Stu presents: Smusings!

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Or, "Stu's musings"... on film! Yes, I'm going to use this thread to post one of my full film reviews periodically, probably once a week at first, as I work through my significant backlog, and then just whenever I finish a new one after that. Be forewarned though, I use a certain amount of SPOILERS in just about everything I write, so be wary if you haven't seen the film I'm talking about, okay? At any rate, here's my review of Oldboy, so enjoy!:



Laugh, and the world laughs with you... weep, and you weep alone.

It's an incredibly sobering idea to consider, but the smallest careless word on our part can end up having enormous ramifications for other people, and in the right (or wrong) circumstances, what may seem to us like practically nothing can lead to a chain reaction of complications, one that ends ruining someone else's life, without us even being aware of it at all. But, if something like that really happened, then what? What if your accidental victim wasn't content to just let bygones be bygones, but instead, became determined to do everything in his power to irrevocably ruin your life the same way you did his, since doing so was the only reason he had left to live?

And what would you do if, in response, you had a choice, either to end this endless, Sisyphean cycle of vengeance, or to continue it to its logical conclusion, regardless of what dark places it will take you? Well, Park Chan-wook's contemplates this very scenario, and brings it to its ultimate, nightmare-ish conclusion in the scintillating, pitch-black revenge Thriller Oldboy, with what proved to be the director's international breakthrough, and what is arguably still the most iconic film to arise out of the incredibly fruitful field of cinematic creativity that is the Korean New Wave.

It tells the story of Oh Dae-su, a Korean businessman, who, after a night of drunken revelry on his daughter's fourth birthday, is kidnapped by a mysterious figure holding a violet umbrella, who abducts him to a dank, grimy hotel/prison, where he is held against his will, without any answer as to how long he will be kept there, or any explanation at all as to who is doing this to him (or why). Naturally, the combination of total isolation and the seemingly arbitrary, endless nature of his imprisonment causes Oh Dae-su to snap mentally, but his attempts to "escape" through the occasional suicide attempt are always thwarted by his captors, and when he learns on TV that his wife has been murdered, with physical evidence somehow implicating Oh Dae-su himself, he becomes determined to live, for nothing else but to find out who it is that has utterly destroyed his life, and to make them suffer for it even more than he has.

However, just as he's finally figured out a way to escape from his motel hell, Oh Dae-su is suddenly released from it just as randomly and mysteriously as he was first imprisoned 15 years prior, as part of a malicious scheme to somehow ruin his life even more than it already was (as impossible as that may seem), and, while Oh Dae-su finally seems to be as physically free, he eventually proves to be just as imprisoned as he was before, not by an actual prison, but by his insatiable lust for revenge.

And, while what I wrote there admittedly went on longer than my average descriptions of plot set-up, Oldboy really is a story that deserves the extra detail, as its twisted, twist-filled tale of vengeance is intricately, meticulously constructed by Park and his team of screenwriters, adapting the original Japanese manga and streamlining its 1,600+ pages down into a neat, 2 hour runtime, cutting superfluous sub-plots and altering certain key plot points, while still retaining the core of its intricate, richly-detailed mystery, resulting in a relentlessly propulsive story that is constantly unveiling tantalizing new revelations all the way to the unpredictable end.

Of course, all of these plot machinations would be impossible to be engaged with without characters we care about caught up in them, but Oldboy doesn't lack in that department one bit, with Oh Dae-su being brought to life by a blistering, force-of-nature performance by Choi Min-sik, as a boorish "salaryman" who is literally warped beyond all recognition by his years-long torture, often acting like more a rabid dog than a man at times, while Yoo Ji-tae makes for the perfect protagonist as "Lee", a wealthy businessman whose sadistic suaveness makes for the perfect foil to Oh Dae-su's frenzied, animalistic nature, but whose material possessions and malicious scheming ultimately can't heal the emotional scars he carries with him inside.

