tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/action-films-95053/articles
Action films – The Conversation
2024-03-26T12:50:09Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/226533
2024-03-26T12:50:09Z
2024-03-26T12:50:09Z
Road House explores what it means to be a hyper-masculine hardman in the 21st century
<p>Through Doug Liman’s reimagining of the Patrick Swayze vehicle Road House (1989), Amazon Prime is trying to draw a distinction between “toxic” hyper-masculinity and “useful” hyper-masculinity. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/hypermasculinity">Hyper-masculinity</a> refers to the exaggeration of stereotypical masculine traits and behaviours, emphasising physical strength, violence, aggression and sexuality. </p>
<p>Road House tells the story of Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal) a down on his luck former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fighter who takes a job as a bouncer at a Florida Keys roadhouse. He soon discovers that the roadhouse is at the centre of a power struggle between gangsters, corrupt cops, and its charismatic owner Frankie (Jessica Williams). And guess what? Dalton’s the only one who can sort it all out. </p>
<p>The film plays out as a western, and it’s a bit meta about it too. Charlie (Hannah Lanier), a teenager that Dalton befriends, continually reminds us that Dalton’s life mirrors <a href="https://jweberle.com/2023/04/26/a-stranger-rides-into-town/">the stranger archetype</a> of the wild west genre. “Your job,” she tells him, “it’s like something out of a western. You’re the Lone Ranger walking into a lawless town, bringing order to chaos.” </p>
<p>If you like action films, and you have your tongue firmly in your cheek, then you’ll probably like this. Road House is packed with fun, fighting, fast cars and frivolous funnies. But what makes it interesting is the not-so-subtle exploration of what it means to be a hyper-masculine hard man in the 21st century.</p>
<h2>The hardmen of Prime</h2>
<p>Over the past few years, the Amazon Originals slate has heavily invested in hyper-masculine stories, with several films dedicated to adrenaline-fuelled muscle men kicking butt and taking names. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Road House.</span></figcaption>
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<p>With prominent action hero productions such as Reacher (2022), The Terminal List (2022), and the forthcoming <a href="https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/god-of-war-tv-show-amazon-1235460972/">God of War</a>, it is not much of a stretch to suggest that Prime Video is fast becoming the new home for the hyper-masculine hardmen of the small screen.</p>
<p>The Amazon Studios <a href="https://press.amazonstudios.com/us/en/press-release/amazon-studios-releases-inclusion-policy-and">inclusion policy and playbook</a> claims that: “Amazon Studios has long prioritized telling innovative and inclusive stories from a diverse range of creative talent.” So why, then, are the 1980s calling and asking for their action genre back?</p>
<p>The 2024 Road House is in keeping with the Amazon Studios’ playbook in that diverse casting is front and centre in the story – but at its core it is a <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Hard_Bodies/7nERHha7TZUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=hard+bodies+the+reagan+heroes&pg=PA24&printsec=frontcover">portrayal of hard-bodied hyper-masculinity</a> and its associated ultra-violent behaviour. </p>
<h2>Masculinity in Road House</h2>
<p>From the outset, masculinity in the movie is associated with drinking, gambling, aggression, social dysfunction and thoughts of suicide. Dalton is a loner, who lives in the shadows and makes his money by hustling at underground mixed martial arts fights. He has few possessions and nowhere to live. </p>
<p>Yet, for all he is disempowered financially, he is empowered by the physicality of his body. His existence is defined by and dependent on his hyper-masculinity. You can stab him, beat him up, hit him with a pickup truck and he’ll just keep coming back.</p>
<p>Frankie harnesses Dalton’s hyper-masculine aggression to sort out the trouble at her roadhouse, which is overrun with thugs who are chasing off her customers. She can’t get help from the cops because they’re corrupt. So, she hires a harder man to sort out her hardman problem. And it works. Dalton’s hyper-masculine aggression is presented as functional. Given a purpose, Dalton becomes a useful tool. His hyper-masculinity is deployed for good.</p>
<p>It is up to Knox, played by former UFC champion <a href="https://www.ufc.com/athlete/conor-mcgregor">Connor McGregor</a>, to represent the “toxic” side of hyper-masculinity. As the only antagonist capable of challenging Dalton, Knox’s aggression has no real purpose. His violence is uncontrollable, unpredictable and sexually aggressive. He is the dark mirror of Dalton and as the story progresses, the boundary between the two men becomes less clear. To overcome Knox, Dalton must embrace the darkest aspects of his own hyper-masculinity.</p>
<p>Dalton’s hyper-masculinity is ultimately tragic. Once he has defeated Knox and solved the problem at the roadhouse, he is of no more use to the community of Glass Key and must move on. </p>
<p>So, does this mean that Road House is problematic in its messaging? Well, that’s up to the viewer to decide. The story is ridiculous, and it doesn’t pretend otherwise. It’s a guilty pleasure. A pastiche. So, in that sense, probably not. But then again the character of Knox cuts close to the bone in light of McGregor’s <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/conor-mcgregor-ufc-champion-timeline-arrests-abuse-1234772835/">real life legal troubles</a>, which include allegations of assault, reckless driving and robbery, which he has denied – all of which are featured in Road House. And these are characteristics that probably aren’t worth celebrating. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Quinn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
If you like action films, and you have your tongue firmly in your cheek, then you’ll probably like this.
