Today we celebrate 30 years of Arnold getting a Raw Deal.
Sandwiched between Commando (1985) and Predator (1987) in
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s film career is the bizarrely miscast starring role in Raw Deal, which celebrates its 30th
anniversary on June 6th. Arnold plays Mark Kaminsky, a former F.B.I.
agent that was forced to resign and now serves as the sheriff in a small town. The end result is kicking Arnold kicking some
major ass along the way to the background tunes of some classic 1980’s style action
music.
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| I'm so tired of all this violence. Can't I just make a comedy for once? Someone call Danny Devito! |
All of this has the makings to be a great action movie and
for the most part it delivers. It has nice camerawork and it is finely directed
by John Irvin, who had also made Dogs of
War and Hamburger Hill. The
cinematography was done by Alexander Thomson, who had previously worked under
director Nicholas Roeg and served as cinematographer on Excalibur, Eureka, Year of
the Dragon, and Legend before
shooting Raw Deal. The location
settings inside and outside of Chicago are superb. The editing is slick and
well paced by Anne Coates, who had been nominated for an Academy Award for
Editing five times for Lawrence of
Arabia, Becket, The Elephant Man, In the Line of Fire, and Out of Sight. The supporting cast is
excellent with McGavin as an F.B.I. agent and Sam Wanamaker, Paul Shenar, and
Robert Davi as the main bad guys. The action is intense and fast paced,
featuring a great car chase in Chicago and along Lake Michigan, several fight
scenes, the highly memorable gravel pit battle sequence, a high body count, and
an epic apartment gun fight finale.
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| This leather jacket is getting hot but it's so damn sexy. |
So with all of those positives what could have possibly
knocked this one down? Unfortunately, it was the miscasting of Schwarzenegger
in this role. He is not believable as someone that would’ve been able to
infiltrate the Italian mafia. There is simply no way that they would have let
this monster with a still heavy Austrian accent rumble in and become a major
player in their organization. He agreed to star in this one in order to get out
of a multi-picture contract that he then had with Dino De Laurentiis. At the
same time, De Laurentiis was hoping to get some quick cash out of this film in
order to make Total Recall starring
Patrick Swayze.
Ironically this one failed, which led to the studios bankruptcy
and the rights to Total Recall being
sold to another company. It would eventually be released in 1990 starring
Schwarzenegger. This picture though would have been better off with someone
like Swayze or a Steven Seagal, who wasn’t quite in the industry yet. It just
needed someone who would’ve been more authentic in the role of a mafia thug.
If you can get past the terrible miscasting, Raw Deal is a fun 1980’s action flick
with plenty of one liners and a large body count.
Grab your guns and share this review.
Grab your guns and share this review.
Score
-Raul Vantassle