In praise of Arnold Schwarzenegger...

[ForrestGump]

The opinions about Mad Mel Gibson hereabouts in response to his latest booboo and a desire to watch something escapist but with A Little Less Conversation And A Little More Action made me begin to ponder the works of such luminaries as Mel, Bruce Willis, and Arnold, all of them among a cadre of movie actors who are often reviled here on DU. The irony, of course, is that there's not a ton of evidence to support the alleged Freeperism of some of the such people DUers so often dismiss, and -- anyway, regardless of their political and social beliefs -- in dismissing such people we're missing out on some good stuff. I just watched The Siege, for example, and though Denzel was the central protagonist Bruce Willis did a great job in his role as a megalomaniacal general, and he was excellent in Tears Of The Sun. Similarly, Mel Gibson's been in some great films, and I can't offhand think of any of his that I haven't liked.

So what about Arnold? Sure, of the three I mention here he's by far and away the least as an actor. And, yes, I hate that he's Governor of California -- I was optimistic, initially, because he's personally more 'liberal' than is the Republican mainstream these days, but the fact is that he's entree to the Golden State for Republican controllers. And he may or may not be (or have been) a misogynistic boor in person -- I've heard from people who've met him that he was nice, but they hardly met him under the circumstances from which his less admirable behavior's been reported.

Anyway, in thus pondering I was inspired to throw True Lies in the DVD player (as I type this, Arnold and some gentlemen of semitic heritage are trashing a restroom). It's a film I only saw for the first time last year, but I've watched it a few times already 'cos it's just one of those films. Tom Arnold isn't even annoying in it, Bill Paxton is great as the sleazy wannabe badass, and then there's Tia Carrere (oh, yeah, baby) and Jamie Lee Curtis (surely any male -- or lesbian, for that matter -- who came of age in the '80s recalls in vivid detail those scenes from Trading Places, as seminal* as that scene with Phoebe Cates in Fast Times At Ridgemont High).

Cool...now it's the horse-motorcycle chase scene...

Anyway, I have to say that I like most of the Arnold films I've seen. I love one, in particular: The Last Action Hero...that one lampoons not just Ah-nuld (I love self-aware, self-effacing humor, in general) but Hollywood and the whole genre of action films of the '80s and since, the Jerry Bruckheimer kind. And Mr Benedict is such a cool villain. I didn't see all of Collateral Damage and what I saw of it didn't provoke me to finish watching it -- maybe I'll bother to try it again -- but it's the only one I can think of that I didn't enjoy to at least some extent. Stuff like Jingle All The Way may be disposable fluff, but disposable fluff can have its place, too, and (though it's not a movie I'd ever have paid to see) I've certainly had less enjoyable cinematic experiences with films generally deemed far superior.

Here's Arnold's filmography (theatrical releases only):

The Kid & I (2005)
Didn't see it.

Around the World in 80 Days (2004) .... Prince Hapi
A fun film, kind of, though it could have been way better...more for children than anyone else, I guess. Arnold's got more like a cameo in this one, as an egomaniacal misogynistic demagogue. :-)

The Rundown (2003) (uncredited) .... Bar Patron
Never heard of it.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) .... Terminator
I can't even remember the basic plotline of this piece of crap, and all I remember is that I was starting to look at the time remaining and thinking that wasn't a great sign for an action movie. I also remember some babely Terminatrix. It's not Arnold's fault that it was so unmemorable (I'm sure he was as good in the role as usual)...it's probably the fault of Jonathon Mostow, the f***wit who directed the excellent, stellar Breakdown and then made the execrable U-571 and compounded and confirmed his f***wittedness with his ignorant comments about German U-boat crews.

.Collateral Damage (2002) .... Gordy Brewer
Didn't like what I saw of it. Seemed pointlessly jingoistic, at least.

Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) (voice) (uncredited) .... White Wolf
Can't remember, but I'm sure he did okay.