It's the lingering pain of these past traumas that causes him to carry out his almost ridiculously convoluted masterplan, staying ahead of his desperate, agonized victim at every single step, safe in his swank, luxurious penthouse, watching and sadistically toying with Oh Dae-su from on high like a Greek god of old, a connection that is furthered by the film's Oedipal overtones, whether it be through acts of self-mutilation, a certain plot twist that has become one of the most infamous in modern international film, or the way that Oh Dae-su, having been completely stripped of free will even when he takes his own initiatives, decides not to heed the repeated warnings from both his enemies and friends to turn back from his futile, self-destructive quest for vengeance, which results in some unspeakably disastrous consequences for him in the end.

Oldboy further impresses through its incredibly unique tone, which can be best described as being extremely dark, but also "playful" in its sense of sadism at the same time, if that makes sense, containing a pitch-black sense of humor that, at times, dares to make light of subjects such as torture, suicide, and attempted sexual assault, with a tone that I can respect turning some off of the film, due to it seeming to be in bad taste, but which I feel ends up working in the end, as it serves to immerse us in its one-of-a-kind reality, which is intended to be a heightened, distorted, funhouse mirror reflection of our own.

This is further reflected in the film's equally playful direction, as Park's style is utterly bursting at the seams with unique ideas, utilizing endlessly imaginative scene transitions, hallucinatory fantasy sequences, and elaborate, roaming cinematography (including the now legendary one-take hallway fight), all of which work to combine the gravitas of a Greek tragedy of ancient times with the jolts of a contemporary Thriller, and stylishly drive home the point that, like the man said, regardless of how small your sin may seem to you personally, "be it a rock or a grain of sand, in water they sink the same".

Favorite Moment:

Final Score: 8.5, or



Batman Returns (Burton, '92):



The Bat, The Cat, The Penguin

WARNING: spoilers below
I was never really a big fan of Warner Brother's original series of Batman films on the whole, as they generally seemed unable to find the proper tone or strike the right balance between style and substance, a criticism which absolutely applies to Tim Burton's original Batman, as Burton seemed more interested in developing the character of Gotham City than in focusing on the film's actual characters. That being said, however, I can certainly make an exception for its sequel, 1992's Batman Returns; sure, it has its fair share of problems, not the least of which is its occasionally overbearing, overly dark tone, which got plenty of parental backlash at the time, and earned the ire of McDonald's and their tie-in line of movie toys, but it mostly makes up for that with plenty of Burton's signature stylistic flair, an overall sense of dark fun, and dare I say it, a surprising amount of substance, at least when it comes to the film's central relationship.

Admittedly, the story proceeds in fits and starts, kind of awkwardly going from one random plot tangent to another with basically every new scene, which shows the difficulty screenwriter Daniel Waters had in balancing the film's four major characters, not to mention all the supporting players (although the stream-of-consciousness plotting kind of enhances the film's overall dreamlike quality, and the dialogue, to Waters' credit, is relentlessly snappy and quotable). At any rate, smooth storytelling isn't really the main appeal of Returns anyway, in light of the film's incredible style and atmosphere, balancing out the inherent artificiality of its soundstage-bound Gotham City with a rich, chilly Christmas time ambience (and the typically cheerful spirit of the holiday makes for a great seasonal contrast with the film's overall tortured, cynical tone), and Returns also benefits greatly from Stefan Czapsky's grand, elegantly sweeping cinematography, Danny Elfman's darkly whimsical score, Bo Welch's gothic production design, which withers Gotham under the granite stare of massive, oppressive, ominipresent statues, and Burton's macabre stylistic flourishes, and incredibly colorful, limitless sense of imagination (or at least, it seemed limitless at this point in his career... ahem).

