- Directed by Paul Michael Glaser
- November 13, 1987
- Based on the 1982 book The Running Man by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman
A cop framed for murder by a totalitarian government must compete on a gameshow where it is a fight to the death for contestants.
In some aspects The Running Man is directed and even produced like a well-budgeted television movie or a better than average direct-to-video production. It is most apparent in the moments missing Arnold. Coming out at the apex of his fame, his screen charisma often drowns out the general cheapness or goofiness.
Sets for the titular series are crafted like any cheap show of the time. Paula Abdul handled the choreography of The Running Man’s Solid Gold-esque dancers. The fake show has numerous nods to gameshows of the time like audience members being gifted the home version and a signature calming cheek kiss from Family Feud.
Richard Dawson was an inspired choice to play Damon Killian. Best known as Corporal Newkirk from Hogan’s Heroes and as the original host of Family Feud, this part was a complete difference from anything is best known for. As the main threat to the hero, Killian was certainly not going out tough him so he had to out personality him and Dawson does that in spades. Dawson doesn’t shrink in the same scenes with Schwarzenegger. In fact, this is one of the rare movies where Schwarzenegger despite being the star can often fade when performing with someone else. His natural screen charisma is not enough to put him in the forefront against Dawson.
I recall Schwarzenegger saying after the release of this movie Paul Michael Glaser as director and the way it was directed caused the loss of all the subtext of the script. I can see that a bit. I think he hoped it would be in the deeper vein of his later effort Total Recall. This story could have gotten into authoritarian rule and media manipulation to manage/control public opinion and what happened to those that do not fall in line.
It touches on that with the bread and circuses of The Running Man or Climbing for Dollars as well as the work camp but that is more set dressing for the action. The focus is more on action scenes showcasing Schwarzenegger’s superhuman screen abilities as Ben Richards. He takes out all comers and destroys equipment with his bare hands. So much that can be found in very authoritarian regimes just gets tossed in and then moved beyond.
In the film Richards is paired with Amber Mendez (Maria Conchita Alonso) whom he first meets living in the apartment of his brother who as a character is never mentioned once Richards gets to bro’s former abode. That always jumped out at me a little bit. I know they had to get them to meet but the fact that Ben never mentioned his brother after he got to that apartment to meet her to get to the next leg of the story always bothered me. I don’t need him as a character. I just need him to be treated as somebody that mattered to Ben beyond escape.
Amber is essentially a fiery Latina character once she gets out of the corporate world. While in the corporate world she was very loyal to the Cadre regime but engaged in plenty of black-market stuff such as banned music and even banned clothing. Another nitpick is we never get a good look at the clothing to see what makes it a banned item. An allusion to Soviet embargos on Western goods or just something that sounded good to do?
Once in the game zone where all the contestants of The Running Man are sent Richards fights an assortment of baddies that are a cross between wrestling villains and comic book villains. Fireball (Jim Brown), Dynamo (Erland Van Lidth), Buzzsaw (Gus Rethwisch), and Subzero (Professor Toru Tanaka) are one boss battle after another until the hero gets to the big one.
Throughout The Running Man there is a whole drive to get to a satellite uplink which nobody can find. These people have some semi-advanced technology which would indicate they could figure out a way to triangulate the location but nope. It’s only when they are on the ground looking at stuff they realize it is in the Game Zone and that was the reason it was never found out. Were these characters doing random foot searches all the time? Did they look at a map and go “Let’s try here!”?
To drive home this being the future characters make (for the 80s) some pretty well-known references to pop-culture with the characters of 2019 not understanding them. When I first watched it I felt that it was a little silly, but now I see that was a little bit prescient. Gilligan’s Island has nearly faded into obscurity, but Star Trek and specifically Mr. Spock have not mostly because of assorted spinoff shows and prequel films and series.
Ben Richards is drawing on his adventure because of his escape with former teacher William Laughlin (Yaphet Kotto) and generic 80s nerd Harold Weiss (Marvin J. McIntyre) whose whole existence is just to die for Richards to get that final emotional push to save the day and overthrow Killian. As if being framed for mass murder, imprisoned for being The Butcher of Bakersfield, and his brother being disappeared was not enough he needed two prison buddies to motivate him.
This has no pretensions of being something deep or philosophical despite Arnold’s desires. It’s straight up action. It’s a little outlandish and has some cheesy one-liners and cringe worthy yet funny humor. It’s Schwarzenegger in one of his more super heroic movies though it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure. Glaser never tried or simply was unable to reach higher. That is no insult. It is fun with substance but not fun trying to be substantive. It gets you from start to a satisfying finish with ingredients that let enjoy yourself.
The Running Man with its outlandish villains and one-liners is pure fun. If you like good action or 80s action or just an enjoyable movie, you cannot go wrong here.
Warren Watched A Movie 