RUNNING MAN
US, 1987, 96 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown.
Directed by Paul Michael Glaser.
Running Man is a futuristic fable in the vein of The Blade runner. It is set in Los Angeles in the year 2019, shows concentration camps, shows the focus of popular entertainment and television and a gladiatorial game modelled on quiz shows. This is reminiscent of Logan's Run.
The story is based on a novel by Richard Bachman, a pseudonym for Steven King. The film serves as a vehicle for Arnold Schwarzenegger - who appears to be a bit more comfortable with the blend of ultra strong heroics and deadpan lines that he is given. An interesting, entertaining, if violent, science fiction parable. It was directed by Paul Michael Glazer, of Starsky and Hutch, who also directed Band of the Hand.
1. An Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle? Audience expectations? Tough action? Right-wing perspective on law and order?
2. The blend of science fiction and imagination about the future? Films like 1984, Blade runner, Logan's Run? A film of deadly games, parallel to the Roman Colosseum and gladiatorial combat? Action, heroics, spoof? The work of Stephen King?
3. The presentation of the future: the camps and their ugliness, the city slums, the 1984 use of the television set, the games shows and their audiences, the contrast with luxury? The world of the TV studios? The area for combat, the squalor and the factories? Special effects and stunts? Musical score?
4. The focus on the camp, totalitarian regimes, the escape, the use of computers, the men and their desperation, as a group, having to trust each other? The escape, the man who rushed early? The television screens, the slums? The game 'Running Man' and its effect?
5. Ben as hero: Arnold Schwarzenegger's style? His story, the massacre, the video of his barbarity, the irony of its having been edited and his innocence? The real-video? In prison, getting out? The trust of the group?. The doctor and the underground? His brother's apartment and the encounter with Amber? Going on the holiday, the airport, his being caught? Damon Killian and game guest, Ben taken, medical
examination, drugs, the clothes for the game show?
6. The game show, the work of Damon Killian, publicity and the crowd adulation? Ben and his stance against Damon? The crowd, the slide, the run, the stalkers and their violence, meeting his friends and their being projected into the chase? The pursuit, the violence? The death of the stalkers and audience reaction? The buzz-saw man, the stalker with fire, the dynamo? Battle of wits and strength?
7. Amber, in the apartment, the encounter with Ben, at the airport, giving him away, the information on the television set, her questions, checking the files, being caught, made a guest for the game, the chute, the pursuit, with the computer expert, knowing the code, sharing the dangers with Ben?
8. The death of his friends, the wounding of the negro, the code-breaker and the electrocution? A sense of mission, the underground, giving the code, jamming the airwaves, the final attack?
9. The stalkers and their violence, the irony about the three winners being on holidays in Hawaii and their skeletons? Killian's invitation to Ben to become a stalker? The fake death and the tape?
10. Killian and their people, the Roman bloodlust, the contestants and the spoof about questions and guesses, the prizes, the woman choosing Ben? The office parties, the betting in the slums, the crowd's sympathies and fickleness?
11. Damon and his crew, the contact with the Justice Department, a tyrant, his trying to bargain with Ben---pushing the stalkers out, their deaths, trying to control audience reaction? The final confrontation with Ben? His going down the chute and his violent death?
12. The battle to win? A fable about a violent future? A violent present?