John Quinn, Lecturer in Screen & Performance, School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206790
2023-06-01T10:25:47Z
2023-06-01T10:25:47Z
Fast X review: proof that there’s method in the madness of the Fast & Furious franchise
<p>There’s a scene in the latest Fast & Furious film, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoOaKN4qCKw">Fast X</a>, where Aimes (<a href="https://fastandfurious.fandom.com/wiki/Alan_Ritchson">Alan Ritchson</a>) – the government agent tasked with apprehending Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew – gives a rundown of the heroes’ backstory:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Let’s start back at the beginning … Los Angeles, 2001 … Humble roots, local kids … Street racers who became hijackers … Graduated to high-speed smuggling, mobile jailbreaks, train robberies … If it could be done in a car, they did it … If it violates the laws of God and gravity, they did it twice.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On one level, the scene is a recap reel. Monitors inside Aimes’ hi-tech HQ play clips from the <a href="https://www.fastxfamily.com/">Fast family’s</a> biggest stunts. These clips are designed to initiate casual viewers into the Furious-verse, helping them to make sense of what’s to come.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The trailer for Fast X.</span></figcaption>
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<p>On another level, it’s a knowing wink to “ride or die” fans. The scene addresses audiences who’ve followed the franchise throughout its 22-year history, a period in which Fast & Furious has undergone so many <a href="https://deadline.com/2011/04/fast-five-will-transition-franchise-from-street-racing-to-heist-action-125552/">transformations</a> that the latest entries can feel unrecognisable from the first film.</p>
<p>When Aimes talks about “humble roots” in Fast X, therefore, he’s also referring to the franchise as a whole. It began with 2001’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TAOizOnNPo">The Fast and the Furious</a>, a mid-budget crime film about street racing which featured a cast of relative unknowns.</p>
<p>In the ten sequels that followed before this latest edition, the franchise grew exponentially, rebranding as <a href="https://screenrant.com/fast-furious-saga-movies-franchise-name-meaning-change-explained/">the Fast Saga</a> and evolving to become a series of star-studded global adventures in the Mission: Impossible mould. </p>
<p>This evolution brought greater commercial risks and rewards. The Fast Saga is one of the <a href="https://www.cbr.com/most-profitable-movie-franchises-ever/">top-ten highest grossing film franchises of all time</a>, and Fast X cost an estimated <a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/1106938/the-fast-x-budget-rises-to-340-million-making-it-potentially-the-fourth-most-expensive-movie-of-all-time/">US$340 million</a> (£275 million) to produce.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Han fights Shaw in a clip from Fast X.</span></figcaption>
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<p>By now, the franchise’s unlikely trajectory is so well known that recent films have incorporated meta commentary on their own ridiculousness. This is best illustrated in F9’s (2021) running gag where Roman (Tyrese Gibson) wonders whether the heroes may be invincible.</p>
<p>Fast X is the latest pitstop on this journey. It’s a logical extension of the Fast Saga’s illogical, gravity-defying melodrama, where every set-piece and plot twist furthers the extravagant myth of Dom and his family.</p>
<h2>Retcons and resurrections</h2>
<p>The latest film (the first of <a href="https://ew.com/movies/vin-diesel-announces-fast-x-will-be-2-movies/">two volumes</a> that will draw the Fast Saga to a close) continues the tradition of <a href="https://www.looper.com/1292152/every-major-fast-character-returned-from-dead-so-far/">bringing back fan favourites</a>. This is something the Fast films do with an alarming disregard for narrative coherence. In this sense, Fast X feels like an attempt to rationalise the messy timeline that emerged out of the unusual choices of earlier films.</p>
<p>That timeline began in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98tBkRsGl4">Fast & Furious</a> (2009) – the confusingly titled fourth film – where the opening sequence revealed the surprise return of Han (Sung Kang), a character who died in the previous instalment, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8HQ2JLlc4E">Tokyo Drift</a> (2006).</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Han returns in F9.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Han appeared again in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcn2GOuZCKI">Fast Five</a> (2011) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKi5XoeTN0k">Fast & Furious 6</a> (2013). A <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIO_9mjHR8A">mid-credits scene</a> in the sixth film seemed to confirm Han’s exit by replaying his death and revealing that it was at the hands of new villain, Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham).</p>
<p>The decision to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroactive_continuity">retcon</a> Han’s demise and then fold it into the events of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skpu5HaVkOc">Furious 7 </a>(2015) established a strange chronology where the fourth, fifth and sixth films take place (in story terms) before Tokyo Drift.</p>
<p>The screenwriters <a href="https://uproxx.com/movies/the-fast-and-the-furious-tokyo-drift/">have acknowledged</a> this <a href="https://post45.org/2022/11/refusing-narrative-time-as-grief-practice/">disregard for linear time</a>, joking: “Look, the timeline is … you know … it’s one-two-four-five-six-three-seven, right?”</p>
<p>Since then, Han has been resurrected once more in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSiDu3Ywi8E">F9</a>, where it’s revealed that his death in Tokyo was an elaborate hoax. In Fast X, he finally reunites with Shaw, giving Han a chance to get revenge against the man who appeared to kill him four films ago.</p>
<h2>An outlaw franchise</h2>
<p>With the number of once-dead characters that populate the Fast Saga, viewers could be forgiven for thinking that many of its major plot points are introduced on a whim, <a href="https://ew.com/movies/vin-diesel-says-fast-x-might-be-a-3-part-trilogy-now/">dreamed up by co-producer Vin Diesel during interviews</a>. But there’s method in the madness, a consistent inconsistency which has allowed the saga to carve out its own niche.</p>
<p>The seemingly chaotic nature of the Fast Saga’s development is central to its appeal. Reflecting on its unlikely trajectory, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210624-f9-and-how-the-fast-furious-films-define-the-21st-century">critics</a> often observe that the franchise has an off-the-cuff feel. This distinguishes it from more <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/34/article/805897/summary?casa_token=0warJlKXALUAAAAA:u1OzUxxpJ2M6_PIK_pzZF_SHckYZ0eI7bYfRl1_W-KaBV-3zQ3W5aPKdnp8F-j4tFHstxT09Nw">meticulously planned franchises</a>, such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where every sequel and spin-off is mapped out years in advance to try to maximise the brand.</p>
<p>This long-term planning can sometimes be a weakness, leaving such franchises less able to adapt to fan responses. In contrast, the Fast Saga has often shown a fleet-footedness in its engagement with audience demands. </p>
<p>After all, Han was only included in the fourth film after test screenings for Tokyo Drift showed he was a hit with fans, while his resurrection in F9 was a direct response to the <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/fast-9-director-justin-lin-020914357.html?guccounter=1">#Justice4Han campaign</a> that emerged on social media.</p>
<p>With its elaborate plot twists, surprise cameos and callbacks to previous films, Fast X is enjoyed best as a road trip through <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/fullthrottle-franchise-9781501378904/">the franchise’s messy history</a>. It’s a reminder that the franchise’s route to the blockbuster A-list has been unconventional. Like Dom’s family of street racing <a href="https://post45.org/2022/11/wheel-men-the-blue-collar-masculinities-of-the-fast-saga/">outlaws</a>, the Fast Saga continues to play by its own rules.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206790/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Gulam is co-editor (with Fraser Elliott and Sarah Feinstein) of Full-Throttle Franchise (Bloomsbury 2023), a book which brings together a range of scholars to explore not only the style and themes of Fast & Furious, but also its broader cultural impact and industry legacy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Sarah Feinstein is a co-editor (with Joshua Gulam and Fraser Elliott) of Full-Throttle Franchise (Bloomsbury 2023), a book which brings together a range of scholars to explore not only the style and themes of Fast & Furious, but also its broader cultural impact and industry legacy.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fraser Elliott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The seemingly chaotic nature of the Fast Saga’s development is central to the Furious-verse’s appeal.
