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The Red and Black
Tuesday, November 17, 1987
‘Running Man’ casting and filming don’t measure up to book
A review of "The Running Man,"
starring Arnold Schwarsenegger,
Yaphet Kotto and Maria Conchita
Alonso. Directed by Paul Michael
Glaser. A Tri-Star Pictures release
rated R Sow showing at the Classic
Triple
By Alec Longman
Hrd ind Black Conlrlbollng Writer
"The Running Man" is suppos
edly based on the book by Stephen
King
Steven E. de Souza, screenwriter
for Commando I and the upcoming
Commando II. has done violence to
a story written with cinema in
mind. There was nothing wrong
with the Idea of enacting the novel
on screen except that it went into
production with Schwarzenegger
cast as its lead The reason for this
casting is a riddle. Rutger Hauer
(The Hitchiker) would have been
more believable as a character who
rises in disgust against the dissem
bling oppresiveness of a future au
thoritarian state.
In the novel, the hero dies in the
ironic mode, committing himself to
rebellion by way of a kamikaze as
sault on the symbols of corruption
The viewers see corruption in the
movie but not on so poignant a level
as was portrayed in the book. That
is, unless one takes the movie as an
ironic indictment of the times
Violence is being served again,
and ideology is played out In blood
shed Might makes right without
question. The champion of the
common man has reappeared to
thwart evil-doers and do good.
Schwarzenegger is the invincible
hunk, and the American practicum
of power to the people is empowered
by visions of this Superman in mo
tion. Do we really crave action
packing so much that murder and
mayhem have become our favorite
food for thought? Is this entertain
ment? It’s certainly not art when
adaptation is so free-handed.
Schwarzenegger plays Ben Rich
ards, a state policeman who, in
what seems to be his first encounter
with government corruption, re
fuses to fire upon a riotous unarmed
mob. He is imprisoned and escapes
with a few members of an under
ground resistance. They are appre
hended and forced to appear as
contestants on “The Running Man”
game show, which displays der
elicts who battle overpowering op
ponents. Richard Dawson is the
evil-doing host, Killian, The audi
ence delights in the gore of the
show. While spreading propagan-
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distic lies about the citizenship of
Schwarzenegger and crew, Killian
launches them and a girl into the
combat zone.
They are stalked by killers of va
rious sorts, an oriental samurai
hockey player, a chainsaw-wielding
California boy, an electrifying oper
atic tenor, a flame-throwing black
man, and Captain Freedom. These
all strike the pose of professional
wrestlers - the bad guys - op
posing "Sir Arnold the Good." It
won't spoil the film to know they're
no match for his majesty and, in the
end, Schwarzenegger and his co
horts stand tall.
There are some good lines, some
good points to go with this scheme.
But it's a far cry from the book.
Outside of its bizarre revision of
the book, the movie "The Running
Man" is singularly unspectacular.
The direction is staid and unambi
tious and the acting isn’t credible.
The one-liners Schwarzenegger has
sometimes delivered successfully
are the worst they've ever beeh. It
costs too much money to make
films like this.
Whitemore’s
‘Code’ acted
with sincerity
NEW YORK - Derek Jacobi has
transformed himself into Alan
Turing, a brilliant but naive British
mathematician and scientist who
died in 1954 after eating an apple
coated with cyanide crystals.
During World War II, it was Turing
who helped decipher the Enigma
Code through which Nazi Germany
communicated with its military
commanders.
But Turing also broke a second
code, the straight-laced social con
ventions of post-war Great Britain.
He was an unapologetic homosexual
who, if he didn't flaunt hts prefer
ences, never kept them hidden ei
ther and was punished for it.
In the early 1950s, Turing, who de
veloped many of the earliest com
puters, was arrested on a charge of
gross indecency. He voluntarily
took female hormones “to cure his
affliction” in lieu of a prison sen
tence,
All of these stories swirl through
“Breaking the Code,” a fascinating
examination of genius by Hugh
Whitemore that opened Sunday at
Broadway’s Neil Simon Theater.
Whitemore shows
Turing’s brilliance
while explaining it
so an audience can
understand. He does
this through
extended speeches
and rhapsodical
riffs.
The playwright, who also wrote
“Pack of Lies," has set up a diffi
cult task for himself. Whitemore
has to show Turing’s brilliance
while explaining it in terms an audi
ence can understand He does this
through several extended speeches,
rhapsodical riffs about the nature of
machines, the brain, thinking and
mathematics. Most of them are de
livered by Jacobi in conversations
with other characters
"1 can see no reason at all why a
thinking machine should not be
kind, resourceful and beautiful and
friendly, have a sense of humor, tell
right from wrong, make mistakes,
fall in love or enjoy strawberries
and cream,” Turing says at one
point in the play. And we believe
him.
Part of that belief comes from J
cobi’s extraordinary performam
Whitemore wrote the role for hii
and the actor revels in it. Jacc
must change from weary, unsat
tied mathematician to boyish tee
ager to patriotic governme
worker and back again.
The play, directed with a si
sense of fluidity by Clifford V
liams, is a non-chronological colla
of Turing's life. It begins with
visit to a police station to reporl
burglary That visit unravels 1
private life and serves as a con'
nient point to flashback to hts ds
at top-secret Bletchley Park wh<
he worked at breaking the Enigi
Code.
There are several fine suppo
performances, particularly Mil
Gough as Dillwyn Knox, Tur
superior at Bletchley Knox ha
the social graces Turing lacks
more importantly, the ability t
commodate himself to the s
conventions of the times One o
play's best moments is a beauti
written and acted scene where 1
admonishes his subordinati
adapt or perish.