THere is nothing over-the-top about COIN operations being too macho in ‘Red Dawn’. The only criticism I have is that trained paratroopers would not start firing at a school for no reason. Even the Nazi didn’t do that in the Ukraine in WWII. What makes you think that Soviet troops in 1984 would behave any differently than SS troops in Russia during WWII?
That actually wasn’t what I was referring to. The main thing I remember was their “re-education camps” which struck me as first of all being more of a Chinese type of construct, and secondly, something which would only exist way down the line after the population had been pretty well stomped down by an overwhelming initial reign of violence and terror.