And the characters in Returns are just as exaggerated as its aesthetics, whether it be Christopher Walken's slimy, brash, corrupt retail mogul Max Schreck, or Danny DeVito's monstrously deformed, manically ranting Penguin, though these parts are over-the-top to a fault at times, especially DeVito, who, although he puts in a technically strong performance here, his character is still so needlessly, distractingly revolting and lecherous that he eventually just becomes tiresome to watch, which leaves Selina Kyle as the best character here, portrayed in an iconic (and unfortunately, not Oscar-nominated) turn by Michelle Pfeiffer. While she approaches campy caricature herself sometimes as a pre-transformation Selina or the avenging feminist Catwoman, as either an outsized parody of a frizzy, bespectacled, bumbling nerd, or that nerd's silly idea of what a predatory femme fatale from Hollywood would act like in real life, she's still always utterly convincing regardless of which mode she's in, and she shines her brightest when she just gets to be herself, which is ironically the side of Selina who has no idea just who she is, as she's caught between the two warring factions of her personality in a portrayal that's both incredibly passionate, hopelessly sad, and ultimately lost at the same time, as a woman who can't help but be torn apart by the struggle between the vengeful vigilante she's become, and the normal person she wishes she could be.

Her undeniable onscreen chemistry with Bruce even gives his character some substance by association, as, when he's doing the mandatory crime-fighting as Batman, he's often just a silent, glowering presence, one that's often forced to take a backseat in his own film, but his tragic romance with Selina, and the way they can't help but be drawn to one another because of the inner pain from their dual/dueling identities (which is also the reason why they're doomed to never be together in the end) is what gives his character some actual dimension here, certainly moreso than in the '89 film, where Burton hardly seemed to care to develop him in any compelling manner. So, while certainly a flawed film in certain aspects, on the whole, Batman Returns still manages to be a satisfying sort of superhero fairy tale, one that, although its quirky sensibilities do take some getting used to, they're still enjoyable once you adjust to them, so give it a chance, will ya?

Favorite Moment:


Final Score: 8



Showing up to a masquerade party without masks. Brilliant.



Showing up to a masquerade party without masks. Brilliant.
Gives us a good idea of which side of themselves they consider to be the true "mask", and which side is the real them, doesn't it? ; )



In Cold Blood (Brooks, '67):



I thought Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman... I thought so right up to the time I cut his throat.

WARNING: spoilers below
Despite how ahead-of-its-time Truman Capote's "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood was considered at the time of its release (a book which, to be perfectly honest, I still haven't read), I suspect that the film was likely just as groundbreaking within its own medium; after all, since it was released in 1967, it played side-by-side in theaters with such watersheds as Bonnie & Clyde and The Graduate, films which helped pushed the envelopes on cinematic portrayals of sex & violence, but most importantly, advanced the cinematic style of Hollywood film by light years, leaving behind a legacy that's still felt in the industry to this day. However, though it was slightly buried in that year's box office compared to those two juggernauts, In Cold Blood is still just as intense and devastating an experience as ever, feeling as though it's barely aged a day since its release 50 years ago, making it rank as my current favorite film from that legendary year, and also just one of the best movies I've seen from any year, period.

The film tells the true story of Dick Hickock & Perry Smith, two ex-convicts who, in November of 1959, robbed and murdered the Clutters, an idyllic family of Kansas farmers, as the title says, "in cold blood". However, while the murders are obviously the film's inciting incident, director Richard Brooks smartly doesn't structure it as such, instead, showing us what happened just before and after that fateful night, revealing to us chilling details in its aftermath, such as a severed phone cord, a bloody shoeprint, and the ropes that were utilized to hogtie the Clutters as they waited to be slaughtered. The police investigation of, community reactions to, and journalistic reportings on the crime are presented as a parallel track in the film to Dick and Perry's short-lived life on the run, as they drift from Mexico to back to Kansas and all points inbetween, before being apprehended for a final time during a gambling trip to Vegas.

All this time on the road gives us ample opportunity to gain deeper insights into both men, delving intimately into both their individual and shared psychologies; Dick, played by a fresh off In The Heat Of The Night Scott Wilson, is casually, arrogantly psychopathic​, but is nonetheless humanized by his dark "friendship" with Perry, and by the way he very humanly cracks under the weight of crimes once he's brought to justice, while Perry himself, agonizingly portrayed by Robert Blake, is the product of an unfaithful, alcoholic mother, a physically & emotionally abusive father, and a damaged childhood in general. He's an awkward, pathetic, broken man, both physically and mentally, constantly gulping down aspirin in the hopes of quelling at least one of his many pains, and the tense, uneasy relationship Dick & Perry share throughout the film give In Cold Blood its backbone, as we travel with, and grow to somehow pity both of these confessed killers, reminding us that even the "monsters" among us are still, at the end of the day, fellow human beings as well, no matter how reprehensible they may seem at first.

