Yes, the Detroit area is a place where one can buy t-shirts that read ‘Welcome to Detroit, now go home” and “Detroit — where the weak are killed and eaten.” Since Michigan is the new darling of the film industry, there’s always a movie being filmed in Detroit, especially downtown in the Financial District, where I work. Outside of the Michigan tax incentives, the buildings, streets, and architecture in this area of downtown are unique and fabulous and Art Deco, so it’s a huge draw for filmmakers. They are currently filming the remake of Red Dawn down here, and in fact, this week they are setting up/filming inside the historic Dime Building where I work. It’s pretty cool because we watch the special effects/explosions from the windows and can hang around near the film set during the day.
I thought the original Red Dawn was terrific. It was an anti-state movie that Murray Rothbard loved, so watching the filming of the remake is neat. I haven’t heard much chatter about the storyline, but I assume it will draw heavily on the post September 11, 2001 pro-state, anti-terrorism hysteria, so it could end up being a really bad movie. Looking out the window, I can see the parking structure across the street that is being transformed into a Chinese police station, and it looks very ominous and commie. So perhaps evil China will be taking over America? As Murray discusses in his review, the theme of the original movie was not what he expected.
I went to see Red Dawn expecting a bout of anti-Soviet warmongering, but instead was pleasantly surprised. This is hardly a great picture, and is indeed flawed. But Red Dawn is an enjoyable teen-age saga, and, apart from right-wingy pro-NATO credits at the beginning of the film, it is not so much pro-war as it is anti-State.
What I find to be so predictable is how the film crews are embraced — oh sure, we love having them here, but then again, so do the criminals. A film crew worker was welcomed to Detroit by having her car trashed, and her tools of the trade were stolen. This was in broad daylight, in the midst of all the film crew bustle. A co-worker, whose husband is a Detroit cop, just told me that when they were filming Little Murder here a few weeks ago, two guys with shotguns robbed some members of that film crew. After all, this is a city with a reputation to uphold!
