Small Soldiers (1998)
Director: Joe Dante Cast: David Cross, Jay Mohr, Alexandra Wilson, Denis Leary, Gregory Smith, Kevin Dunn, Frank Langella, Tommy Lee Jones Screenplay: Ted Elliott, Zak Penn, Adam Rifkin, Terry Rossio, Gavin Scott Producers: Michael Finnell, Colin Wilson Runtime: 110 min. US Distribution: DreamWorks/Universal Rated PG-13: violence, language
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
When I first saw the trailers for Small Soldiers a few months back, I didn't understand the appeal. Now that I've seen it, I still don't understand. I think this film is being aimed towards children, but I can't imagine why: sure, it's about kids and stuff, but it's also about numbing action and violence. It features long, seemingly endless scenes featuring human-like toys being maimed and mutilated, crushed and flattened, eviscerated and dissected. In addition, the film attempts to satirize the military, our culture's obsession with violence, and the world of advertising.
That's a little too much for what is essentially and overlong and ridiculously violent kiddie movie. There are scenes in Small Soldiers that truly horrified me, and if I had kids, I would not have wanted them to watch this film. I can't be too hard on it, because it does, in fact, try to harness a little bit of intelligence and wit into its story (see Doctor Dolittle for a film that isn't so bold). And it's made with great technical competency by director Joe Dante and crew. But the intelligence is misguided, and the special effects are hollow -- Small Soldiers is just a mean-spirited little movie.
There are a lot of characters, and a lot of subplots. The film opens with a couple of company men (David Cross and Jay Mohr) making a sales pitch to the president (Denis Leary) of a company called Globotech. They decide to create war toys that actually talk and fight back. In one of the film's many attempts at satire, Leary's character goes on a tantrum in which he states his desire for toys to actually do what they can do in the commercials. It's funny, but never followed through with any degree of completeness. The toys are called the Commando Elite, and are fitted with special chips created for military intelligence.
Cut ahead three months time, and we meet Alan (Gregory Smith), our hero. His dad (Kevin Dunn) owns a toy store, and Alan stocks the store full of Commando Elite toys, despite his father's rule against war toys. Naturally, the toys escape, but it turns out that the American Commandos, led by Chip Hazard (voiced by Tommy Lee Jones), are the villains, and are hell-bent on destroying the Gorgonites (whose leader is voiced by Frank Langella), who are peaceful, nature-loving beings. What ensues are a series of technically superb and horrifyingly violence action sequences.
As I said, I can respect the entire package to an extent, for it does have traces of intelligence. I like the satire involving the nature of the war toys, and the speech Chip gives to his troops against the backdrop of an American flag. And I like the anti-tech themes running throughout the film, and how Alan's father is violently opposed to tech stuff, while their neighbor, Phil (Phil Hartman), is cutting down trees to get clear reception with his satellite dish.
It's enough to make me utterly confused as to the film's intentions. I was instantly reminded of Starship Troopers, which is another film that satirizes its subject while banking on the very principles it attacks. The difference is that Starship Troopers always has that comical edge, and is aimed primarily at adults and teens old enough to understand the material. Small Soldiers is PG-13, and I warn all parents to take that rating seriously -- there are scenes and images in this film that just aren't appropriate for younger kids.
The scene that bothered me most has the Commandos stealing a bunch of Barbie dolls and bringing them to life to create a surplus of troops. What results are armies of female toys which end up horribly disfigured (the film has a strange fixation with some of the themes explored in Shelley's Frankenstein). They stalk their opponents and swarm like cockroaches, uttering valley girl lines like "It's a bad hair day" and "I broke a nail." Later, most of them are viciously destroyed by a lawnmower-wielding young girl. None of this is pleasant, and it's stuff I'd expect to see in a horror film. The absence of human blood fails to keep the material from being harrowing.
Small Soldiers is always impressive to look at, and Joe Dante (Gremlins) has explored this material before (actually, Gremlins is a similar film in many ways). Stan Winston and Industrial Light and Magic are responsible for the effects, and the image brought to screen is convincing and impressive. But I wasn't thinking about those things -- I was thinking about the blatant hypocrisy in every scene. How can an anti-war movie utilize such extreme violence and expect to show it to the youngsters in our society? Isn't this the kind of stuff that makes kids think that violence is a great solution for their problems? The producers of Small Soldiers should worry about instigating another tragedy in an elementary school yard.
** out of **** (5/10, C)
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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