Netflix pick for 4/25/16 – ‘The Running Man’

As heard in episode 172 of Cinema Crespodiso.

From 1987, “The Running Man” is a sci-fi action adaptation of a Stephen King book from five years, a book that posited that the world would be in ruins and America will have devolved into an outright fascist dystopia in which the populace is partially placated by violent, state-run reality television, all in the far off and unimaginable year of 2025. That’s actually not that inaccurate, is it? And the movie actually sets the story in 2017 and mostly in 2019, and right now we all know we are just one bad presidential choice away from Pat Sajak hosting the government “sponsored” reimagining of “American Idol” meets “American Gladiators.” We’re talking about a classic Rome is burning scenario, and people are busy placing bets on which contestants will die first. This is the world of “The Running Man” and it started out as Orwellian-inspired ridiculous science fiction and now exists as an actually plausible future.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is Ben Richards, a man framed by the government for a senseless massacre of poor people, and he breaks out of his prison only to be caught and coerced into participating in the state’s “The Running Man” television show, in which he is released into a large game arena and then chased down by guys called Stalkers, who are like really bad wrestling personalities but with actual weapons. So Buzzsaw uses chainsaws, Subzero is a hockey player (?!) and an opera singing fat guy with lights all over his suit is called Dynamo and he somehow shoots electricity out of his suit. These guys are very big and over the top characters, which makes sense because they are producing a television show and they have to keep the people entertained.

The best parts of “The Running Man,” besides obviously Schwarzenegger hanging out with Yaphet Kotto and killing people and delivering awesome and cheesy one-liners, are all the elements around the game show. They got “Family Feud” host Richard Dawson to play the lead executive and show host, and he is not only great at playing the smarmy and outwardly evil television exec but obviously he makes for a great tv show host because that’s what he was doing for a real living. He brought all that experience, he tweaked his public image and he made for an awesome movie villain. It is also really funny to watch the in studio audience cheer on these horrible tv show, as well as the poor people outside betting on the outcome, and the best scene is probably when an audience member is asked to pick which Stalker would win and she sacks up and picks Ben Richards to win instead, causing the audience to turn and start cheering him on, which is lunacy in the eyes of the tv network, ergo the government. He’s the criminal, the element that must be suppressed, the unfortunate soul who must be made an example of for the benefit of the rest of the public, and instead he’s winning them over and he’s becoming their hero, and if he beats the Stalkers, then he beats the system, and they can not have it appear as if the system can be beaten, can they?

Of course on the surface “The Running Man” is a ridiculous sci-fi action flick with the (at that time) world’s biggest movie star, but it is a little smarter and a little deeper than most people might give it credit for, and if you are paying attention at the world around you and see what is happening in the media and in society, you might look into this movie and be startled to see that it is looking back at us.

See for yourself and watch “The Running Man” here on the Netflix Instant and you tell me if you don’t see a possible version of our 2019 in this thing.