THE SPECIALIST
US, 1994, 110 minutes, Colour.
Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Rod Steiger, Eric Roberts.
Directed by Luis Loosa.
There is action in The Specialist and some explosive special effects. However, it is obviously designed as a star vehicle for Stallone and Stone (who, in fact, don't meet until almost the end of the film). To that extent it is a somewhat cynically commercial exercise, especially capitalising on the body-flexing of both stars. It makes no major demands on their acting talents. In that department, James Woods steals the show. He has often been a smart-talking, sinister villain – and he is again here. It is he who makes the plot of ex-CIA explosives specialists employed for assassinations more interesting than it might have been.
The film is an example of Hollywood pulp fiction – and the description by Michael Atkinson in Sight and Sound (1995) is to the point: Pulp is by definition yesterday’s trash, garnished with nostalgic kitsch. Contemporary B movies and fiction won't be real pulp until decades hence … True pulp is most often badly conceived, crudely executed and has little to recommend it beyond the allure of juvenile lust and the smell of ripe cheese. It brings us down a peg or two, it throws raw porterhouse into our own inner psychopath’s rusty cage, and best of all, it never minds if we don’t think very highly of it. Like a cheap whore, it prefers that we simply do our dirty business and be on our way.
The Specialist seems to fit this kind of description.
1. The popularity of this kind of pulp fiction action? The popularity of Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone – at this time?
2. The Florida settings, the rich mansions, the Keys, the boats, the sunshine state?
3. The title, the background of the CIA specialists, explosives experts, assassinations, the amoral stances of the CIA and its work?
4. The film as a revenge story, the relationship between Ned and Quick, May and her reaction against her husband? Trent and his wanting revenge on Quick?
5. The prologue, the action, the explosives experts, the situation, the children on the bus, Quick’s decision, Trent’s decision, deaths? The falling out of the two men?
6. The character of Ray, Sylvester Stallone, the honourable hero even in this CIA situation? The contrast with Ned, his moral decisions, lack of scruples? The confrontation between the two and their falling out?
7. May, Sharon Stone, her screen presence? Her relationship with Joel Leon? With Leon’s son? Her story, the phone call to Ray, Ned using her?
8. Leon, his family, his drug interests, wealth? The Cuban background? His relationship with his son? May and her place?
9. The administration of justice, the murders?
10. Ned, his place with Leon, security, his way of life, wealth, personality, his ranting and raving style?
11. Ned and Ray, the phone call, the set-up, the clash between the two?
12. Thomas, his personality, relationship with May? His death, the funeral, his father’s grief? May and her precarious situation?
13. May and the contact with Ray, his not wanting to follow through, his not realising how she was a set-up? The trap? The sexual relationship, the sensuality, the consequences? The hotel? The explosions, the apartment going into the water? May and her disappearing, the fact that she was not dead?
14. Ray, the final set-up, the wiring of the building? The death of Leon? Trent and his attempts to destroy Ray? The explosions? Deaths?
15. The happy ending for this kind of pulp fiction? Happily ever after or not?
