Total Recall: Schwarzenegger

With Total Recall's release this month it seems appropriate to reflect on the original 1990 blockbuster. Starring none other than the iconic Austrian bodybuilder-come-actor-come-politician Arnie Schwarzenegger, and directed by Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) this is not a nineties disaster.

The plot does a bit of a Shutter Island on the viewers ass, with ideas of the fragility and subjectivity of memory and dreaming screwing with your mind to the extent you feel as paranoid as its protagonist. Set in a vision of the distant future, the sci-fi narrative centralizes Douglas Quaid as a dude who gets 'more than he bargains for' when he seeks artificial holiday memories. It's hard to explain without confusing everyone involved, but basically Quaid discovers (or does he?) that his entire reality is an implanted memory (or is it?) and that he was originally a spy seeking to undermine the corrupt government (or is he?).





What's great about Recall is its collaboration of a sci-fi/action genre with humour and a clever plot that doesn't seem to exist in films these days - you either have the mind-blowing, but let's face it, comically serious Inception style films or a flat out comedy.

Total Recall is, surprisingly, extremely violent. Originally X-rated due to this, but with grizzly bits cut out to slim it down to an 18, it's darkly and shockingly brutal throughout. What makes this possibly more disturbing is the use of miniature effects rather than CGI. In undoubtedly the most impressive effects committed to screen without computer animation, solely sets, robots and miniatures were used. This creates especially eccentric aesthetics when, most memorably perhaps, peoples eyeballs explode due to exposure to Mars' atmosphere. The look of the film is brilliantly wacky in general, with a plethora of weird and wonderful characters - from mutants, to siamese twins to women with three boobs.

Moreover, Schwarzenegger surprises by bringing emotion to his stereotypically robotic acting palette, delivering numerous one liners in an effortless zeal which reflects the cheesy but self-mocking tone of the new Expendables in which he stars.

"If one more person tells me they'll 'be back'...!"

And with the majority of the film set on Mars, what could be more of a suitable time to remake this bizarre classic than in 2012, with Curiosity pumping Will.I.Am tunes into space?




Coming soon: Total Recall: Farrell