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Review: Commando (1985)
Arnold Schwarzenegger essays the title role in Commando, a comic book actioner that is outrageously loud and fun. The Austrian-born movie muscleman—and soon-to-be Shriver-in-law—is a veteran military operative who is lured out of retirement by subversives that have kidnapped his daughter. It is pure escapism which does not try to be anything but a larger-than-life vehicle for its larger-than-life star.
Shortly after the opening credits roll, Colonel Matrix (Schwarzenegger) is notified that some of his fellow special operatives have been killed. Unknown assailants invade his home and capture his daughter (Alyssa Milano of “Who’s the Boss”). Matrix himself is apprehended and told by an exiled Latin American strongman (Dan Hedaya of Blood Simple) that if he does not take out the country’s current leader—whom Matrix is allied with—that the supersoldier’s daughter wil die.
Of course, Matrix knows that the bad guys will do in his daughter anyway. He decides to take on his foes before they discover he is not en route to undertaking the assignment. Matrix gets assistance—initially albeit with some reluctance on her part—from a stewardess (Rae Dawn Chong).
With shoplifted weapons at his disposal, Matrix eliminates his enemies one by one. With the bullets, grenades, and rockets, Schwarzenegger dispenses a virtual magazine of one-liners. Here he plays a variant on his title role in last year’s The Terminator: a killing machine; though a killing machine with a sense of humor delivered deadpan, like the famed line from James Cameron’s film (“I’ll be back.”), which he utters to the bad guys.
Schwarzenegger’s main nemesis—not Hedaya—is essayed by Vernon Wells, the larger-than-life Australian who played the mohawked brute Wez, the adversary of Mel Gibson in The Road Warrior. Wells makes for quite a villain audiences will love to hate.
Commando might be regarded as just another chest-beating, testosterone-laden war fantasy much like the summer juggernaut Rambo: First Blood Part II, last year’s Missing in Action, its relatively recent prequel, and Invasion USA. Unlike the Sylvester Stallone and Chuck Norris vehicles, Commando does not make any attempt to hide its outrageousness in a way that the other actioners do. Commando is simply high testosterone action at its best.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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