Joshua Gulam, Senior Lecturer in Film, Liverpool Hope University
Fraser Elliott, Lecturer in Film, Exhibition and Curation, The University of Edinburgh
Sarah Feinstein, Lecturer in Heritage Studies and Cultural Industries, University of Leeds
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205068
2023-05-18T12:25:24Z
2023-05-18T12:25:24Z
Fast X: why cars don’t really explode when they crash
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526794/original/file-20230517-25-6nkgbv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C32%2C4282%2C1763&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The latest instalment of the Fast & Furious franchise features many exploding cars.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.alamy.com/usa-a-scene-from-the-cuniversal-pictures-new-movie-fast-x-2023-plot-dom-toretto-and-his-family-are-targeted-by-the-vengeful-son-of-drug-kingpin-hernan-reyes-ref-lmk106-j8808-280223-supplied-by-lmkmedia-editorial-only-landmark-media-is-not-the-copyright-owner-of-these-film-or-tv-stills-but-provides-a-service-only-for-recognised-media-outlets-pictures@lmkmediacom-image539288286.html?imageid=A842FBDF-3FE6-48D0-B6E8-4DEE0ED1D75E&p=221533&pn=undefined&searchId=a90d4a93ed0b79f6001f38e0e1136445&searchtype=0">LANDMARK MEDI /Alamy Stock Photo</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Exploding cars may be entertaining to watch in action films. But cars erupting into fireballs when they crash or tumble down a mountainside is one of the most common and scientifically preposterous movie tropes.</p>
<p>With the release of <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fast_x">Fast X</a>, the latest in the Fast & Furious franchise, on May 19 2023, it’s time to debunk the myth of the exploding car. </p>
<p>Cars never explode under these circumstances and rarely catch fire. That’s unless you were unfortunate enough to be driving a <a href="https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-driving-safety/auto-safety-testing/did-pintos-really-explode-in-the-1970s.htm">Ford Pinto</a> or <a href="https://alexanderlaw.com/articles/2019/07/gas-tank-fires-the-4-9-billion-verdict-against-general-motors-for-the-explosion-of-a-1979-chevrolet-malibu/">Chevrolet Malibu</a> in the 1970s. Both manufacturers cut corners in the production process and the result was poorly designed fuel tanks that were vulnerable to catching alight, often trapping the occupants inside. </p>
<p>Even when racing driver <a href="https://www.romaingrosjean.com/">Romain Grosjean</a> crashed at 140mph at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix, his vehicle caught fire but did not explode. </p>
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<p><a href="https://www.merseyfire.gov.uk/safety-advice/community-safety/petroleum/storing-petroleum/#:%7E:text=That%20is%20to%20say%3B%20where%20petrol%20vapours%20amount%20to%20upto,the%20vapours%20will%20not%20ignite.">Petrol vapour is only explosive in air</a> (which is <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2491/10-interesting-things-about-air/#:%7E:text=Air%20is%20mostly%20gas&text=It's%20a%20mixture%20of%20different,nitrogen%20and%2021%20percent%20oxygen.">20% oxygen</a>) and when under pressure. Liquid petrol isn’t explosive but the vapour can catch fire. Vapour can escape from the fuel tank when you unscrew the cap. But tanks have a system in which the pressure is relieved without venting the vapour. A full fuel tank is safer than you might think since there is no air inside it and so no oxygen.</p>
<p>In fact, liquid petrol can be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/flammability">difficult to ignite</a> even when it comes into contact with a flame. </p>
<h2>What an explosion needs</h2>
<p>Explosions are normally caused by a reaction where one or more solids or liquids react and produce a corresponding amount of gas.</p>
<p>A gas occupies much more space (<a href="https://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch4/properties.php">800 times the volume of liquid or solid</a>) than the equivalent amount of solid or liquid. The force generated by the rapidly expanding gas creates the explosion.</p>
<p>Shrapnel is added to explosive weapons of war, which is propelled by the expanding gas. </p>
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<p>Petrol doesn’t detonate on its own, but explodes with oxygen <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0950423018305424">when it is in its gas form</a>, is hot enough (about 257°C) and in the presence of a flame or spark. </p>
<p>Imagine watching someone on a hot day filling their car. Often you see a shimmering effect near the tank filler. This is petrol vapour. The “no smoking” instruction on petrol stations signage and painted on oil tankers is about eliminating one of the three requirements for petrol to catch fire. </p>
<p>Petrol is a high energy compound. These compounds release a lot of energy when they react with other substances. When petrol comes into contact with oxygen and burns, it produces low energy compounds (water and CO₂). The difference in energy between those compounds is seen and heard as sound, heat and light and expansive force.</p>
<p>In order for petrol to explode (rather than just burn) it needs to be under pressure, in the gas form, and have enough oxygen and a source of external energy such as a spark or flame to start the reaction. </p>
<h2>Exploding cars</h2>
<p>In a car engine, the explosion <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot_cycle">takes place in a cylinder</a>. The piston compresses the air/petrol mixture to create the high-pressure conditions needed for an explosion. When a gas is compressed, it gets hot. That’s why the tip of a bicycle pump gets hot when you pump your tyres up. As the piston compresses the air/fuel mixture, the pressure and temperature rises.</p>
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<p>The spark plug provides the small amount of energy required to make the reaction happen. This process happens several thousand times per minute in car engines.</p>
<p>Petrol and diesel can only explode when under pressure and mixed with air and in the case of petrol, have a small amount of energy added in the form of a spark or a flame. Engines pressurise the fuel/air mixture in the cylinder and so produce small, confined explosions which turn a crankshaft and drive the wheels.</p>
<p>Diesel is less flammable. Diesel engines use a higher boiling point fuel which spontaneously combusts under pressure, which is why diesel engines don’t need spark plugs. Diesel engines also <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/diesel-fuel#:%7E:text=Diesel%20fuel%20contains%20more%20nonvolatile,air%20without%20risking%20pre%2Dignition.">cycle at a lower rate</a> compared to petrol engines, which is why they last longer and offer greater fuel economy. </p>