The horror of their relationship culminates during the night of the murders, which Richard Brooks brilliantly flashes back to for the climax of the film, giving the scene a tremendous weight it would've lacked if we hadn't already spent so much time getting to know these characters, and the pivotal, long-delayed sequence doesn't disappoint when it finally arrives, lasting for over 15 minutes, and showing us in agonizing detail the step-by-step process of the robbery, as Dick & Perry intrude upon and restrain the Clutters, searching futilely for a rumored safe full of money that isn't even there. The whole sequence is vividly captured by Conrad Hall's stark, intensely intimate black-&-white cinematography, and plays out in almost complete silence on the soundtrack, as the desolate Kansas wind howls outside like some sort haunted spectre, and, when the murders finally do happen, they are almost as upsetting to witness on film as they would have been in person, and, though hardly graphic in its level of violence by today's jaded standards, the sequence is nonetheless captured with an incredible intensity that was not only unseen in the films of that time, but remains rare even today, proving that indeed, sometimes less is much, much more.

This intensity that is delivered during the film's centerpiece scene is reflected throughout the entirety of In Cold Blood, rendering the before and afters of the massacre equally memorable in their vividness, and the film doesn't try and make a real sort of sense or meaning out of the central tragedy, portraying it equally as senseless on film as it really was in life. And, at the end, as the gallow trapdoor opens and Smith falls to the end of his rope for his crimes, there are no more answers to give, just the sound of the man's heart slowly stopping, as the film fades away into black one last time.

Favorite Moment:





Final Score: 10



Man, I love the title of your thread
Heh, thank you; I actually took it from the name of an old review thread I was doing back on the Corrie forum back in 2013, but I figured if I was making another one here, why fix what isn't broken, eh?



A system of cells interlinked
Hi Stu!

If you want to convert the ratings over to the site's official rating system, which is the popcorn box system, we can tag your reviews for the site's database.

To use the rating system, use the following code, but simply remove the asterisks...

[rating*]3_5[/rating*]

That would get you a three and a half out of five, or matched against your current rankings, a seven out of ten. Just change the number in the middle to alter the rating.

Thanks and have fun, and last but not least, thank you for sharing your reviews!
__________________
“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.” ― Thomas Sowell



The book In Cold Blood is definitely quality stuff, intense enough to almost completely burn the talent out of one of America's brightest writing talents. And it also offers up some different perspectives on the crime and its after effects (particularly on the author himself). But the film, in its way, is just as good.



I just watched In Cold Blood for the first time last week. Feels like a slow burn of a movie, I'll probably like it more so the next time thru.



The book In Cold Blood is definitely quality stuff, intense enough to almost completely burn the talent out of one of America's brightest writing talents. And it also offers up some different perspectives on the crime and its after effects (particularly on the author himself). But the film, in its way, is just as good.
Yeah, I definitely need to read it sometime, especially when considering how much I've always loved the film; I have seen Capote though, which, although I'm not sure just how accurate it is to history, is still a great film in its own right. But, back to In Cold Blood (the movie), it still amazes me how ahead of its time it was stylistically, especially when you consider that less than a decade prior to it, Richard Brooks was directing stuff like Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, which almost couldn't have been any more Classical Hollywood (and thus, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum from ICB); way to make the transition, Brooks!
I just watched In Cold Blood for the first time last week. Feels like a slow burn of a movie, I'll probably like it more so the next time thru.
I wouldn't say it's a "slow burn" in its pacing, so much as it is patient and well-detailed in building up its story. Of course, it may feel slower at first because it puts off showing us what happened the night of the murders for so long, but in my opinion, that's the only decision that makes sense in the context of the film's structure.



