The Running Man
Just finished watching "The Running Man" released by Paramount.
Now I did not see "The Running Man" when it was first released in theaters back in 1988.
Mom, Dad, Selma Franz, and I first saw "The Running Man" when it first aired on HBO back in 1989 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Back then - in the Dark Ages - there were no streaming services and it usually took about a year, or longer, for a movie to be shown on HBO, Showtime, and other cable services. Also, while VHS tapes and VHS players were common place, DVDs and DVD players were still relatively new and expensive technology. Of course, during this time, Arnold Scharzenegger was still an up and coming action hero on the silver screen fresh off his role as "The Terminator."
"The Running Man" is based on the novel by Stephen King, which was written under his Richard Bachman pseudonym at a time when nobody in the general public knew that Bachman was actually King in disguise.
While both the novel and the movie adaptation are set in a dystopian future, that is where the similarities end. In the ending of the original novel, Ben Richards is killed when he crashes a plane into a building, killing Dan Killian in the process.
What's surprising about this adaptation of "The Running Man" - and unfortunately there is a remake that is scheduled to be released later in 2025 - is that it still holds up as an exploration of how social media can be used to control the behavior of populations - something you probably didn't expect from an Arnold Schwarzenenegger movie.
In a nutshell, Schwarzenenegger plays a special police trooper Ben Richards who refuses to fire on unarmed food rioters and is arrested. Society has been transformed into a totalitarian nightmare where the masses are controlled through the media and spoon-fed various gameshows such as 'Climbing for Dollars' where people try to avoid attack dogs and earn cash prizes, and of course the most popular, the Running Man. The Running Man itself is a gameshow in which fugitives are released into 200 square blocks (the "game zone") of burnt out LA and then chased around by stalkers as a live studio audience watches. Richards and his comrades end up in The Running Man show and are chased around by some colorful and entertaining stalkers. The film does a fairly good job of playing around with the underlying social commentaries of fascism and media control. Stalkers are picked to chase our heroes by housewives who like them "big and cuddly," audience members are chosen a la The Price is Right to win extra prizes including "The Running Man Home Version" board game, and as Richards smashes, bludgeons, mauls, and one-liners his way through the various stalkers sent to kill him, he gradually wins over the crowd, and manages to roll back the media control gripping the masses.
There is no neat resolution to "The Running Man."
Richards does kill Killian by giving him a taste of his own medicine and putting him in the game, and Richards is exonerated of the crimes he was falsely accused of when the truth is broadcast all over the world, but the corrupt government takes back over the satellite feed at the end of the movie, so you don't know if a revolution has started.
Strongly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Running-Man-Ar...
Now I did not see "The Running Man" when it was first released in theaters back in 1988.
Mom, Dad, Selma Franz, and I first saw "The Running Man" when it first aired on HBO back in 1989 at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Back then - in the Dark Ages - there were no streaming services and it usually took about a year, or longer, for a movie to be shown on HBO, Showtime, and other cable services. Also, while VHS tapes and VHS players were common place, DVDs and DVD players were still relatively new and expensive technology. Of course, during this time, Arnold Scharzenegger was still an up and coming action hero on the silver screen fresh off his role as "The Terminator."
"The Running Man" is based on the novel by Stephen King, which was written under his Richard Bachman pseudonym at a time when nobody in the general public knew that Bachman was actually King in disguise.
While both the novel and the movie adaptation are set in a dystopian future, that is where the similarities end. In the ending of the original novel, Ben Richards is killed when he crashes a plane into a building, killing Dan Killian in the process.
What's surprising about this adaptation of "The Running Man" - and unfortunately there is a remake that is scheduled to be released later in 2025 - is that it still holds up as an exploration of how social media can be used to control the behavior of populations - something you probably didn't expect from an Arnold Schwarzenenegger movie.
In a nutshell, Schwarzenenegger plays a special police trooper Ben Richards who refuses to fire on unarmed food rioters and is arrested. Society has been transformed into a totalitarian nightmare where the masses are controlled through the media and spoon-fed various gameshows such as 'Climbing for Dollars' where people try to avoid attack dogs and earn cash prizes, and of course the most popular, the Running Man. The Running Man itself is a gameshow in which fugitives are released into 200 square blocks (the "game zone") of burnt out LA and then chased around by stalkers as a live studio audience watches. Richards and his comrades end up in The Running Man show and are chased around by some colorful and entertaining stalkers. The film does a fairly good job of playing around with the underlying social commentaries of fascism and media control. Stalkers are picked to chase our heroes by housewives who like them "big and cuddly," audience members are chosen a la The Price is Right to win extra prizes including "The Running Man Home Version" board game, and as Richards smashes, bludgeons, mauls, and one-liners his way through the various stalkers sent to kill him, he gradually wins over the crowd, and manages to roll back the media control gripping the masses.
There is no neat resolution to "The Running Man."
Richards does kill Killian by giving him a taste of his own medicine and putting him in the game, and Richards is exonerated of the crimes he was falsely accused of when the truth is broadcast all over the world, but the corrupt government takes back over the satellite feed at the end of the movie, so you don't know if a revolution has started.
Strongly Recommended.
Five Stars.
https://www.amazon.com/Running-Man-Ar...
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