<p>When cars are involved in collisions, fuel lines are often torn and petrol leaks out onto a hot engine. Liquid petrol can catch fire in the presence of air. But it can’t explode because it’s not under pressure and is in the liquid phase rather than a vapour. </p>
<p>In a car crash, diesel or petrol may occasionally catch fire, but there is no mechanism for creating the high pressures required for them to explode, so they don’t.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205068/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hal Sosabowski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Exploding cars are a staple feature of the Fast & Furious films. Entertaining, yes. But realistic - not so much.
Hal Sosabowski, Professor of Public Understanding of Science, University of Brighton
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173801
2021-12-21T12:47:22Z
2021-12-21T12:47:22Z
Nine reasons why Die Hard really is a Christmas film
<p>It’s that time of year for hunkering down to watch a Christmas film with the family – and to hold the annual debate over whether or not Die Hard actually counts as one.</p>
<p>This debate has now become, in some film history circles, as big a question as to the meaning of “Rosebud” in Citizen Kane or whether Han Solo or Greedo shot first in Star Wars. It’s even important enough to warrant a poll from YouGov, which concluded that <a href="https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/die-hard-christmas-movie-poll-exclusive-newsupdate/">Die Hard is not a Christmas film</a>.</p>
<p>The arguments around the “Christmassiness” of the 1988 movie revolve around three themes: <a href="https://stephenfollows.com/using-data-to-determine-if-die-hard-is-a-christmas-movie/">creative, commercial and cultural</a>. </p>
<p>The creative argument is based on the intentions of those involved in making the film. As both director <a href="https://screenrant.com/die-hard-christmas-movie-debate-john-mctiernan-director/">John McTiernan</a> and writer <a href="https://blog.finaldraft.com/steven-e-de-souza-die-hard-is-a-christmas-movie">Steven De Souza</a> have confirmed that Die Hard is a Christmas movie, then the creative case would seem very much in favour. </p>
<h2>The commercial and cultural arguments</h2>
<p>The commercial argument is that Christmas movies are released at Christmas and are generally intended for family audiences. However, Die Hard was a summer release (15 July 1988) in the United States and very obviously for adults. However, this argument that a summer release can’t be a christmas movie does not hold up to even the most cursory examination. </p>
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<p>That perennial seasonal favourite <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcU0o7N2vig&ab_channel=MovieclipsClassicTrailers">Holiday Inn</a>, in which Bing Crosby warbles Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, was also a summer release (4 August 1942), and no one argues that isn’t a Christmas movie. Even the remake, White Christmas, was released in mid-October 1954. So proximity to Christmas is not necessarily a criterion for a Christmas film.</p>
<h2>Nine reasons it is a Christmas film</h2>
<p>The most common understanding of a Christmas film - as outlined by Mark Connelly in the introduction to <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/christmas-at-the-movies-9781860643972/%20_">Christmas at the Movies</a> - is that the Christmas theme and motif are central to the film, such as It’s a Wonderful Life and the many versions of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol.</p>
<p>But there’s another category, of films that just happen to be set around Christmas, a group that includes films such as the murder mystery <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkgYjeFYQ2c">The Thin Man</a> and the mercenaries-in-Africa violence-fest <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzdeQbruayk">The Wild Geese</a>. And it’s this category to which Die Hard belongs.</p>
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<p>Here are nine Christmas motifs I detected (there are no doubt more):</p>
<ol>
<li>The basic narrative situation of Die Hard is a man returning to his family for Christmas.</li>
<li>His wife is called Holly.</li>
<li>It takes place on Christmas Eve. Not Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. It could have been set any week of the year, but wasn’t.</li>
<li>The chief villain Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) explicitly invokes the Christmas spirit: “It’s Christmas, Theo, it’s a time for miracles.”</li>
<li>Gruber is a classic bad capitalist villain: he’s there to steal money. Just as Old Man Potter does in It’s a Wonderful Life.</li>
<li>The soundtrack features Christmas tunes new and old: Run DMC’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR07r0ZMFb8&ab_channel=RUNDMCVEVO">Christmas in Hollis</a> and Frank Sinatra’s rendition of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE3uRRFVsmc&ab_channel=FrankSinatraVEVO">Let it Snow</a>.</li>
<li>Santa Claus makes an appearance (in the form of a dead terrorist).</li>
<li> The film ends with the of character of limo driver Argyle (De'voreaux White) looking forward to New Year’s Eve.</li>
</ol>
<p>And point nine, the clinching argument, perhaps, is that Christmas is a socially invented tradition, and like all invented traditions it continues to adapt and evolve. Films don’t need to include religious references or a man in a red suit, Christmas changes every year and as such what constitutes as a Christmas flick has expanded hugely.</p>
<p>Our tradition at chez Chapman is the Ultimate Christmas Eve Action Movie Double Bill: Die Hard and the James Bond film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOLq5Rg9N-c&ab_channel=MovieclipsClassicTrailers">On Her Majesty’s Secret Service</a>. We start with Bond spying Diana Rigg on the beach around 4pm, take a break for dinner between films, and get around to Gruber taking his plunge from the 30th floor of Nakatomi Tower by 9:30. This is just in time for the repeat of the Christmas dinner episode of The Vicar of Dibley (which I’ve always thought would be a whole lot funnier if Dawn French wielded a Heckler & Koch MP5).</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173801/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Chapman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It’s the story of a man who just wants to get home for Christmas.
