the groundhog day project

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...

In 1985, Siskel and Ebert did a special episode about how Hollywod was "selling war" to children. This was in response to movies like Rambo and Commando , which gave us a very different view of war and violence than older films like, say, The Deer Hunter . War was a commodity to be sold and enjoyed. The last big commercial product of the Cold War was large scale violence as spectacle... Except, that wasn't really something new, was it? The tone had changed (again), but war and violence had been spectacles to be sold for a long time. In the 1980s, though, it seems like that spectacle was quite mundane and almost common. Not just the R-rated action movies or slasher films, but also more "family-friendly" films like Iron Eagle or Russkies . But, I don't really feel like reiterating the same point again today. Simply put, Americans love violent films and in the 1980s we loved them a little extra. And, Commando is so obviously built around the idea of the Un...

Commando begins with an execution in a suburban neighborhood. Cooke--AKA the black guy--and... the other guy gun down (presumably Lawson) from Matrix's old unit. Before we cut away, the dialogue from the car dealership scene starts. The dealer says today's title. He's talking about the car, but the timing suggests otherwise. Another thing this movie shows us, but only so very briefly, as far as American workmanship goes, is home video pornography. Now, if you've seen the movie only once long ago, you might be wondering what I'm talking about. Picture it. Sunspot Motel. Matrix and Cindy are looking through Sully's stuff when Cooke arrives. Matrix tells Cindy to mess up the bed, which she immediately does even though he offers no explanation. He disappears momentarily to turn on the shower then returns to rip open Cindy's blouse. Not too sexist there, using her as a pawn to open the door. Then, Cooke comes in and fighting ensues. A little way into the fight,...

Maolsheachlann raises an interesting point as comment to yesterday 's blog entry: "You could be a pacifist and a rugged individualist, though... Radical libertarians tend to be very distrustful of armies and wars." My response (and it leads into today's topic or I would just put it in the comments section): 1) I don't think--and I'm risking a True Scotsman logical fallacy here, but I'm going to go for it anyway--a true pacifist could ever be a rugged individualist. To me, pacifism comes hand in hand with collectivism. There is no point to peace without other people. 2) While I suggested--and still do suggest--that rugged individualism favors the use of force, that force does not have to come from a State's army, nor does it have to come in the form of war. Maolsheachlann continues: My problem with the standard critique of masculinity and femininity in movies is that movies show us ideals. They inevitably (and desirably, in my view) simplify every...

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 , ...

So, I've established a couple times now that John and Holly really shouldn't get (back) together at the end of Die Hard . But, I'll reiterate: he's still a New York cop, and she's probably got an even more important job in LA now that Takagi was killed. Ellis, too. Holly does note that his office was nicer than hers, so he was probably pretty important also. My point is that Holly giving her name as McClane at the end of the film is somewhat arbitrary. (And, a little sexist, but I don't really want to get into sexism on this, the final day of watching Die Hard .) I wonder if the movie would still be as good without it, though. (It didn't come from the book, by the way. The cop in the book was visiting his daughter, not his wife.) There are a couple details to this story that seem arbitrary. Aside from that just mentioned, there is McClane's New Yorker-ness. That is, does it matter that McClane is from out of town? I'll answer this second quest...