A recent conversation about the surprisingly progressive politics/portrayals in Total Recall inspired to write this little multi-part essay on that aspect of the film, and I didn't have a better place here to post it, so I'm temporarily resurrecting this thread in order to do so; enjoy!

Total Recall, Fully Forward



Part One: Capitalism

The most obvious of Total Recall's progressive aspects, and a result of the astonishment that Paul Verhoeven (a Dutch expatriate) had at the excesses of American life, is the film's running anti-Capitalist themes, which have rarely been expressed as explicitly in a Hollywood blockbuster as they were here. This is done through the film's major sub-plot concerning the Martian "mutants", formerly normal people who have been physically warped by generations of poor environmental conditions on the red planet, as they live there as a downtrodden, Marxist-esque underclass, and are engaged in a guerilla struggle against Cohagen, the avaricious corporate overlord who labels the freedom fighters as terrorists on the news, grotesquely exploits Mars for its natural resources, and literally charges people to breath air there (and that's before he nearly kills an entire district of people by slowly suffocating them to death, merely as a warning to the others to cease resisting him), making him a stark contrast to Quaid, the film's protagonist, who instead freely gives oxygen to everyone on the planet equally, regardless of their social status, in a sort of Socialist-style redistribution of resources.

Because of that, Cohagen is a character who should seem cartoonishly evil, and may have been perceived as such upon the film's release, but who increasingly mirrors reality with each day that passes in the real world, as a Trumpian wet dream of a cross between a CEO and a planetary dictator, and the most unbelievable aspect of Cohagen's characterization now is his refusal to terraform Mars being because of his mistaken belief that it would cause a "planetary meltdown", and not because it would merely cut into his profit margin, since fossil fuel executives are literally refusing to stop a meltdown on this planet for the exact same reason right now.



Part Two: Race



Besides that, the racial component of Total Recall also have to be noted as being fairly progressive, in both the in-film realit(ies), as well as from an external, real-world view, since, when you look at the film in the former regard, it's striking that it avoids the weary old Hollywood trope of "ugly = evil", as the race of mutated Martians, although physically disfigured in one way or another, aren't portrayed as monsters as a whole, but as innocent, exploited civillians in general (with awesome psychic powers to boot), as opposed to the way that Cohagen's outward status as a "normal"-looking human masks his inner greed and evil, which is infinitely uglier than any of the mutants he created.

At the same time, the film's inclusion of Bennie also helps to balance that aspect out, as the cabbie reveals himself to not just be a mutant in one of the film's most impressive displays of its animatronic effects (which is saying something), but also a turncoat for hire later on as well, which not only avoids a moral one-dimensonality in its portrayal of the mutants, but also subverts the seemingly simplistic portrayal of him as the film's "token black friend" who's mostly just along for the ride with the white protagonist, as he has an agency and agenda of his own, one that stands in direct opposition to our heroes, which is a stark contrast to someone like Argyle in Die Hard, a fairly stock character in an otherwise very good Action movie (although your mileage may vary as to whether the good aspects of Bennie's characterization get cancelled out by the fact that he, the film's sole major Black character, is ultimately portrayed as a negative, untrustworthy figure).

And besides that, the casting of Rachel Ticotin as Melina, the film's female lead, and its impact on her characterization (or lack thereof, to be more accurate) is also highly noticable, as Ticotin is half-Puerto Rican, but her ethnicity is never even remotely acknowledged anywhere in the film, which not only makes perfect sense, considering that every human in the film is technically an "alien" on Mars, but also contrasts to the way that a contemporary work of Sci-Fi/Action, that being the otherwise excellent Aliens, presents a comparable character with Vasquez, who has a stereotypically Latin name and a few token Spanish lines of dialogue, but is portrayed by Jennette Goldstein, who is clearly a white actress wearing brownface, while also putting on a phony "Latino" accent when she talks to boot. In other words, she's an explicitly Latina character who is whitewashed by being played by a non-Latina, while Melina is a character that just so happens to be portrayed by a Latina actress, with the latter aspect not affecting anything about her characterization, which is still a refreshing creative choice to this day.