The 6th Day (2000) .... Adam Gibson
I watched this one for the first time not so long ago and liked it. He seems to really be pretty good in sci-fi type action films.

End of Days (1999) .... Jericho Cane
Didn't see it, but I seem to recall people saying good things about it and I'm looking forward to catching it.

Batman & Robin (1997) .... Mr. Freeze/Dr. Victor Fries
Didn't see it. Sounds like I didn't miss much, if anything. Again, probably not Arnold's fault the film was so bad (or so it sounds to be).

Jingle All the Way (1996) .... Howard Langston
I enjoyed it. Hardly art, but stupid escapist fun enough, and most Christmas movies are kinda like that.

Eraser (1996) .... U.S. Marshal John 'The Eraser' Kruger
Saw this for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Liked it. Arnold again doing what he does best.

T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) .... The Terminator
Have no idea what this is. A 3D version of the second Terminator film?

Junior (1994) .... Dr. Alex Hesse
Been a long time since I saw it, but I know I enjoyed it.

True Lies (1994) .... Harry Tasker
Now playing...they just busted Bill Paxton with Jamie Lee. Pretty cool fun. But they nuked one of the Keys!

Last Action Hero (1993) .... Jack Slater/Himself
Love it!!!

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) .... The Terminator "T800"/Uncle Bob
To my mind, not just the best of the series but a truly great film. Arnold's excellent, and so is everyone else.

Kindergarten Cop (1990) .... Detective John Kimble
I'm not actually sure I've seen this...no, on second thought, I think I have seen it (within the last year or maybe two years) but I guess it didn't make much of an impression. Still, the "it's not a tumor!" line will live on (a line I used many times long before I saw the film).

Total Recall (1990) .... Douglas Quaid/Hauser
Another great film, I think. Liked it a lot. Everyone's good in this one, too...

Twins (1988/I) .... Julius Benedict
Another one I haven't seen in ages, but I remember liking it a lot. Pretty funny. Arnold's not bad at some kinds of comedy (and, of course, even his more straightforward action roles are usually laced with humor, like the over-the-top catchphrases) and he's good when playing against type.

Red Heat (1988) .... Capt. Ivan Danko
Really liked this one, too. Jim Belushi was good, too (probably my favorite of his roles, a film I used to watch all the time and would still if I hadn't lost the thing, was in Taking Care of Business with Charles Grodin).

The Running Man (1987) .... Ben Richards
Haven't seen it since the '80s, but I recall it being a good one.

Predator (1987) .... Major Alan 'Dutch' Schaeffer
Classic, albeit a gory one. Macho paranoia at its best. Kind of a sci-fi Deliverance, with one majorly bad hillbilly armed with nukes.

Raw Deal (1986) .... Mark Kaminsky, aka Joseph P. Brenner
Never saw it...in the '80s, I wasn't much into the kind of action films that The Last Action Hero makes fun of, and I suspect this was one of them.

Commando (1985) .... John Matrix
Saw it on video at a martial arts camp, so we all had a whole other dimension going on and the offscreen commentary was at least as entertaining as the film. Macho as it gets, though I only really remember a couple of classic oneliners from Arnold (I was under the impression they deliberately didn't have him say much) and the fact that he was mowing down the opposition while they utterly failed to even graze a target as large as was presented by his body (almost at the level presented in the Rambo parody in Weird Al's UHF) -- surely that was tongue-in-cheek?

Red Sonja (1985) .... Kalidor
Never saw it. But I saw the live show at Universal Studios, back in the '80s, that featured a famous female martial artist as Sonja.

The Terminator (1984) .... The Terminator
Arnold was born to play the Terminator. Watched it again a while ago, for the first time in years...holds up well, still. Very innovative and well executed.

Conan the Destroyer (1984) .... Conan
Don't think I saw it.

Conan the Barbarian (1982) .... Conan
Haven't seen it since the '80s, and not really into this type of thing, but I recall it being good...seem to recall Arnold mainly being silent, which may well have been a good thing. His English got better over the next few years.

