Red Heat

In the late 1980s, Arnie (like Sly in Tango & Cash) tried to break into comedy with a buddy cop film that not many people remember today, because it was eventually overshadowed by his other comedy, Twins, from the same year. Red Heat was directed by Walter Hill, so it's not surprising that the humour combines with brutal violence and raw atmosphere. Sentimentality is kept to a minimum, so there’s not much of a bromance, a typical element of the subgenre. A few years earlier, Hill had basically kick-started a wave of buddy cop comedies with 48 Hours. Red Heat, however, is the first and perhaps only buddy cop film to bring together an American and a Soviet. It's a sort of cross between Lethal Weapon and Rocky IV, reflecting the then-loosening relations between the US and the Soviet Union. The Soviets are no longer seen as enemies, but as someone with whom Americans can join forces against a common enemy (international drug smugglers). The American viewer could sympathize with the protagonist, who is something of a Soviet Dirty Harry, despite the fact that he ultimately did not defect and remained a proud Soviet patriot (unlike in Red Scorpion of the same year). Another virtue of Red Heat is that it is the first American film to be shot in the Red Square (albeit without the approval of the Soviet government). But it still portrays the Soviet Union in a caricatured way – the way Americans imagined it in the 1980s. So there is an enormous amount of hilariously silly stereotypes, which are served up to the audience with stony seriousness. And I can't help but think that's what makes the film so much fun. Something so grotesquely absurd would not be made today. Right from the start, we're deafened by Horner's hard-edged variation on Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th anniversary of the October Revolution, which is underscored by shots of Soviet soldiers marching proudly through the Red Square and majestic cuts to statues of Lenin and Marx. The opening credits are appropriately stylized in Cyrillic (with the letter "R" reversed), although the Soviets in the film principally use the Latin alphabet when writing in Russian (WTF?). Arnold, who speaks a lot of Russian here, spouts memorable expressions such as "kapitalizm", "kchuligany" or "kokainum" (which have been the target of many musical remixes on YouTube). Fights between half-naked men in the snow, the ripping off of artificial legs full of cocaine and bus chases are then treated as the usual routine of ordinary Soviet cops. It's all crowned by the final shot of Arnold in a Soviet uniform, saluting for no reason in the middle of the Red Square. No wonder Russian audiences are said to regard Red Heat as a brilliant parody that leaves them dying in laughter. However, the harsher Soviet police practices ultimately win out in the film and prove more effective in fighting criminals than American bureaucratic practices. The humour here, of course, comes from the banter between the representatives of the two different superpowers. Ivan Danko (Schwarzenegger) is a disciplined, taciturn Soviet cop who doesn't understand English metaphors and reacts to everything with cold apathy, in short, a role where Arnold could apply his Terminator acting experience and his strong accent. Art Ridzik (Jim Belushi), on the other hand, is a sloppy, foul-mouthed American cop, fond of hamburgers and doughnuts – perhaps Jim Belushi's best role. And Ed O'Ross, is absolutely flawless as the slick bad guy. Of course, there's plenty of proper 80s action. (15/02/2017) (less) (more)