![]() Lester himself later said that he regarded Commandoas an intentionally over-the-top piece of Warholian pop-art. You can sense the sexual tension in the air when Bennett screeches the golden line, “I’m not going to shoot you between the eyes, John! I’m going to shoot you between the balls!” Their climactic fight, I’d argue, is the closest ’80s action cinema got to the fireside wrestling scene from Women in Love. Nominal villain Arius barely gets a look-in, probably because Lester realized that the Matrix-Bennett smackdown is where the gold lies. Read more – Cobra: Stallone’s Vanity Action MovieĪs Rae Dawn Chong points out in one of the Commandodisc’s extra features, it feels uncannily like Matrix and Bennett are ex-lovers going through a messy break-up, their pent-up sexual fury manifesting itself as a string of steamy homoerotic knife-fights. He cackles and sneers his way through the role of Bennett, a mercenary with an axe to grind with John Matrix. There’s a sense, too, that actor Vernon Wells, who came to America to make his fortune after tearing up the screen in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, knows what he’s gotten himself into here. But in Commando’s clumsiness lies its charm there’s something cute about the production’s ragged edges, where you can see mannequins standing stock still in the midst of an explosion, or the air rams designed to launch extras into the air when a grenade explodes. Mark Lester isn’t what you’d call a director with a singular vision or even much in the way of finesse. It’s around the 60 minute mark before Matrix finally puts the war paint on, and boy is the wait worthwhile. ![]() “This is good and everything,” we said, “but when’s he going to get a machine gun and grenades and stuff?” It takes absolutely forever for Matrix to finally don the fatigues and get down to business, and I can still recall the frustration of myself and my friends as we lay in front of the television, fists balled under our chins, watching Commandoon VHS in the early ’90s. In reality, the greater share of the movie sees Matrix at large in a fantastical version of Los Angeles, where mall cops can be thrown down escalators and shots fired in a shopping precinct without an armed response team being called, and where local gun shops have missile launchers and colossal military-grade machine guns secured out back. I can still remember the poster and video sleeve, which offered nothing more than an image of Schwarzenegger, dressed in combat fatigues and armed to the teeth, staring straight down the lens with cool resolve.Īll of this strongly implied that Arnold would spend pretty much the whole film running around dressed as a soldier, probably killing bad guys in a forest somewhere. The marketing for Commandowas one of the great teases of the mid-1980s. De Souza (who’d later write, among other things, the classic Die Hard) shifted the tone to suit Schwarzenegger’s heroically buff image, with some zinging one-liners to match – not least the superb quip, “Remember, Sully, when I promised to kill you last? I lied.” Loeb and his writing partner Matthew Weisman originally envisioned Matrix as an older, more out-of-condition character – Nick Nolte and former Kiss rock star Gene Simmons were considered – but when Commandowas picked up as a Schwarzenegger movie by producer Joel Silver, the tone began to change. The original screenplay was co-written by Jeph Loeb, who’s best known these days for his comic book writing – Batman: The Long Halloween and Hush– and being the head of Marvel TV.Īlong with a draft of Teen Wolf, Commandowas among the first things Loeb ever wrote – at the time, he was still in his 20s and trying to break into the movie business. ![]() Strangely, Commandowasn’t written as a larger-than-life Schwarzenegger vehicle, but as a film about a weary soldier forced into battle following the kidnap of his daughter. ![]() Commandoisn’t meant to reflect reality it’s about a hulking brute of an ex-soldier who can rip up a telephone booth and hold it aloft with a bad guy still rattling around inside it. But Commandois well aware of how crazy it is the early scene where Matrix and his daughter feed a deer is beyond parody precisely because it’s served up with such a knowing flourish. Those without an appreciation of ’80s action cinema might write Commandooff as one more example of late Cold War jingoism, and it’s fair to say that it probably wouldn’t have existed without the likes of First Blood to pave the way for it. Along for the ride is air stewardess Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong) who flies Matrix around in a plane and says what the audience is thinking (“I can’t believe this macho bullshit!”). Instead of doing as he’s told, Matrix takes a flying leap from a jumbo jet in mid take-off and starts murdering his way towards the villains’ lair – a heavily-defended mansion on a remote island. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |