Characteristics:
A diseased society gets its jollies by watching condemned criminals slaughter one another in a specialized environment for a chance at freedom. One contestant – a former soldier framed for a heinous crime, usually by the producer of the lethal game show – must find a way to survive. However, the offer for freedom is counterfeit, and the show’s producers will do anything in their power to prevent anyone from ever winning the show. Finally, through force of will and help from an underground resistance cell, our hero escapes to freedom while utterly obliterating the show.
The Originator:
While the first actual movie to meet a majority of the criteria above was likely The Running Man (1987), the idea is clearly inspired by ancient Roman gladiatorial games. As such, Ben Hur and Spartacus can be considered early entries in the genre. A more recent precedent is The Most Dangerous Game (1932), based on the short story of the same name. In this classic tale, shipwrecked sailors are hunted for sport by an insane Russian count on his private island. While it lacks the crucial televised entertainment aspect, it does share some conceptual similarity with the genre. Rollerball (1975) and Death Race 2000 (1975) both feature televised blood sports, but the participants are professionals in their chosen fields, not inmates. As mentioned, however, The Running Man is the first true example.
Prime Examples:
The Running Man (1987), The Condemned (2007), Death Race (2008), Gamer (2009)
Discussion:
The Running Man, an in-name-only adaptation of a Stephen King (okay, Richard Bachman) short story, is a minor entry in the 80’s Schwarzenegger oeuvre (it holds a similar place within Schwarzenegger’s canon as Titus Andronicus does for Shakespeare’s), but it is a solidly entertaining action movie. It contains all the expected characteristics of an Arnold movie made in his prime, including nonstop one-liners and the audience’s unquestioning acceptance that someone with a nearly incomprehensible Deutschland accent was a soldier in the United States military. It also features Yaphet Kotto, Richard Dawson playing himself, pre-insane Jesse Ventura, and a fat guy in a Lite-Brite suit singing opera. It contains all of the story beats described in the Originator section. It was also referenced constantly throughout the early 2000s as being eerily prescient in relation to the increasing popularity of such reality shows as Survivor and Big Brother. In sum, The Running Man is a fun 80’s Arnold flick, which I sometimes confuse with Total Recall when I find it on TV. Subsequent films in the subgenre, as is usually the case, offered diminishing returns.
I actually have not seen The Condemned, but given the content of its Wikipedia entry, I think it clearly falls within the criteria put forth above. Also, given that it was produced by WWE Films, which also excreted 2006’s limp dick actioner The Marine, it can safely be assumed that it sucked. Stone Cold Steve Austin 3:16 Says I Just Whooped Your Ass stars as, what else, a Special Forces operator caught and imprisoned for destroying a South American drug den. There’s a slight twist here in that the protagonist is actually guilty as charged, but the nature of his crime is such that he obviously does not deserve the death penalty, but instead a medal for being a God damn American hero. Another alteration to the formula is that the televised murderfest is illegal, and thus not a reflection of the diseased society that DVRs it, which in turn robs the story of any satirical subtext. As an extension of this change, the show’s downfall is expedited not by an underground rebel group, but rather by agents of US law enforcement. Aside from these minor changes, the rest of the story appears to be strictly standard “prisoners kill each other for TV” claptrap. Moving along.
Death Race, a very loose remake of the 1975 Roger Corman-produced cult classic, is yet another slight variation on the same theme. Jason Statham stars as a…wait for it…ex-race car driver (got you, didn’t I?) who is framed for the murder of his wife, put on death row, and offered a chance to earn his freedom by competing in the titular death race, masterminded by the prison’s cold as ice warden Joan Allen. The only major addition to the prisoner deathmatch mythos is the simmering gay subtext between Statham and Tyrese Gibson’s character. Homoerotic underpinnings haven’t been this apparent within the action genre since Schwarzenegger penetrated Freddy Mercury in Commando. Otherwise, as per director Paul W.S. Anderson’s modus operandi, the movie embodies mediocrity.
Gamer, the most recent example of the genre, is also its absolute nadir. The film is more or less a straight rip on The Running Man, only much, much dumber. Gerard Butler is a former soldier and current death row inmate who participates in a real life version of Modern Warfare 2. Everyone within the game – including Butler – is controlled by a player; this led to a great deal of confusion on my part, because the movie would have us believe that Butler’s success within the game is due to his background as a professional killer, but it also indicates that the in-game players are completely controlled by the gamers. The movie also features Ludacris in a spectacularly flat role as the leader of the rebel group opposing the game and Dexter’s Michael C. Hall in a truly unhinged performance as the creator and programmer of the game. Hall is the only source of entertainment or joy in the whole movie; chiefly, his absurd Southern drawl and an extended, highly choreographed dance number are the highlights of the movie. Everything else about the movie is dour, without fun, and sucks.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, this genre is a mixed bag, in that it’s mostly full of feces with a few diamonds scattered throughout. If you are for some reason in a mood to watch people under a death sentence murder one another for a home television audience, stick with the original. You can’t go wrong with 80’s Arnold.
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