James Chapman, Professor of Film Studies, University of Leicester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/170612
2021-11-15T13:12:36Z
2021-11-15T13:12:36Z
The ancient history of adding insult to injury
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431744/original/file-20211112-15043-1hzexe8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=33%2C16%2C5534%2C3681&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The witty one-liner is a calling card of the James Bond film franchise.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/actor-sean-connery-on-set-of-the-movie-james-bond-never-say-news-photo/1307541937?adppopup=true">Bob Penn/Sygma via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>At one point in the James Bond film, “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382320/">No Time To Die</a>,” the henchman Primo has the upper hand on 007. But Bond has a wristwatch that can trigger an electromegnetic pulse keyed to local circuitry. Primo, conveniently, has a biomechanical eye, so when Bond activates his watch next to Primo’s head, it explodes. </p>
<p>Bond’s gadgeteer, Q, radios in, and Bond delivers the rhetorical goods: “I showed him your watch. It blew his mind.”</p>
<p>This sort of witty quip after killing someone isn’t unique to the Bond franchise. From “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066999/">Dirty Harry</a>” to “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/">Django Unchained</a>,” they’ve become staples of the action film genre.</p>
<p>Audiences might assume action films invented these one-liners. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abused-bodies-in-roman-epic/2B6465583910BA124AD85A8B6EC325B5#fndtn-information">But as I’ve demonstrated in my work</a> researching ancient Greco-Roman epic poetry, the origin of this sort of rhetorical violence goes back thousands of years. </p>
<h2>A perverse eulogy</h2>
<p>The one-liner is in many ways the calling card of action films. The motif took off in the 1960s and peaked in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. Today you’ll see occasional nods to the tradition in films like “No Time To Die.”</p>
<p>Earlier James Bonds also delivered post-kill zingers. In “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059800/">Thunderball</a>,” Sean Connery’s Bond spears a foe with a harpoon gun, then jokes: “I think he got the point.” After “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070328/">Live and Let Die</a>” villain Dr. Kananga balloons and explodes from ingesting a gas pellet, Roger Moore’s Bond gloats, “He always did have an inflated opinion of himself.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Roger Moore’s James Bond delivers a classic post-kill zinger.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These one-liners had become de rigueur by the 1990s. In “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105698/">Universal Soldier</a>,” Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Luc Deveraux kills Andrew Scott by feeding him through a woodchipper that hurls bits and pieces of his corpse through the air. Deveraux’s companion asks where Scott is, to which Deveraux laconically replies, “Around.” And after killing Screwface in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100114/">Marked for Death</a>,” John Hatcher, played by Steven Seagal, discovers there’s another Screwface – or, rather, that twins have been running the criminal organization he’s fighting. Hatcher then executes the second Screwface in one of the most violent, prolonged death scenes in film history. </p>
<p>Hatcher catches his breath, before muttering, “I hope they weren’t triplets.” </p>
<p>But Arnold Schwarzenegger, who rose to fame during the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119100744.ch13">golden era of action films in the 1980s</a>, was the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/chapter/84853">king of one-liners</a>.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088944/">Commando</a>” ends with John Matrix, played by Schwarzenegger, impaling the villainous Bennett with a massive metal pipe that travels through Bennett and, inexplicably, into a boiler. The blast of steam travels back through Bennett and out the end of the pipe. Surveying the carnage, Matrix quips: “Let off some steam, Bennett.” In “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093773/">Predator</a>,” Schwarzenegger’s character pins an enemy to a wall with a knife, inviting him to “stick around.” And in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/">The Running Man</a>,” he chainsaws his adversary Buzzsaw vertically, crotch up. </p>
<p>When asked what happened to Buzzsaw, he reports: “He had to split.”</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Arnold Schwarzenegger, virtuoso of verbal daggers.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The quips literally add insult to injury, defaming the victim immediately after their demise, emblazoning the death with a caption, like a perverse eulogy. Film heroes deliver the best taunts because their rhetorical skill is linked to their physical prowess. </p>
<p>This might seem incongruous. But the link between martial and rhetorical skill goes back to Western literature’s beginning. </p>
<h2>The ‘vaunts’ of the ancient epics</h2>
<p>Ancient epic poems are, in many ways, the antecedents to today’s action flicks; they were the violent, thrilling blockbusters of their era. </p>
<p>Homer’s heroes in the “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Iliad/KctgDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=homer+iliad+lombardo&printsec=frontcover">Iliad</a>,” written sometime between 750 and 700 B.C., are not just deft fighters but also adroit talkers. Achilles, for example, is lauded as both the best fighter and the best speaker among the Greeks at Troy. </p>
<p>The parameters of ancient epic duels mirror action film fights. When two warriors square off, they taunt each other. When one warrior wins, typically the victory is punctuated by a witty defamatory “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41234500">vaunt</a>” that signals the champion’s prowess and the loser’s now-verified inadequacy.</p>
<p>In Virgil’s “<a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Aeneid/WrQTEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=aeneid+translation+ruden&printsec=frontcover">Aeneid</a>,” Turnus avoids damage from a spear cast by the young warrior Pallas thanks to his thick shield. After hurling a spear of his own that pierces Pallas, Turnus boasts of the performance of his weapon by comparison. The taunt is soaked in sexual innuendo: “See whether my weapon can penetrate better.” </p>
