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DVD
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Predator
Long before they became state governors, Arnie and Jesse tackled a different kind of illegal alien in John McTiernan’s 1987 classic, now re-issued on DVD.
Tuesday, August 17, 2004
By Todd Gilchrist
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It’s become standard operating procedure in Hollywood: re-release the precursor of a new movie on DVD just days before or after the theatrical bow of the latest offering. And so, in the wake of such recent one-two punches as The Stepford Wives and Spider-Man comes the Special Edition of Predator, John McTiernan’s surprisingly effective 1987 entry followed by a sequel in 1990 and this past weekend’s $38 million reunion, Alien vs. Predator.
Significantly improved from the earlier version available, the two-disc set is a treasure trove of information for folks who love Arnie’s older films (when they were still emptily captivating, instead of just empty), and for cineastes who enjoy poring over production information and the origins of much-beloved big screen creatures.
The details of the story are the same as they were in 1987: a team of top-notch soldiers are sent into the jungle to recover a Peruvian cabinet minister and his aide, only to discover that they are being stalked by an interstellar hunter with the ability to disappear completely into his environment. Schwarzenegger plays Dutch Schaefer, whose name provided one of many subtle attempts in the 1980s to justify his Austrian accent without actually explaining it, and here he gives one of the best performances of his non-political career (I’m not kidding).
As streamlined a story as director John McTiernan ever told, Predator is a film with no fat on it. Returning an eventual $60 million gross on producers Joel Silver and Lawrence Gordon’s initial $18 million investment, the film became one of the biggest hits of the eighties and cemented the statuses of all participants involved. Not surprisingly, the commentary track by McTiernan reflects the disjointed, ambitious, and ultimately successful effort the filmmakers made, and includes more captivating behind-the-scenes info than you’re likely to hear from most big-budget action movies.
First off, it must be revealed that at the time of the shoot in 1986, Arnold’s biceps were three inches bigger than those of the film’s other future governor, Jesse Ventura; this is no doubt the most important fact you will discover about the film. The former wrestler, whose mouth at the time was as big as his muscles, brags in a ‘First Look’ doc about the fact that his costume fitting revealed information to the contrary, but Arnold later insists that in order to win a bottle of champagne in a bet, he had the costumers lie to Ventura.
The proof is all there on the screen - Arnie’s flexed bicep could dwarf most men’s heads, much less Ventura’s slightly less well defined arm. But it seems that such displays of machismo ran amuck on the arduous shoot, and it makes for an interesting subtext when you’re watching the feature’s many sequences of one-upmanship between the film’s bemuscled leads.
This information is provided in but one of the seven (!) featurettes contained on the second disc of the set, which accompany deleted scenes, suit tests for the Predator actors in the jungle settings (they were added or rendered in post-production), and a couple of profiles of the creature that detail its weaponry and armor. The best features, however, are on the feature itself: film historian Eric Lichtenfield provides text commentary describing the characters’ origins and the creation of the plot and science-fiction details; McTiernan offers his own reading of the film; and of course Arnold, Jesse, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, and screenwriter-turned actor Shane Black deliver a cohesive set of performances.
Curiously enough, McTiernan sounds much more crotchety than perhaps he should at the age of 53, but his gruff descriptions of the film’s many revisions in the name of budgetary and creative concerns suggest that a youthful perspective is what still drives his directorial vision. For example, after exposing the truth about his selection as the film’s director (he and Arnold had the same agent), he finds time to explain how disastrous the preliminary designs for the Predator were, and how the film’s principals were able to creatively redirect their energies to minimize money problems and deliver an on-budget movie.
Much of the film, as in the case of so many impressive cinematic accomplishments, was shot on the fly and assembled on the quick, from multiple-unit photography that combined actual jungle footage with material collected in Mexico and other locations. McTiernan bemusedly recalls one review that described the jungle as one found in “the New Hampshire woods in November,” and acknowledges that the filmmaker’s attempts to redress Puerto Vallarta were only half successful; still, the finished film hardly reflects these shortcomings except when they are explicitly pointed out.
Disappointingly, Schwarzenegger did not participate in this DVD release, either by providing a commentary track or appearing - except via canned footage - in the behind the scenes shorts. Though his absence is noticeable, the film, along with its 1984 predecessor The Terminator, stands as a pivotal change for the actor from European oddball-cum-bodybuilder to bonafide action hero. Through the interview footage and his performance, Schwarzenegger proves himself both a generous collaborator and a hyper-ambitious performer, captured at a moment in time when his emergence as an international star was palpable.
Tribute is also paid to Kevin Peter Hall, the performer who inhabited the Predator costume in this film and the sequel before passing away in 1991. His legacy as a consummate professional who achieved fleeting fame playing larger-then life specimens – he was also “Harry” in Harry and the Hendersons - is touchingly explored in a short retrospective and demonstrates how the Predator, though shown in limited quantities on screen, actually exerted a great deal of influence on how the film’s (and Schwarzenegger’s) success played out. After all, how would Arnold have evoked sympathy from the audience without a seven-plus-foot tall adversary to square off against in the film’s final moments?
McTiernan would go on to direct Die Hard a year later and then find sporadic success with efforts like The Hunt For Red October and The Thomas Crown Affair. But like his stars Bruce and Arnold, few of the films that followed matched the illustrious filmmaking legacy of those late 80s effort, even if (in both cases) they exists within nothing more than the limited context of Hollywood’s most enjoyable popcorn movies.
| The legacy of the Predator film series seems to be assured for years to come, regardless whether or not this past weekend’s surprising box office take for the third installment holds in subsequent weeks. The original is a great example of ‘80s action movies at their best, an expertly-made sci-fi tome that effortlessly balances all of its disparate elements to maximize entertainment value, and the best bit of fluff you could possibly choose to own for a future low-key Saturday night, when you don’t feel like going out but want to experience big screen thrills nonetheless. | |
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