"Red Dawn" and movies like it are paeans to violent manhood. I hang out on several newgroups frequented mainly by radio hobbyists, and some of the member (almost all men) of those groups tend to go off into gun-wielding fantasy murderous fugues from time to time. It seems to happen when some post or other reminds them of the many enemies of the (White) USA who, given a bit of luck, they could actually USE those guns on.

I use to sit there appalled as these men whose main actual hobby is sitting in their houses harmlessly listening to or emitting shortwave radio signals would suddenly turn into verbal Rambos. Then I realized that if they are also gun hobbyists they must be terribly frustrated. Unlike shortwave radios, which their owners can use for their intended purpose every day, gun owners can only so use their long guns in hunting season. And, as for their handguns and automatic and semi-automatic weapons, sadly the owners can never hope to use them for their intended purpose--killling people--as long as law and order subsists.

Earlier generations of gun owners were no doubt less frustrated. They could use their toys to kill Indians. The habit of gun-loving subsists as part of male American culture long after the original convenient targets have left the building. But all the male symbology and consequent male passion associated with the weapons lingers. Add to that, for the past 30 years, a perpetual rolling assault of crushing economic forces that said gun-owners can't hope to understand or effectively resist, and you get some very angry, very frustrated guys who desperately need the catharsis that movies like "Red Dawn" provide.