<p>Turnus later sneers over the slain Eumedes, whose throat he’s severed: “Hey, Trojan, the Western land you hoped to conquer, measure it with your corpse.” Since Eumedes sought to colonize parts of modern-day Italy, he would have surveyed the land for settlements; Turnus sardonically suggests using his dead body as a measuring stick. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Warrior stands over dead person on battlefield." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431729/original/file-20211112-23-1lnhmlo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A 1688 engraving depicts Turnus taking Pallas’ sword belt after killing him.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://dcc.dickinson.edu/images/eimmart-turnus-takes-pallas-sword-belt">Bavarian State Library</a></span>
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<p>In the “Iliad,” Polydamas spears Prothoenor in the shoulder. He falls and dies, whereupon Polydamas jokes that the spear will be useful to lean on “like a staff when he descends to the underworld.”</p>
<p>At another point in the “Iliad,” Patroclus kills the Trojan charioteer Cebriones by smashing his face with a stone. The force of the strike ejects Cebriones’ eyes from their sockets; they hit the ground, and Cebriones follows them headfirst onto the battlefield. The bizarre situation elicits Patroclus’ zesty bon mot: “What a spring the man has! Nice dive! Think of the oysters he could come up with if he were out at sea …”</p>
<p>In this vaunt-cum-metaphor, Cebriones’ eyes, which he “chases” into the sand, have become precious pearls in the oysters he’s imagined to be hunting.</p>
<h2>Breaking the fourth wall</h2>
<p>What value does wit hold in genres defined by brute strength? </p>
<p>Never mind the fact that a corpse is hardly a suitable target for clever punchlines. The jokes are for the audience, and it’s as close as the genre gets to breaking the fourth wall. Viewers are attuned to these witticisms not simply because they are funny, but because they’re self-consciously ridiculous. They help <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1002/9781119100744.ch7">distance the audience</a> from the often horrific levels of violence on display.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 115,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-newsletter-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>Epic poetry has traditionally held a highbrow status in literary criticism, while action films are regarded as puerile and brutish. These designations collapse at the level of rhetorical violence. In truth, epics like the “Iliad” skew more “action film” than most literati would like to admit, and vice versa.</p>
<p>The larger-than-life heroes from John Matrix to James Bond are ultimately the silver screen progeny of warrior-poets from antiquity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170612/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew M. McClellan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Epic poetry tends to be seen as highbrow, while action films are regarded as puerile and brutish. But the two share an affinity for dressing up brutal deaths with rhetorical flair.
Andrew M. McClellan, Lecturer in Classics and Humanities, San Diego State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/159441
2021-04-27T20:04:55Z
2021-04-27T20:04:55Z
Our enduring love of Mad Max’s Australian outback: an anarchic wasteland of sado-masochistic punk villains and ocker clowns
<p>The fifth film in the Mad Max action franchise, Furiosa, has been <a href="https://variety.com/2021/film/asia/george-miller-furiosa-receives-incentives-for-australia-shoot-1234954435/">greenlit for production</a> and will reach theatres in June 2023. Like the critically acclaimed <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392190/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Fury Road</a> (2015), Furiosa will blend Australian and international talent and funding, and is anticipated to be the largest film ever produced in New South Wales. </p>
<p>A cinematic success story, the Mad Max franchise also presents something of a challenge. Since the 1970s, Australian cinema has been dominated by a national identity agenda, while the action genre has always been more about entertainment than identity; more about commerce than culture. </p>
<p>Indeed, in 2016, when David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz reviewed the best Australian productions of the previous year, Stratton questioned whether Fury Road could even “count” <a href="https://www.if.com.au/david-and-margaret-reunite-to-talk-the-best-and-worst-aussie-movies-of-2016/">as an Australian film</a>. </p>
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<p>But action is an important part of Australia’s cinematic origin story. Charles Tait’s sensational 1906 bushranger film, <a href="https://www.nfsa.gov.au/latest/story-kelly-gang">The Story of the Kelly Gang</a>, believed to be the world’s first feature length production, is also a notable forerunner of the action genre.</p>
<p>George Miller — the creator, writer and director of the Mad Max franchise — describes the spectacular entertainment delivered by the action film as “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/are-we-about-to-see-the-first-mad-max-movie-without-mad-max-20210422-p57lhj.html">elemental</a>”. For Miller, action is cinema and has been since the silent era. </p>
<h2>Giving action an Australian accent</h2>
<p>The action film is commonly regarded as the “other” of national cinema, thanks to its limited interest in developing complex characters and narratives. Nevertheless, the Mad Max franchise gave action an Australian accent — even if that accent was <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/alternateversions">inexplicably overdubbed</a> by the US distributor that introduced Americans to Mad Max.</p>
<p>Miller’s 1979 <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/">Mad Max</a> stands out from the Australian genre films of the 1970s and 1980s now commonly referred to as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozploitation">Ozploitation</a>”. </p>
<p>Like other Ozploitation films, Mad Max was the product of low budget guerrilla style film-making. Where it differed was in its quality and the level of success achieved in overseas markets.</p>
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<p>In a decade filled with <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/mad-max-1970s-movie-car-chases">car chases and crashes</a>, Mad Max stood out in the international market for the inventiveness of its spectacular vehicular mayhem, ultimately <a href="https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Mad-Max#tab=summary">grossing almost 500 times its budget of $200,000</a> in the worldwide box office. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082694/?ref_=nm_knf_t2">Mad Max 2</a> (1981) made the most of its much larger budget effectively inventing, as academic Adrian Martin points out, <a href="http://www.filmcritic.com.au/reviews/m/mad_max_2.html">the post-apocalyptic genre of action cinema</a>. </p>
<p>Mad Max 2 set the tone for the rest of the franchise. Here, Miller reimagined the Australian outback as an anarchic wasteland populated by sado-masochistic punk villains and ocker clowns. Max is no longer the ex-cop seeking revenge, but instead a solitary survivor, reluctantly turned hero.</p>