Additionally, the racial contrast between Melina and the film's other major female character, that of Quaid treachorous "wife" Lori, is very note-worthy, as Lori looks like she was created in a lab to perfectly fit a Hollywood exec's idea of conventional, blonde-haired/blue-eyed WASP-y beauty in the film, but is nonetheless ultimately rejected by our also-white protagonist in favor of a woman who is portrayed by an actress with darker skin, as the film features an inter-racial relationship without having to be all about that relationship like so many others; it's just there, a racial dynamic that is still disappointingly rare in modern Hollywood, let alone over three decades ago.



Part Three: Gender/Sexuality



This leads into the final progressive aspect of Total Recall, which are its sexual/gender dynamics, which is noticeable in a moment as small as, when a Rekall technician inquires about Quaid's sexual orientation, he answers with as brief and neutral a response as possible ("Hetero"), instead of replying with an unnecessary remark about how he isn't some "*insert homophobic slur here*", which, while a seemingly minor detail, is still notable as an early example of an Action movie implicitly acknowledging the existence of other sexual orientations in a non-disparaging manner, a stark contrast to Jesse Ventura's comment about "slack-jawed *aggots" in Predator.

However, Total Recall is really notable for its progressive portrayal of women on the whole, highlighted by the portrayal and contrasts between the major female characters, as Lori is portrayed by Sharon Stone, an actress who, while her sheer talent can't be denied, it's also impossible to ignore the fact her career was partially built on her physical beauty (I mean, her first film credit was literally called "Pretty Girl On Train"), as she was in the middle of establishing her image as one of the biggest sex symbols of her era when she filmed this, so it makes for little surprise when she's in some of the Total Recall's sexier moments (like the gratuitous titillation of the workout scene, one of the few truly regressive scenes here), or that she was the one who ended up posing in Playboy to promote the film, even though she's arguably not the female lead. Additionally, the film seems to play up the fact that Stone's character never looks anything other than perfectly coiffed and made up, whether she's just woken up from a night's sleep, engaged in a number of intense, hand-to-hand fights to the death, or even had a bloody bullethole put through the middle of her forehead, which is emphasized with a close-up of her face, where she almost appears to just be sleeping beautifully, as opposed to, y'know... being dead (although it's also worth noting that she's still portrayed as being able to hold her own in combat with Schwarzenegger's Quaid at one point, showing that she's more than just the token sex object here).

She makes for quite the contrast with Melina, who is literally the woman of Quaid's dreams from the get-go, despite the presence of a seductive, nightgown-clad Lori in the bed beside him, and who is made a reality (sort of) when Quaid describes her to the Rekall technicians, choosing to make her body type athletic, even though "voluptuous" was the first option offered, while also choosing a sleazy personality for her before his relaxed, sedated state of mind results in the more honest preference of "demure". This contradiction is reflected in the first time he meets her "for real", as she seems to be working as a prostitute on Mars, and comes onto Quaid with some trashy body language and one-liners, before revealing her true self by taking him in private, giving him some comparatively chaste kisses (and nothing steamier, despite their complete privacy) and informing Quaid that, rather than a prostitute, she's really an undercover agent for the mutant resistance. She then rejects Quaid due to his unfaithfulness for having a "wife" back on Earth, as well as mistrusting his amnesia issues, displaying an unusual amount of agency for a female love interest, one that's completely independent of our male protagonist, and quite a far cry from, say, Vicki Vale in the previous year's Batman (also, it's worth noting that, since Lori is the one sleeping with Quaid due to her employment by "The Agency", in a sense she's much more of a prostitute than Melina is).

Then again, part of Melina's non-stereotypical presentation is apparent from the first moment Quaid sees her, since, even posing as a hooker, she's still dressed surprisingly modestly, even though she has the perfect excuse not to, with her leggings belaying the skin that her mini-skirt would've displayed otherwise, and with the camera never lingering to leer at any part of her anatomy at any point (in fact, the movie's only real example of "male gaze", when Lori falls over after being knocked out by Quaid, appears to be more of a result of a botched stunt than any intentional leering on the part of the cinematographer). And, while society obviously continues to have different (double) standards of nudity depending on the gender of the person portrayed, it's still worth noting that Arnie still technically shows more skin in one moment than either of the film's major female characters at any point, and, while there's still the mutant Martian prostitute who flashes her three-breasted chest multiple times, even that's a subversion of traditional male-focused titillation, with the actress displaying what is clearly a mutated, fake chest (and not the kind of "fake" one that men would typically enjoy, either).

