Why, after all these years, someone would deem this a good time to do so? Well, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay come to mind. Horror returns in fantasy form to give unspoken justifications to horror being committed. It is a twisted thing, a boomerang of logic, but it is how fantasy works, what the imperial powers usually do to try to quiet that unpleasant little voice in the back of their psyche.