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<p>The story of reluctant heroism continues to be retold throughout the Mad Max films. In <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089530/?ref_=nm_flmg_prd_24">Beyond Thunderdome</a> (1985) Max is once again transformed into a figure of myth, after helping a group of feral children escape the post-apocalyptic desert. In Fury Road, Max starts the film strapped to the front of a car as a <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-12/every-killer-car-in-mad-max-fury-road-explained">human-hood-ornament-cum-blood-bag</a>, and ends once again as something like a hero, after ferrying wise and fertile women to where new life might grow.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stanza-and-deliver-the-filmic-poetry-of-mad-max-fury-road-42750">Stanza and deliver – the filmic poetry of Mad Max: Fury Road</a>
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<p>In each, there is an echo of those Australian bushranger films whose anti-heroic protagonists are forced to violence by circumstance. And sometime become mythic heroes in the process. </p>
<p>But more importantly, the franchise continues to explore the visceral pleasures and possibilities of action, in the midst of social and natural threats.</p>
<h2>Action as a global genre</h2>
<p>Furiosa will be a prequel to Fury Road. Miller has described Fury Road as “almost a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2014/jul/28/comic-con-2014-mad-max-fury-road-trailer-release-tom-hardy">western on wheels</a>”, harking back to one of the most popular genres of the silent era: <a href="https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-chase-films">the chase film</a>. </p>
<p>Its visual shocks and surprises are delivered primarily through elaborate stunt work, a signature element in the Mad Max franchise — and Australian action more generally. </p>
<p>Action films centre on the spectacle of bodies in motion. With stories often simplified to clashes of good versus evil, they works to surprise and shock with death-defying feats and scenes of violent destruction. </p>
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<p>Consequently, what Sight and Sound critic Larry Gross has dubbed “<a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/65639/8/2014-01-02_Prepublication_draft_Goldsmith_Action_and_Adventure_essay.pdf">the Big Loud Action Movie</a>” can break through barriers of language and culture. </p>
<p>Focused on visual spectacle, the action genre is well suited to those multimedia marketing campaigns crucial to blockbuster films’ success. Looking at a list of all time top grossing films worldwide, we see that <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_gross/?area=XWW">the action genre outperforms any other single film genre</a> at the box office, accounting for seven titles in the top 10.</p>
<h2>Outward looking cinema</h2>
<p>Since the mid-2000s, there has been a move toward an increasingly commercial and explicitly outward looking Australian cinema. The result has been a boom in Australian genre film making <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Australian-Genre-Film/McWilliam-Ryan/p/book/9781138603141">distinguished</a> by a focus on higher budgets and transnational productions, <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/18460516">such as</a> Stuart Beattie’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1418377/">I, Frankenstein</a> (2014) and Gary McKendry’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1448755/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Killer Elite</a> (2011).</p>
<p>There were three decades between the release of Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road. This 2015 reboot became an important milestone Australian cinema’s “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1386/sac.4.3.199_1?journalCode=rsau20">international turn</a>”. These films, and the Mad Max franchise more generally, offer a distinctively Australian take on the action genre.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-do-mad-maxs-six-oscars-mean-for-the-australian-film-industry-55564">What do Mad Max's six Oscars mean for the Australian film industry?</a>
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<p>In 2018, Fury Road topped a list of the <a href="https://thenewdaily.com.au/entertainment/movies/2018/07/24/best-australian-films-list/">best Australian films of the 21st century</a> chosen by critics, including Stratton — who once questioned if it was Australian at all.</p>
<p>The fifth film, Furiosa promises to be yet another action blockbuster extravaganza of the sort that dominates the box office worldwide. Shifting the franchise focus from reluctant hero Max to the renegade Furiosa, it will continue a widespread trend toward putting more female action heroes on screen. </p>
<p>And whatever else Furiosa may be, we can count on being spectacularly entertained.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amanda Howell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The Mad Max franchise offers a distinctively Australian take on the action genre. And the fifth film, Furiosa, promises to be yet another extravaganza
Amanda Howell, Senior Lecturer, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/146755
2020-10-27T18:31:36Z
2020-10-27T18:31:36Z
Total Recall at 30: why this brutal action film remains a classic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364895/original/file-20201022-23-1rqzgeu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>People often roll their eyes when they hear about a major Hollywood studio re-releasing a film from its back catalogue to cinemas. Director’s cuts, “reduxes” and remastered prints can seem like cynical corporate moves, re-commodifying a long dead vision of the world. </p>
<p>But in the case of Paul Verhoeven’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100802/">Total Recall</a> — a masterpiece of late 20th century Hollywood cinema, being <a href="https://cinema.heavymag.com.au/total-recall-30th-anniversary-re-release-announced/">re-released on its 30th anniversary</a> — this cynicism is unwarranted.</p>
<p>As someone born in the 1980s, who was too young to watch this extremely violent film on its cinematic release, I am excited by the prospect of finally being able to see it on the big screen.</p>
<p>Not to mention several of its iconic images: Arnold Schwarzenegger pulling a giant tracking device out of his nose, eyeballs popping out of faces on Mars and the infamous, three-breasted prostitute.</p>
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<h2>A noirish, pulp narrative</h2>
<p>Total Recall marks a rare confluence of extraordinary talents and technologies. The source material is excellent. Phillip K. Dick’s twist-laden, science fiction <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15929452-total-recall">narrative</a>, interweaving speculation about potential future technologies with the social and psychological interrogation of the present world, is adapted for the screen brilliantly (and wittily) by a group of writers including genre maestro Dan O’Bannon (Dark Star, Alien, Dead and Buried). </p>
