RED HEAT
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a Soviet policeman teamed with a laconic Chicago cop Jim Belushi in Walter Hill's latest police chase film. That's the high concept and the rest of the details are filled in just about the way Hill filled them in in 48 HOURS. Enjoyable as a summer throwaway. Rating: +1.
Cop films are in this year. Maybe it was the automatic success of even the very weak BEVERLY HILLS COP and the marginally better LETHAL WEAPON. The most popular formula for the police film is the "odd couple." That's where you have two mis-matched partners who learn to love and respect each other. LETHAL WEAPON was a case in point, THE ENFORCER was another. Formula number two is the lone cop who discovers the force is corrupt and weeds out the bad guys. BULLITT may have been one of the first, but there were plenty more like SHARKY'S MACHINE and BLUE THUNDER. The third popular plot is the "outsider." That one is like a COOGAN'S BLUFF and a ROBOCOP where someone of questionable value proves his worth. If you want to stretch a point, RED SUN fits in here and in category number one. Walter Hill combined plots #1 and #3 to make 48 HOURS; he has returned to that plot combination for RED HEAT.
In Moscow, perestroika has turned into booming drug traffic. Ivan Danko (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger), a muscle-bound Moscow policeman, is dispatched to Chicago to pick up an escaped pusher. He is chosen because he is already on the case and perhaps because his English is better than his Russian. In the U.S. he ends up teamed up with a wisecracking partner played by Jim Belushi. Together they find themselves in the kind of chase Walter Hill films are famous for: violent, funny, more often lethal, and with plenty of car chases--or rather in this case, a bus chase.
Hill's great understanding of Soviet culture shows up almost immediately with a scene of an apparently co-ed public bath house supposedly in a country where nudes in art are considered pornography. Of course, without this scene the film would have almost no female nudity and authenticity does not sell tickets. Then there is the obviously authentic Austrian accent his Moscow policeman has. And just to get the audience in the right mood, the opening credits have the 'R's and the 'N's backwards and no crossbars on the 'A's. O guess that really captures the Soviet feel. On a more positive note, Hill tells a reasonably enjoyable story with enough action to make the film exciting rather than realistic. RED HEAT is, however, notable for not being really anti-Soviet. The Soviets are shown as occasionally having effective, if brutal, means of ridding their society of criminals. But, hey, Hill's audiences have nothing against brutal or they would not still be Hill's audiences. RED HEAT could use a few new touches besides the choice of the origin of the outsider cop, but it tells its story competently. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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