New Red Dawn Redux

The enemy takes over our McDonalds. 

"This Thanksgiving, the Fight begins at Dawn." 

Humm. The just released poster for the 2012 remake of Red Dawn, according to Yahoo Movies, highlights their new tagline. It was followed yesterday by a new trailer, see below.

Recently, an unnamed individual (Anonymous) left the following new comment on my post "Red Dawn":
"The original trailer, on the laserdisc release, includes a scene with a tank rolling up to a McDonald's where enemy soldiers are eating. The scene does not appear in the final cut, and was likely removed due to a mass murder at a McDonald's in San Ysidro, CA, weeks before the film opened."

Red Dawn, production photo, 1984.

(I wanted to post about the dates mentioned to fact-check the above comment for my readers. This movie is being noted more and more, every day, as in this weekend's "The Soldier of the Apocalypse" posting.)

The San Ysidro McDonald's event was a mass shooting that took place on July 18, 1984, at a McDonald's restaurant in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California. James Oliver Huberty (born October 11, 1942, Canton, Ohio) shot and killed 21 people (including five children) and injured 19 others.

First of all, for those who weren't alive then, the images above and below give you some idea of the Columbine-like wall-to-wall nature of the coverage. (The media seized this reality form of broadcasting in 1963, when the television networks were made aware they could increase ratings as they covered the JFK assassination for four straight days in November.)

How specific were the graphic images that were published at the time? One lasting picture was the following one. It showed Omarr Hernandez lying next to his bicycle on July 18, 1984. The photo would become a symbol of the "devastating McDonald’s massacre in 1984." The 11-year old boy was among the victims killed by the shooter. Photograph was captured by Barry Fitzsimmons.

Speaking of impact, for example, Andrew Griffin discussing a recent Tulsa killing of two, wrote on his Red Dirt Report: “This Best Buy shooting brought to mind the infamous San Ysidro, California McDonald’s massacre on Wednesday, July 18, 1984. It was days before the start of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and my eyes were glued to the tube that summer. When I saw that story, as a (nearly) 12-year old, I was shocked. The photo of 11-year-old Omar Hernandez, shot dead near his bicycle, seared into my brain. Twenty-two people died and 19 were injured. The politically paranoid survivalist James Huberty, who was also killed, was the perpetrator of that massacre. He had told his wife he was 'hunting humans' and that 'society had its chance.'

This is a real boy. This is a real victim. His family and friends were forever changed by the event. Did the incident slip into the unconsciousness of America, without the obvious hurt associated with the killings, reframing the country, in terms of the copycats that followed after this shooting? More talk of the aftermath, of the hurt, of the survivors, versus the main attention being to the types of guns (as if there would be any change in American policy in that realm), the shooter's motives (as if there would be any understanding from those), or the graphic details of who was killed and how (as if this would stop people from eating out), might have helped.

Looking at exposing the unconscious - the behavior contagion choice option of these shooters - and forcing it out into the open, out into the consciousness of the broader society, perhaps would do more than has been explored. Doing a mediated, analytic reframing actually does change the way such material is taken in by our brains. Talking about murder-suicides on this deeper level does not cause future murder-suicides, but graphically making them entertainment appears to create copycats.

Red Dawn, production photo, 1984.

Certainly, this event did change the movie Red Dawn that would be seen in 1984. It appears the filmmakers did make a correct decision in changing the film, at least regarding the McDonald's "trigger" imagery.

Red Dawn (1984) was released on August 10, 1984.

San Ysidro, California, shooting site, 1984.

Red Dawn, deleted scene, 1984.

The site Fast Forward has this information:

The original theater trailer on the DVD shows a scene with a tank rolling up to a McDonald's restaurant where enemy soldiers are eating. This scene does not appear in the final cut. Some have suggested that this may have been removed due to a mass murder at a San Ysidro, CA McDonald's just weeks prior to the films opening.
There were 21 people massacred at that McDonald's on July 19, 1984, which was at the time located at 460 W San Ysidro Boulevard. It has since moved moved down the street. A campus of Southwestern College is there now with a memorial plaque.
Contributed by: Mountain Mike

"Mountain Mike" got the exact date wrong, but this "deletion due to the mass shooting" story certainly has made the rounds.

It is well known that Hollywood does edit their films based on post-production real world events. For example, in the wake of the Aurora red dawn event, the machine-gunning of the movie audience is being cut from this year's forthcoming film, Gangster Squad. The scene was in that film's initial movie trailer.

One thing is certain. There is a red dawn that's come, and another one that's coming.

For the links to other recent postings about 

Colorado's Aurora's red dawn symbolism, please see also:

Red Dawn 2012

Red Dawn Again

Red Dawn

Recent interviews, about the Aurora shootings:

WGN - Mike McConnell: Loren Coleman

The Corbett Report: The Copycat Effect with Loren Coleman

Binnall of America: Loren Coleman and Bruce Rux

Talk Shoe - 42 Minutes: Loren Coleman

Red Ice Creations: Loren Coleman

The Copycat Effect

(NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004)

(Thanks MM for the news tip about the poster.)