Red Heat

Red Heat

Action movies with a pseudo political vibe are actually pretty rare, moreso when they mix in a healthy dose of comedy as well, but in 1988 Walter Hill managed to make one of the better and more well regarded ones with this entry that in many ways recycled direct elements from his earlier classic, 48 Hrs. In short, he made another buddy cop movie about a pair of mismatched partners working on a case of mutual interest to both of them, with sparks flying from all of the initial dislike and mistrust between the two of them as you can imagine. The cops here are played by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi, an eclectic duo to say the very least, with the real conceit being that Schwarzenegger’s character is actually a Russian cop chasing after a criminal in his own country only to find that said criminal has fled the country and relocated to none other than Chicago, USA. The fact that this movie came out when the 80s Cold War was still in full swing but just about to wind down belied an even bigger question which was: Would American audiences accept their beloved Greatest Action Hero Of All Time playing a proud Russian hero without even a hint of irony or even apologetic parody? Turned out that the answer was yes, and acting wise, Arnold did manage to pull off one of the single best ACTING performances of his entire career, successfully affecting the Russian accent and more importantly cutting down on his famous one liners in addition to making legitimate attempts to actually humanize his character up to and including smiling during dialogue exchanges with various friends and partners. On the other side of the spectrum is Belushi, not so much playing a badass cop type but rather a cop who can best be described as your typical American slob, munching down fast food, hot dogs and coffee and of course having a big mouth the size of the Grand Canyon constantly talking shit in a profane manner next to Arnold’s more stoic, disciplined counterpart. The real interesting thing though is in observing both the contrast (and similarities) in each countryman’s values as a point of order is made to state that the cocaine and heroin that is pouring into The Soviet Union is more of a recent trend (perhaps due to some loosening up of The Iron Curtain), but now that it’s coming in, any and all effort is being made to prevent the “poison of The West” from contaminating their country using whatever means possible, with Schwarzenegger even getting off a weirdly straight faced moment late in the movie where he bluntly states that he prefers the “Chinese way” of dealing with the drug problem by lining up all the dealers AND addicts in order to shoot them in the back of their heads. This all epitomizes the point that when it comes to the drug epidemic in The U.S., Arnold’s Captain Ivan Danko is determined to NEVER allow it to happen in his country even if he has to stop it all by himself. The film starts in some kind of a Russian bathhouse / spa / gym with a nearly naked Arnold beating the hell out of some henchmen in order to find out the location of Victor Rosta (Ed O’Ross), a Georgian who is apparently the biggest and most powerful drug dealer in the country. Arnold gets his information and tracks down his prey which leads to a big shootout where he kills Rosta’s brother but Rosta manages to kill his youthful partner and then escapes to our country where he hooks up with a black street gang known as “cleanheads” for him to do business with (although in reality they actually turn out to be go betweens) and when he gets picked up by Chicago PD on a minor offense, the news lights up the Russian law enforcement wires and Danko is sent along to extradite Victor and bring him back home to face what is no doubt a mind numbingly horrifying justice, Soviet style. Upon arrival Danko meets some of the Chicago PD who will be assisting him, including Belushi’s Art Ridzik, his more congenial partner played by The Godfather’s Richard Bright, a snide Lieutenant played by a young Laurence Fishburne, and Belushi’s long suffering commanding officer played by Peter Boyle. But Victor has other plans, as his new found gang member friends blast him out of custody and kill Belushi’s partner in the process (making him swear revenge also) and the chase is on from there. At this point it must be stated that Ed O’Ross (a longtime veteran character actor with an even longer resume) does an impressive job here as the cold eyed, cold blooded Victor, certainly a slimy bastard but also one who views his actions as being a personal rebellion of sorts against the rigid Soviet Communist system of which he describes his own people as just being “those who only look forward to death” and in the best tradition of tricky villains always has a Plan B up his sleeve when things seem their worst. But the real selling point here is of course the interplay between Arnold’s disciplined Russian cop who is practically a soldier on leave and Belushi’s borderline moronic slob with his fast talking, foul mouthed personality who doesn’t really seem to like anybody and is not shy about stating why that is, including telling Arnold (who dons a green suit for “undercover work”) that he looks just like Gumby and also needling one black cleanhead whom he is arresting that not only does he look like Marvin Hagler but that he “lost money on Hagler!” (a brilliant late 80s sports / pop culture reference to Hagler’s 1987 upset loss in the boxing ring to Ray Leonard). In other roles here we also get a very young Gina Gershon as a gorgeous aerobics instructor whom it turns out is the (paid off) wife of the dastardly Victor and Brent Jennings as the very creepy leader (still locked up in prison) of the militant cleanhead gang. Much of the story centers on the possession of a key to a certain mysterious locker (where Victor is presumably keeping his buy money for the upcoming deal) that turns out to be basically a red herring for the plot despite all of the fuss that gets made about it. Indeed, the movie goes into a bit of a souped up overdrive in the last half hour, including a big gunfight between Danko and Victor that never really ends properly and several important plot points being thrown at us from all directions with the implication being that several major scenes that were actually shot to help fill us in were cut out of the movie itself (possibly for pacing porposes?) with the biggest twist towards the end being that not only do Schwarzenegger and Belushi NOT ever figure out where the locker key goes to, but the main connection with whom Victor is making his deal with actually does get his money AND gets away clean since the only thing on either of our heroes’ mind is just nailing Victor himself for mostly personal reasons while the narcotics person whom he deals with in the end gets to keep both the money AND his drugs which would appear to be fine by them. Plus we get a very unnecessary side trip late in the film to Belushi’s ex brother in law so that they can have an unfunny argument about him paying Belushi’s sister alimony while Arnold looks on. But the final showdown itself DOES turn out to be superb, with atmosphere and high tension to spare (even if it also does resemble the final showdown in Hill’s 48 Hrs) as Danko and Victor settle their very manly score for all time (even Belushi is allowed to utter “I give up. This whole thing’s very Russian.”). Really the joy of the film is in the interplay and contrast between its two East and West main characters, including a bit where they take turns questioning a pimp snitch (Brion James) with first Arnold’s Russian cop bashing his head in to make him talk (illegal) and then Belushi’s American cop planting heroin in his pocket in order to frame him and make him talk (also illegal), but even here the implied undertones at times of what can be called a “new” Russia starting to emerge would fall right in line with Glasnost and the fall of Communism which would happen only two years after this film was released, changing not only that country and the course of world history forever, but also allowing a new kind of criminal to thrive within it and thus bring an end to the strict utopia that people like Arnold’s Captain Ivan Danko had hoped to protect…

8/10

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