Scavenger Hunt (1979) .... Lars, Gym Instructor
Never saw it.

The Villain (1979) .... Handsome Stranger
Never saw it.

Pumping Iron (1977) .... Himself
Never saw it.

Stay Hungry (1976) .... Joe Santo
Never saw it.

The Long Goodbye (1973) (uncredited) .... Hood in Augustine's office
Never saw it, as far as I know. If I did, it was long before I knew who Arnold was.

Hercules in New York (1970) (as Arnold Strong) .... Hercules
Might have seen it when I was a kid...but I think I'm thinking of a Tarzan movie of similar title.

Okay...gotta go...we're at the scene now where Jamie Lee's doing her exotic dance... :D



Nigel Tufnel is a lucky man.
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[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

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[hfojvt]

2. my brother recently saw Total Recall

and said he was surprised that he liked it.
I loved The Terminator movie and True Lies and Kindergarten Cop even. Last Action Hero was pretty cool. What I saw of Commando seemed pretty cool. "Remember when I said I would kill you last." "Yeah, that's what you said." "I lied."

OTOH I have never really liked any Mel Gibson movies, except "What women want" I did, however, love the Lethal Weapon 3 pinball machine.

I became a fan of Bruce Willis from his "Moonlighting" days. I have not seen many of his movies, except Armageddon, which I like alot.

Jamie!!! :o

[Name removed]

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[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

4. "Total Recall" is definitely a cool movie.

There are two Mel Gibson movies I like: "Braveheart" and "The Patriot." Of course the latter, is essentially the same sort of movie, but in a different time period. Braveheart was way better though. It's one of my favorite movies.

[hfojvt]

6. I had great expectations about Braveheart

from the previews I was expecting it to be awesome. So perhaps I over-expected it because I found it kinda blah. I have not seen Patriot which one reviewer called "Lethal Hatchet" although I was a huge fan of the Swamp Fox his character is supposed to be based on. Although I may be wrong about that - it may be the Swamp Fox's grandfather because I remember a story of a lynch mob in the book so I am thinking it was post-Civil War.

[ForrestGump]

8. I wasn't ecstatic over "Braveheart," either

Maybe I should give it another try. I liked it, I think, but it bordered on underwhelming for me at the time I saw it.

One of the special features on the DVD of The Patriot mentioned that Mel's character was based on Francis Marion (which is what I also assumed right off the bat) but also on the exploits of two other Old Dead Dudes whose names I do not recall. The bad guy is based on some hussar/dragoon named Tarleton, I think...don't know how true to life the atrocities were.

[ForrestGump]

5. I never saw "Moonlighting," at all, and at the time I thought he just

seemed a smirking jerk. Die Hard changed my mind, but he's also been in some good roles outside the action genre.

I love What Women Want! Mel was pretty good in Conspiracy Theory, another one I just saw a couple of months ago (I'm afraid the character may well be close to his real-life persona, though) and I finally saw Tequila Sunrise (only took me 21 years) a couple of nights ago, and I liked that. I recently saw Patriot, too, and I enjoyed it even though it was pretty clichéd and in some ways not very true to life (well, exaggerated, anyway). He was great in the incredible Gallipoli, way back near the start of his career.

[hfojvt]

7. no, he was hi-freaking-larious in Moonlighting

he was smirking and smarting off to his boss, the owner of the detective agency, so he seemed like a working class rebel, and funny as heck. Cybil Sheppard made a great foil too. I never saw any of the Die Hard movies, although I like the title. Maybe the library has them.

[ForrestGump]

9. "Die Hard" was very cool

I never saw any of the sequels, though.

Alan Rickman was transcendent as the villain. One of the best movie bad guys ever, I think.

Maybe I'll catch some reruns of Moonlighting one day. I used to think Cybill Shepard was a fairly ultimate babe, but what she's revealed of her character in recent years makes me beleive I'd probably prefer hanging out with Bruce. :-)