A lot of people dump on the Kurt Russell's 1998 movie "Soldier"
I just rewatched it on TV, and I have to say, I honestly thought it was a pretty good movie.
Okay, the special effects aren't that great (keep in mind this was 1998, and even then were just functional)
But I don't know why some people just plain don't like it.
I just thought the whole backstory concept was pretty good; the first 10 minutes which hook you as they do a montage/
They took what are normal human babies, and from birth trained them to be soldiers; mentally conditioning them to be borderline-sociopaths whose mental state is described as just two thoughts: "fear and discipline"...........most of all, they cannot speak unless spoken to. So they basically conditioned all of the humanity out of these guys.
Then they make some (apparently replicant) new genetically engineered soldiers, who are not just younger but stronger than the older soldiers were even in their prime. They're also kind of morons (the older soldiers have 20 years of CONSTANT combat experience, the new soldiers are glorified UAV's with basic AI)
I saw a breakdown of it, and YES Kurt Russell only speaks about 104 lines in the film....but he's on screen 84% of the time.
I think the film was pretty good just because Russell is a great actor.
Ultimately, it's kind of hard to play what is by definition a silent, stoic character.
Psychologically I thought it was really cool though: the idea is that "Todd" has been trained not to speak unless spoken to, much less "think on his own", so its impossible for him to *initiate* a conversation, and he usually gives short replies at best when asked direct questions.
But he's utterly baffled at how his own commanders could just completely replace and abandon him, literally throwing him out with the trash. Not used to thinking on his own, its difficult for him to process this much less convey it to other people.
And at one point an angry colonist accuses him that the only reason he'd get separated from his unit must be because he's a deserter.
And I thought it was a great scene where Todd (Russell) is sort of just....trying to choke out words for concepts he's half not articulate enough to convey in words, half ashamed to articulate (both because he's embarrassed at being outdated and because he doesn't like criticizing his superiors)....so the most he can choke out is "I'm not a deserter, sir! I was...replaced...by a better soldier"
and yeah this sounds hammy in print, but its the way Russell managed to convey all of the thoughts racing through this guy's mind, particularly when his thought processes....well, many of them were deliberately turned off long ago.
the climax was pretty good too (super-soldier Caine shoots himself up on stimulants for a final battle, it goes on for a while, then Todd *eviscerates* him with an airplane propellor, punches his fist *into* Cain's guts, then puts Cain in a headlock and snaps his neck)
all in all: I don't know if even in 1998 I'd have paid money to watch this in a theater, but if it's re-airing on TV, it's a scifi film which I'd actually feel was *worth* spending my night watching.
I just rewatched it on TV, and I have to say, I honestly thought it was a pretty good movie.
Okay, the special effects aren't that great (keep in mind this was 1998, and even then were just functional)
But I don't know why some people just plain don't like it.
I just thought the whole backstory concept was pretty good; the first 10 minutes which hook you as they do a montage/
They took what are normal human babies, and from birth trained them to be soldiers; mentally conditioning them to be borderline-sociopaths whose mental state is described as just two thoughts: "fear and discipline"...........most of all, they cannot speak unless spoken to. So they basically conditioned all of the humanity out of these guys.
Then they make some (apparently replicant) new genetically engineered soldiers, who are not just younger but stronger than the older soldiers were even in their prime. They're also kind of morons (the older soldiers have 20 years of CONSTANT combat experience, the new soldiers are glorified UAV's with basic AI)
I saw a breakdown of it, and YES Kurt Russell only speaks about 104 lines in the film....but he's on screen 84% of the time.
I think the film was pretty good just because Russell is a great actor.
Ultimately, it's kind of hard to play what is by definition a silent, stoic character.
Psychologically I thought it was really cool though: the idea is that "Todd" has been trained not to speak unless spoken to, much less "think on his own", so its impossible for him to *initiate* a conversation, and he usually gives short replies at best when asked direct questions.
But he's utterly baffled at how his own commanders could just completely replace and abandon him, literally throwing him out with the trash. Not used to thinking on his own, its difficult for him to process this much less convey it to other people.
And at one point an angry colonist accuses him that the only reason he'd get separated from his unit must be because he's a deserter.
And I thought it was a great scene where Todd (Russell) is sort of just....trying to choke out words for concepts he's half not articulate enough to convey in words, half ashamed to articulate (both because he's embarrassed at being outdated and because he doesn't like criticizing his superiors)....so the most he can choke out is "I'm not a deserter, sir! I was...replaced...by a better soldier"
and yeah this sounds hammy in print, but its the way Russell managed to convey all of the thoughts racing through this guy's mind, particularly when his thought processes....well, many of them were deliberately turned off long ago.
the climax was pretty good too (super-soldier Caine shoots himself up on stimulants for a final battle, it goes on for a while, then Todd *eviscerates* him with an airplane propellor, punches his fist *into* Cain's guts, then puts Cain in a headlock and snaps his neck)
all in all: I don't know if even in 1998 I'd have paid money to watch this in a theater, but if it's re-airing on TV, it's a scifi film which I'd actually feel was *worth* spending my night watching.
