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The Running Man (1987)

 
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Bogmeister
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 11:42 pm    Post subject: The Running Man (1987) Reply with quote

___________________________________________

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is THE RUNNING MAN
RUN, ARNOLD, RUN!




MARIA CONCHITA ALONSO * YAPHET KOTTO * and RICHARD DAWSON
Director: PAUL-MICHAEL GLASER


Based on a quickly-written story by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman pseudonym), this became a very loose adaptation once Schwarzenegger was enlisted to play the main character.

The intent was to convey the perverse attraction of TV bloodsports to a mass audience, a modern-day recreation of the popular coliseum of the old Roman Empire. However, with the muscular action lead taking center stage, the main point to me was that once you plug in an extra-tough, superior fighter like Arnold, the game falls apart.

This film first recalls Rollerball (1975), but other famous takes on this include the old Star Trek episode Bread and Circuses, from 1968 and Death Race 2000 (1975). There are also scenes similar to Westworld (1973), with contestants running around some ruins which function as a real world game board, while a staff sits behind-the-scenes monitoring the events.

In the plot, Arnold plays a helicopter cop in year 2019 who refuses to shoot unarmed civilians. He's framed for the mass murder anyway (hey, didn't I just see this again in Demolition Man/1993?) and sent to prison — seems like a very corrupt society.

He escapes but ends up on this crazy TV contest show in which condemned citizens run against a gauntlet of costumed 'Stalkers' — muscular, big men dressed in colorful costumes, armed with lethal, unusual weapons.

These celebrity assassins are played by big actors, like Prof. Toru Tanaka, Erland van Lidth and ex-footballer Jim Brown.

With Arnold around to fight them, this turns into an ideal gladiatorial contest, as the hero takes on differently-stylized antagonists one-by-one. Jesse Ventura plays an ex-Stalker who eventually takes Arnold's side (Jesse became governor of Minnesota later, while Arnold then became governor of California; it figures).

The entire contest is played out on 20 x 20 square blocks of ruins, the remains of an earthquake that hit L.A. in 1997.

The one who steals much of the film, however, is Richard Dawson, playing the host and enabler of this horribly violent show. Dawson, at that point, was best known as the host of the game show 'Family Feud' on TV, which had just finished a successful several-years run.

Dawson merely plays a wicked version of himself and it works; he's the ultimate smarmy villain here and, many feel, the best thing about the film. Strangely, no further film career resulted from this (I guess there were no roles revolving around game shows in Hollywood then).

It's also amusing that the downfall of Dawson's character is mostly based on the fact that he just annoys everyone quite a bit. However, details of this future society, such as about the government which is obviously very corrupt, are severely lacking, turning this into a violent comic book.

Paul Michael Glaser was hired on as director after Andrew Davis was fired and 3 other directors failed, so it's surprising that this film has any success at all.

Other recent films with similar dystopian themes are The Condemned (2007) and Death Race (2008).


Last edited by Bogmeister on Sat Oct 05, 2019 2:12 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 11:45 pm    Post subject: Running Man suit Reply with quote

__________________________________

FROM THE FORRY ACKERMAN AUCTION ON MAY 1, 2009:



Trio of costumes from The Running Man. (TriStar, 1987) A trio of signature hero Adidas jumpsuits from the 1987 action/sci fi/thriller, based on the novel by Stephen King. The hero costumes include Arnold Schwarzenegger "Ben Richards", Maria Conchita Alonso "Amber Mendez", and Marvin J. McIntyre "Harold Weiss", each with the character's name at the upper right breast, diamond stitched design along the sleeves, and "Running Man" along one side of the leg.

Each costume includes the original custom-made matching boots. The costumes have slight studio distressing, the interior foam lining has deteriorated; otherwise, they remain in excellent condition. A wonderful group of costumes from this classic science-fiction film.

$4,000 - $6,000_________ SOLD! for $4,000



A RUNNING MAN NEEDS GOOD SHOES . . . a Proverb of the Future?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 4:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

______________________

Damn, I miss Bogmeister!

His last post on All Sci-Fi was in December 2013, the month we establish this version on Randy's server. He seems to have transferred a large number of his carefully crafted posts (like the one above) over to this new board, and then he stopped posting altogether!

The old board had dozens of other posts like the one above, which must have taken him hours to create — including a series of posts about Star Trek TOS that had the look of a fine reference book on the subject.

Both the email address and the phone number I had for him stopped working back in early 2014, and I've often wondered what fate might have befallen the man who did so many great things on All Sci-Fi for five wonderful years.

He is greatly missed.

_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Sat Jun 11, 2022 1:28 pm; edited 2 times in total
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon May 02, 2016 10:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This is a terrific trailer for Arnold's movie, and it will certainly put you in the mood to watch it. Very Happy

________________________________

_________________ The Running Man - Trailer


___________

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2019 12:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

This thread was started by Bogmeister (Andrew Bogdan) back in 2013 when he copied his post from the "old board" that we both knew was destined to crash eventually. (It did, three months later).