<p>Its noirish, pulp narrative, involving double (or triple?) agent Doug Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) following clues to his true identity, is embedded in a rousing sub-plot structured around conflict between the haves and have nots.</p>
<p>The setting — Mars, colonised for its minerals — is beautifully rendered with the expressionistic exterior backdrops reminiscent of the cover illustrations of 1950s pulp sci-fi novels. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-lakes-of-salty-water-on-mars-may-provide-conditions-for-life-146928">Buried lakes of salty water on Mars may provide conditions for life</a>
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<p>Typical of Verhoeven’s films, this is complemented by a detailed, fully developed background media ecology, involving fake advertisements, products, and communications technologies. Added to the mix are the superb cinematography of Oscar nominee (and regular Verhoeven collaborator) Jost Vacano, and editing by Frank J. Urioste, another Oscar nominee. </p>
<p>And of course, Total Recall features the most memorable (and idiosyncratic) action man of the era in the lead role. With his impossibly muscular body, cartoonish, chiselled features and distinctive Austrian accent, Schwarzenegger brings a delightful over-the-top quality to otherwise straitlaced macho roles. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=339&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364890/original/file-20201022-16-1aptx4v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Schwarzenneger: at his acting peak.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 1990 Columbia/TriStar Pictures</span></span>
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<p>He will probably never be more suited to a role than he was to The Terminator — his intonation and signature wooden delivery are perfectly robotic. But Total Recall captures him at the peak of his acting career, before he became swept up in his own myth, with pointlessly self-referential performances (such as that in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107362/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">The Last Action Hero</a>). </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-do-fans-love-schwarzenegger-his-terrible-one-liners-of-course-44302">Why do fans love Schwarzenegger? His terrible one-liners, of course</a>
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<p>Schwarzenegger is joined in Total Recall by brilliant character actors Ronny Cox (as main baddie, corporate psychopath Cohaagen) and Michael Ironside (Cohaagen’s vicious right arm, Richter). Sharon Stone, in a relatively low-key role, is amusing as Quaid’s secret agent wife.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/364896/original/file-20201022-19-13d7han.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=570&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Sharon Stone and Rachel Ticotin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">© 1990 Columbia/TriStar Pictures</span></span>
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<p>It is all brought together under the eye of a master filmmaker. As usual, Verhoeven skilfully endows epic pulp scenarios and settings with an intensity reminiscent of the most viscerally immersive kinds of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Williams_(film_scholar)">body-genre cinema</a> (a term coined by film studies professor Linda Williams to describe films that aim chiefly to elicit a physiological reaction on the part of the viewer). </p>
<h2>Technological detachment</h2>
<p>At the same time, Verhoeven’s images have a kind of technological detachment. His camera floats around, swiftly moving between bodies and things, capturing action with a clinical vision. </p>
<p>In this way, Verhoeven’s images — and films — are relentlessly unsentimental. In his universe, countless bystanders are killed in a bloody, vicious fashion without any lingering lament or consequence. His signature cinematic move (present, of course, in Total Recall) involves characters being lethally pierced by long, sharp objects. </p>
<p>Under the studious eye of Verhoeven’s camera, people appear insect-like. This point was made literal in his 1997 film <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120201/">Starship Troopers</a> (about interplanetary war between humans and giant humanoid insects) when the separation between insect and human becomes more a matter of politics than anything else. </p>
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<p>Total Recall, like most Verhoeven films, combines a sense of youthful adventure with explosive moments of violence, underscored by a wry (slightly clownish) sensibility. </p>
<p>Verhoeven won’t win any awards from The World Association of Liberal Humanists, but his films make for fascinating, and viscerally engrossing, viewing. As a biographical aside, it’s worth noting Verhoeven grew up in the Netherlands during the second world war, experiencing the perennial violence of the period — bombs, burning houses, masses of dead bodies — <a href="https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/2017/12/12/black-book-2006-interview-with-paul-verhoeven/">with a small boy’s sense of horror and excitement</a>. </p>
<h2>A rare big-budget spectacle</h2>
<p>Total Recall is an increasingly rare, big-budget, Hollywood spectacle. Hard-edged and brutal, it is far removed from the “family-friendly” blockbuster film popularised by the <a href="http://cinemajam.com/mag/features/lucas-and-spielberg-friendship">Spielberg-Lucas</a> complex in the 1970s (characterised by a wan, often uninteresting, palatability).</p>
<p>With its economical, fast-paced narrative embedded in a spectacular and detailed cinematic world, Total Recall is an example of pulp fodder magnificently realised by one of Europe’s leading auteurs.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/strippers-on-film-battlers-showgirls-and-hustlers-125882">Strippers on film: battlers, showgirls and hustlers</a>
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<p>Testament to Verhoeven’s seamless transition from the Dutch arthouse (Spetters, The Fourth Man) to big budget Hollywood (Robocop, Basic Instinct and the much maligned but remarkably entertaining, Showgirls), Total Recall remains one of the most thrilling action films of its time.</p>
<p><em>A 4K, Ultra High Definition™ version of Total Recall can be seen at <a href="https://www.eventcinemas.com.au/Movie/Mf---Total-Recall#date=2020-11-07">select cinemas</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146755/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ari Mattes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Total Recall is being re-released on its 30th birthday. With its economical, fast-paced narrative embedded in a spectacular cinematic world, it is a masterpiece of late 20th century Hollywood.
Ari Mattes, Lecturer in Communications and Media, University of Notre Dame Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.