the groundhog day project

I really wanted to have some fun and write about the homoerotic subtext in Commando for Day 7, but as I was readying to start the movie, I turned on that Siskel and Ebert special I mentioned the other day . (You can watch it in four parts on YouTube starting here .) And, I was reminded of my research for my Rambo speeches a few years back... (fall 2010, I think). One of the things I watched while putting together my two speeches on Rambo was an episode or two of Rambo: The Force of Freedom , Rambo's cartoon that aired in 1986--between Rambo: First Blood Part II and Rambo III . I'll get into Rambo more in the next week (i.e. I'm watching Rambo next for this month of 80s action movies), so I won't get into too much detail there (yet). But, as I'm looking into some information about this special--I do scholarly writing so I like to know the specific citation for my sources (even if, for this blog at least, I sometimes let a hyperlink suffice)--and I find reference ...

I don't know how long before Commando was released in October 1985 it was that the protagonist was not an ex- special forces soldier but an ex- Israeli Mossad agent and played not by Arnold Schwarzenegger but Gene Simmons, but, that, indeed, was how it was. Yes, that Gene Simmons. I've read that the idea may have even come from Gene Simmons, but at some point he passed on it. Some version of the script was offered to Nick Nolte and eventually it went to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I've written before about how what was supposed to be adapted into Commando 2 instead turned into Die Hard , so it should be no surprise how many changes a movie goes through when it's being developed. Just like life, going through unexpected changes... Kidding. One deliberately personal entry at a time is just fine. Still, it is interesting to think about what might have been if the basic plot here--ex- whatever has to return to the violence when his daughter is kidnapped--had been...

Before I get into Commando tonight, I must share something. My class schedule for the winter quarter includes a performance studies class (from which I hope to find a few new sources for my thesis since it involves the presentation of self and whatnot) and a media theory class. I missed the first night of the media theory class last week because of the Utah trip but made it tonight and the class consisted basically of a watching a movie and then discussing it afterward, picking it apart in different ways. I'm sitting there like, I was going to do that anyway . Next week, we're supposed to bring a clip from a movie of our choice and then talk about that movie using the criteria we used tonight. We're talking about what constitutes "Classic Hollywood Cinema." (Going by the 8 criteria we used tonight, Commando qualifies except for what seems to be a lot of handheld camera.) One of the things that got mentioned was rugged individualism . That term became a thing...

(No, I'm not watching The Terminator .) Three guys dead in the first four minutes, cut to a mysterious guy walking through the woods with a chainsaw. It's like a horror film until we see the comforting sight of Arnold Schwarzenegger's face. Then it gets really scary. I mean, what had he been at this point, anyway? (Strange I-camera bit going on as his daughter sneaks up on him. He should've just turned the axe on her and saved himself a lot of trouble later... Was that callous? I can't tell. The Terminator was just feeding a deer on my screen. Nothing seems real right now. So, who cares about the life of Samantha Micelli?) Hercules in New York --dubbed. The Villain , Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer , in which he can barely say some lines or emote properly, and The Terminator , in which he doesn't have to. Being Conan certainly made him hero material, but coming into this movie, I think I probably was hoping for something like The Terminator , ...