Clichés as Satisfactory
Last night we’d made tentative plans to see Where the Wild Things Are, but things fall through and we’d ended up catching a movie at home. She didn’t really have a clue what she’d done when she’d stumbled onto a movie called Command Performance, but once opening credits rolled I knew my night had changed. For the worse or for the better, I was watching a film written and directed by Dolph Lundgren – his interpretation on the film after so many years of sparse exposure to American cinema.
“Who is Dolph Lundgen?” she asked.
“He wrote, directed and is starring in this massacre of a film we are about to watch.”
It was certainly bad. I had no reservations going into it. The film revolves around a hostage takeover at a Moscow concert being attended by the Russian premiere. Plans for a coup are being carried out. Naturally this means numerous, once cheering fans are being slaughtered by massive gunfire, planted explosives are going off and important captives are being taken. It’s up to Joe the Drummer (Lundgren) to save the day. If there was anything considerably innovative about the piece it was how unashamedly comfortable Lundgren was relying on movie clichés and that I was relatively satisfied accepting that.
I started to wonder what it is about clichés that are so gratifying. Why do such things as cult classics exist? Why does my roommate watching the vigilantist Boondock Saints on a bi-weekly basis? What is it about cinematic memes that we enjoy watching them played out in front of us with such expectation and frequency?
Would Titanic be without the “from the other side of the tracks”, tragic hero dying at the end? What would happen if phone numbers in movies began with something besides “555-”? Why do so few bombs in action movies leave shrapnel? What would a Schwarznegger movie be without him spewing one-liners as rubs someone out? Does anyone in movies use restrooms in movies except to murder someone, as a means for escape, to do cocaine or have sex? The fact that most films can’t even get a bathroom right exemplifies one obvious point: Most of the films we watch are rife with clichés and to a certain extent – we enjoy that.
A friend of mine once echoed a well-established sentiment in stating, “People go to movies to escape and to get away from their lives for two hours.” There can be little arguing to this point but why do we appreciate oversimplifying patterns in movies?
It’s more than fair to say that men aren’t relatively comfortable shelling out $9 a head for a romantic comedy because there’s been a general consensus as to how one ends since the 70’s (if not much much much earlier). That being said, men don’t experience the same judgment when it comes to most action films. We know how it’s going to end. The star of the film is going to find a way, crippled and bleeding, to defeat (in most cases destroy) the descending and more evil elements and arise a relatively under appreciated hero.
Dolph Lundgren knows this. If he doesn’t the effort that went into his script for Command Performance certainly says otherwise. So why are we ok with watching recycled themes? Should we be satisfied for something less than originality in our viewing experience?
As it’d been a while since I had seen Lundgren in anything, the relegation of my memory to his performance in Rocky 4 was unavoidable and I was more than eager to see what a movie he’d written and directed would look like. I was curious as to what an 80’s action star would piece together 20 years after the fact and was somewhat content that what he produced was, for the most part, pulled out of a time capsule. I was happy to see “the old Dolph” mitigate his disagreements by doling out death at every turn. He is Joe, an ex-biker from Los Angeles. He knows how to fight. He certainly knows how to dispose of well-armed forces of an ongoing government coup! He has his drumsticks. Who watches this crap?
The most honest answer: We all do.
Sometimes movies are like an old pair of shoes. They have been tried and true and weathered enough to be comfortable. I want to hear Arnold scream “Screwwwwwwwwwww Yoooouuuuuuuuuuu!” as he literally sends a hydraulic drill through the body of a freshly realized bad guy. I want restrooms to be the places for seedy occurrences in films. I want to see Leo die at the end of Titanic (though I may have additional reasons for that). There is comfort in knowing what to expect and in having a history of that knowing.
In the end “Command Performance” didn’t command anything new. It was a hellacious movie but that it was Lundgren’s product made it that much more bearable, enjoyable at parts.
So maybe tomorrow night we will make it to the theatre to see a movie “worth paying for”. We’ll watch giant puppets dance around in some child inspired fantastic land. That doesn’t mean, though, that we’ll enjoy it more. In the end we will find more or less things to like about it – cliché or not.
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It’s amazing to me that movies of this nature come into fruition and ultimately end up on someone’s TV screen. Too bad you missed “Where the Wild Things Are”. Definitely not the lack-luster review that Dolph’s bust-ass clearly brings to the table!!
As much as I understand what you’re saying, I honestly don’t enjoy cliches. I don’t like it when parts of how the movie goes are predictable unless it was in a way I was hoping it would be.
I look for strange and weird movies to watch because I am bored with all of the “been there done that” type of movie. If I start watching a movie, outside of the theater of course, and get bored with it, I, most of the time, don’t bother to finish it or just use it as background noise while I do something more interesting or productive.
The only fun thing about a cliche in a movie is that you get to laugh at how ridiculous it is.
…And Leo dying at the end of titanic is not something most people wanted to see happen and every single time they see the movie even if for the hundredth time, they hope that he lives somehow, and it bothers me so much when I see a phone number start with 555- in movies!!