Commando / Save the Cat!
I found this old note on my phone that I never got around to finishing. One of the problems of growing up with basic cable ("peasantvision") or without a VCR is that others my age have had a ten to fifteen year start on consuming media. That is not to say I didn't watch a lot of TV though, and when it was, it was whatever was on the Spokane affiliates or CBC (and naturally not French CBC). Movies were just not a thing we went to very often.
I watched Commando for the first time a couple of months ago, and it's sheer awesomeness blew me away. Awesome good and awesome bad. The 80s were a unique time for fantasy and action movies and Commando is no exception. Full of gleeful, unapologetic destruction and deadpan one liners, it also clocks in at just an hour and a half. It really is just an extended episode of The A-Team, especially when Arnold Schwarzenegger, as "Matrix", storms the compound where baddies are holding his daughter, Jenny, captive. Baddies just pour out of every building like rats despite not being seen before. Hilarious!
I had often read that Predator is the most homoerotic movie ever, but didn't see that until maybe six years ago. Then I was all "OhhhhHHHHHhhhh! That's what the Internet is talking about." Commando clearly wins though. Ruthless Reviews examines the issue further, but I was amused by how the main baddie seems to be a double for Freddie Mercury. My eyes popped and I'm pleased that I'm not alone in the Freddie Mercury assessment. All the hypermasculinity on display is a hoot. Right from the get go, we see Matrix chopping down and toting a giant log for no other reason than to prove that he is a manly man.
There's so much big and dumb on display in Commando - it's almost easy to read as Big Daddy America saving his virginal Manifest Destiny daughter from scumbags, mirroring attitudes and anxieties of the time. Or something. Matrix's daughter, Jenny, is like Athena, sprung from her Dad's head. No mother required. Yet along the way, Matrix acquires one who happens to also be a pilot. He just has to steal her car first. Rae Dawn Chong, as Cindy, is actually given a lot to do as Matrix's comedic straight man.
The movie is too generic and dumb in its message to expect too much from, and too clumsily made to expect anything more from than laughter and entertainment. It has no lessons to teach. The only clever thing that happens is when Matrix bails out of the plane originally bound for South America. Today we would say it's unsophisticated and lazily written, but back then I'm sure it was an amazing good time, where people left the theatres thinking "Eff yeah, America!" while not really understanding the homoerotic subtext on display. Amazing what passed for an R rated movie back then!
At the same time, it was refreshing to watch. It seems like every action movie nowadays has to be in the two to two and a half hour range, else audiences might demand their nickel back. Everything is orange/teal or blurred. It also seems like every action movie needs twenty minutes of total destruction before the ending(s). It's enough of a pattern to be noticeable, especially in Marvel movies. Others have noticed this too - over at Slate, Peter Suderman explains that how a book called Save the Cat has taken over Hollywood. Apparently it's a how to screenwriting guide that more and more movies are based on. More and more I just feel manipulated as a viewer towards a predictable ending, and as predictable as Commando is, at least it's a lot of fun along the way.
I watched Commando for the first time a couple of months ago, and it's sheer awesomeness blew me away. Awesome good and awesome bad. The 80s were a unique time for fantasy and action movies and Commando is no exception. Full of gleeful, unapologetic destruction and deadpan one liners, it also clocks in at just an hour and a half. It really is just an extended episode of The A-Team, especially when Arnold Schwarzenegger, as "Matrix", storms the compound where baddies are holding his daughter, Jenny, captive. Baddies just pour out of every building like rats despite not being seen before. Hilarious!
I had often read that Predator is the most homoerotic movie ever, but didn't see that until maybe six years ago. Then I was all "OhhhhHHHHHhhhh! That's what the Internet is talking about." Commando clearly wins though. Ruthless Reviews examines the issue further, but I was amused by how the main baddie seems to be a double for Freddie Mercury. My eyes popped and I'm pleased that I'm not alone in the Freddie Mercury assessment. All the hypermasculinity on display is a hoot. Right from the get go, we see Matrix chopping down and toting a giant log for no other reason than to prove that he is a manly man.
There's so much big and dumb on display in Commando - it's almost easy to read as Big Daddy America saving his virginal Manifest Destiny daughter from scumbags, mirroring attitudes and anxieties of the time. Or something. Matrix's daughter, Jenny, is like Athena, sprung from her Dad's head. No mother required. Yet along the way, Matrix acquires one who happens to also be a pilot. He just has to steal her car first. Rae Dawn Chong, as Cindy, is actually given a lot to do as Matrix's comedic straight man.
The movie is too generic and dumb in its message to expect too much from, and too clumsily made to expect anything more from than laughter and entertainment. It has no lessons to teach. The only clever thing that happens is when Matrix bails out of the plane originally bound for South America. Today we would say it's unsophisticated and lazily written, but back then I'm sure it was an amazing good time, where people left the theatres thinking "Eff yeah, America!" while not really understanding the homoerotic subtext on display. Amazing what passed for an R rated movie back then!
At the same time, it was refreshing to watch. It seems like every action movie nowadays has to be in the two to two and a half hour range, else audiences might demand their nickel back. Everything is orange/teal or blurred. It also seems like every action movie needs twenty minutes of total destruction before the ending(s). It's enough of a pattern to be noticeable, especially in Marvel movies. Others have noticed this too - over at Slate, Peter Suderman explains that how a book called Save the Cat has taken over Hollywood. Apparently it's a how to screenwriting guide that more and more movies are based on. More and more I just feel manipulated as a viewer towards a predictable ending, and as predictable as Commando is, at least it's a lot of fun along the way.