In fact, he copied-and-pasted 74 of his thread-starting posts from the old board to this one. But during that time he was also adding 5,265 posts to his own board, the Galactic Base of Science Fiction. between 2010 and 2015 (the year he passed away).

The Running Man review shown below was written for his own board during that time, and it's more elaborate than his All Sci-Fi post. Ironically, he created the post below in 2010 . . . three years before he moved the post which started this thread to this board to save it from the "ASF Crash of 2013".

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____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2019 12:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

____________

_____ ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is THE RUNNING MAN
________________________ RUN, ARNOLD, RUN!

___________________

_____________ The Running Man (1987) Trailer

___________


__

_MARIA CONCHITA ALONSO YAPHET KOTTO and RICHARD DAWSON
________________ Director: PAUL-MICHAEL GLASER


__________

Based on a quickly-written story by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman pseudonym), this became a very loose adaptation once Schwarzenegger was enlisted to play the main character. The intent was to convey the perverse attraction of TV bloodsports to a mass audience, a modern-day recreation of the popular coliseum of the old Roman Empire.

However, with the muscular action lead taking center stage, the main point to me was that once you plug in an extra-tough, superior fighter like Arnold, the game falls apart. This film first recalls Rollerball (1975), but other famous takes on this include the old Star Trek episode Bread and Circuses from 1968 and Death Race 2000 (1975).

There are also scenes similar to Westworld (1973), with contestants running around some ruins which function as a real world game board, while a staff sits behind-the-scenes monitoring the events.

___________
______

In the plot, Arnold plays a helicopter cop in the year 2019 who refuses to shoot unarmed civilians. He's framed for the mass murder anyway (hey, didn't I just see this again in 1993's Demolition Man?) and sent to prison. Obviously this is a very corrupt society.

He escapes but ends up on this crazy TV contest show in which condemned citizens run against a gauntlet of costumed 'Stalkers' — big muscular men dressed in colorful costumes, armed with lethal, unusual weapons. These celebrity assassins are played by big actors, like Prof. Toru Tanaka, Erland van Lidth and ex-footballer Jim Brown.

With Arnold around to fight them, this turns into an ideal gladiatorial contest, as the hero takes on differently-stylized antagonists one-by-one. Jesse Ventura plays an ex-Stalker who eventually takes Arnold's side. Jesse became governor of Minnesota later, while Arnold then became governor of California. (It figures. Rolling Eyes)

The entire contest is played out on 20 x 20 square blocks of ruins, the remains of an earthquake that hit L.A. in 1997.

____

The one who steals much of the film, however, is Richard Dawson, playing the host and enabler of this horribly violent show. Dawson, at that point, was best known as the host of the game show Family Feud on TV, which had just finished a successful several-years run. Dawson merely plays a wicked version of himself and it works; he's the ultimate smarmy villain here and, many feel, the best thing about the film.

Strangely, no further film career resulted from this (I guess there were no roles revolving around game shows in Hollywood then). It's also amusing that the downfall of Dawson's character is mostly based on the fact that he just annoys everyone quite a bit. However, details of this future society, such as about the government which is obviously very corrupt, are severely lacking, turning this into a violent comic book.

Paul Michael Glaser was hired on as director after Andrew Davis was fired and 3 other directors failed, so it's surprising that this film has any success at all. Other recent films with similar dystopian themes are The Condemned (2007) and Death Race (2008).

BoG's Score: 6.5 out of 10



BoG
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The Spike
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Joined: 23 Sep 2014
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Location: Birmingham. Great Britain.

PostPosted: Sat Apr 25, 2020 9:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm not into politics. I'm into survival.

The Running Man is directed by Paul Michael Glaser and adapted from the Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) story by Steven E. de Souza. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto, Jim Brown, Jesse Ventura, Erland van Lidth, Marvin J. McIntyre, Gus Rethwisch, Professor Toru Tanaka and Mick Fleetwood. Music is by Harold Faltermeyer and cinematography by Thomas Del Ruth.

It may be packed with cheese and is as nutty as a squirrel's sandwich, but this is one astutely entertaining futuristic slice of sci-fi pie. Schwarzenegger becomes a reluctant contestant in the most popular TV show of the time, The Running Man. It's a sadistic show where convicts are thrust into a zonal world and have to avoid an array of stalking killers. Cue lots of outrageous violence, equally outrageous costumes, and of course with Arnold in the lead there's plenty of dialogue zingers. The caustic observation of how television programmes have evolved is potently portentous, and it's all played out to an industrial 80s score from Faltermeyer.

It helps if you know what you are going to get from it, since it's a typical Schwarzenegger movie from the fruity chaotic popcorn era in the 80s. So with that in mind, for A.S. fans this is one to gorge on with glee - for others it may not have the charm offensive required to strike a chord. 7/10

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