Anyway, Melina dresses even more modestly later on when she full-on assumes the mantle of woman of action, coming to rescue a completely helpless Quaid, and single-handedly taking out a group of thugs as they attempt to abduct him from his futuristic hotel room. Of course, she then engages in a "catfight" with Lori, but even that's another example of the film subverting genre expectations, as the blows the two exchange with each other are as brutal as any that two men would typically trade onscreen (there's no stereotypical scratch/slaps, in other words), and on top of that, neither woman suffers from any conveniently arousing examples of clothing damage during the fight either, even though, again, there's a perfect excuse for it. Melina then goes on to leads the amnesiac fish-out-water Quaid through the (literally) alien world of Mars, serving as his sole contact with the underground mutant resistance, which makes it clear he would be up a creek without a paddle if it wasn't for her assistance, before she resists Cohagen's attempt to brainwash her into being a "properly" submissive woman by defiantly spitting in his face in response.

Finally, for the climax, she engages in a shootout side-by-(holographic) side with Quaid, further emphasizing her equality with him within the film, and, while there's a moment where the two of them get separated, giving the film the perfect opportunity to have Quaid go ahead without her and save the planet single-handedly, this is yet another expectation that gets swerved when Quaid finds himself helpless at the hands of the main villain, surely ending up dead if Melina didn't unexpectedly show up to (again) save his life, sharing an equal role with him in saving the day, and sharing one last triumphant kiss before the final fade to black (or white, in this case). This completes Quaid's rejection of the more stereotypical fantasy woman he had earlier for the woman of action that Melina is, which is a striking subversion of conventional Hollywood portrayals of women, and drives home once and for all just how progressive Total Recall really was, and still is, to this day.

The End



Great write up, man. Growing up in a more conservative town I remember watching Total Recall when I was around 12 or 13 and loving it, but being uncomfortable with how totally normal homosexuality was treated. That small little detail really stuck out for me. Little did I know that this movie was doing some early chipping away at the eventual complete collapse of my conservative way of thinking.

Total Recall made us better people.



Great write up, man. Growing up in a more conservative town I remember watching Total Recall when I was around 12 or 13 and loving it, but being uncomfortable with how totally normal homosexuality was treated. That small little detail really stuck out for me. Little did I know that this movie was doing some early chipping away at the eventual complete collapse of my conservative way of thinking.

Total Recall made us better people.
Thanks, PA! And yeah, it is a little detail, but as they say, big things have small beginnings, and I like to think that it helped eventually pave the way for neutrally-depicted same-sex relationships in stuff like Deadpool 2, or (like I said earlier in my review) the 100% equal, gender-blind partnership between Max & Furiosa in Fury Road, you know?



Anyway, what I wrote about Total Recall inspired me to start another multi-part essay series, this one about the history of gender portrayals in Action movies, so get ready!

Men And Women Of Action: When Genre And Gender Collide



Intro

When it comes to movie genres, there is perhaps no more of a boy's club than the Action movie, which tends to be viewed as quintessentially male as, say, Romantic Comedies are seen as feminine, with the stereotypical cultural image of the genre including lots of massive, bulging biceps, super-macho leading men, and humongous automatic weapons that might as well be metallic extensions of those men's phalluses. However, while there is a grain of truth to this perception, the overall relationship between Action movies and gender is actually far more complicated than that, not just when it comes to the depictions of men inside the genre (as well as in the movies adjacent to it), but for the women as well, so I would like to use this essay in order to explore this fascinating subject for just a little while, to criticize the many things it's gotten wrong over the years, as well as to praise it for the things it's gotten right; hope you guys (and girls) enjoy!