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| True hero of Mars! Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1990's TOTAL RECALL. Images: STUDIO CANAL |
TOTAL RECALL
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Rachel Ticotin and Michael Ironside
Screenplay by Ronald Shushett, Dan O’Bannon and Gary Goldman
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Now available in Triple Play Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy from STUDIO CANAL
Reviewed by Scott Weller
I remember the shock and awe of seeing Paul Verhoeven’s mind and vision overload sci-fi adventure TOTAL RECALL for the first time - a sneak preview press screening at London’s then prestigious and incredible ODEON Marble Arch cinemas (then the biggest movie screen in Europe circa Summer 1990) - alongside an equally mind blown and surprised, seat packed audience. Shock at the incredible crowd-pleasing, on-screen balance of mayhem, action, all-round destruction and gore being skillfully presented, and awe at the imagination, visual skill, and unabashed but highly successful self-casting of chiseled Austrian/American icon Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role of hero/anti-hero/hero Doug Quaid, the muscled presence truly making the most of his film vehicle and actually bringing strong audience friendly conviction and actual subtle character development/nuance to the demanding role. TOTAL RECALL has aged well since that original debut, and no other people besides Verhoeven and Arnie could have pulled it off so successfully- in the wrong hands this film could have been a disaster. A hyper combination of JAMES BOND meets BLADE RUNNER, meets Hitchcock, it’s one of those rare films that, despite a long behind the scenes gestation, remains as vitally exciting and ground-breaking as ever, and one of the best of its genre, too: a joyous and bloody winner from start to finish.
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| Man with a past. Arnie in action as Doug Quaid. |
At it’s heart is a clever sci-fi concept based on the classic work and genius of the ultimate mind fuck futurist author Philip K. Dick, the man who realized early on in his LSD addicted life that androids do indeed dream of electric sheep. This film, cleverly inspired from his short story, “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale,” by seventies ALIEN scribe veterans Ron Shusett and Dan O’Bannon, with additional and highly important script input from Jon Povill and later Gary Goldman, concerns Doug Quaid, seemingly just your normal guy, with a good job and a beautiful wife at his side, but mentally plagued with dreams of another life on Mars. Hoping to make sense of his inner demons and his personal frustration of these vivid encounters on the red planet that feel all too tangibly real to be make believe, Doug, against the advice of worried friends and loved ones, visits the REKALL entertainment factory, possessing the vital technology needed to make his dreams really come true as he decides to have his very own personal adventure on Mars.
Unfortunately, it’s an experience that soon becomes all too real and sends him and his world upside down, as friends become deadly enemies and no one is ultimately ever what they seem. For Quaid, now known as the Martian based spy Hauser, Total Recall has seemingly been initiated, within a shocking set of occurrences sending him into a nightmare world, and a greater mystery, that can only be solved with his journeying to Mars for real...
Confidently handling the reins as both the films lead star and its ultimate behind the scenes champion in getting the once aborted movie made as a worthy commercial enterprise, Schwarzenegger as Quaid brings to the game a resilience, charisma and dedication that previously attached star names associated to the project like Richard Dreyfuss, Christopher Reeve, and Patrick Swayze, failed to grasp, whilst Verhoeven, in his second US sci-fi related film (his first, the equally classic ROBOCOP), brings the kind of counterbalancing mercurial qualities of sophistication, sly humour and violence together in a way that would most likely have eluded the then likes of the once late-eighties project touted David Cronenberg. Verhoeven’s teaming with Schwarzenegger makes for a great dream combo, with the director getting a fine performance from his star-probably his best-away from the stone faced emotionless killing machine of the earlier THE TERMINATOR. It’s a shame that their planned third film-a period action drama set during The Crusades- was never to materialize due to budget problems.
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| The lovely ladies giving Arnie some Total Recall. Rachel Ticotin as Melina... |
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| ...and a very seductive Sharon Stone as Lori. |
Adding supporting beauty, mystery and danger to Arnie’s complex life are Rachel Ticotin as Melina, the hooker with a heart resistance fighter on Mars and the stunning Sharon Stone, the ultimate action sex siren baddie here as the deadly double-life agent, and wife to Doug, Lori; her character once seemingly playful and loving, quickly turning into a rigorous knife wielding psycho killer. Stone looks absolutely beautiful in this film. I still drool every time I see her in this first major role that got her away from the crap B movies and TV films of her past, and before she boldly opened her legs wider than wide for Michael Douglas, and made film history, in Verhoeven’s next film: the equally outrageous Hitchcock-ian style noir modern thriller BASIC INSTINCT. Lori’s eventual demise in the ultimate bitch fight fest against Melina proves genuinely exciting, with Arnold delivering one of the all-time great payoff lines at the end!
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| Ronny Cox gives Arnie a hard time as Cohagen... |
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| Whilst Michael Ironside blasts away at everything as Richter! |
No longer the friendly police chief of BEVERLY HILLS COP, Ronny Cox and V’s always compelling Michael Ironside are supremely cast as the films primary and diabolical baddies, industrial tyrant Cohagen and snarly Richter, happily chewing up the scenery and, in the best BOND baddies tradition, never playing things fair. Oh, and word of warning to all animal lovers, do not, DO NOT, put Cohagen anywhere near goldfish!
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| Life on Mars! Humans and Mutants gather in Venusville. |
As the hunt for Quaid intensifies, the film’s all-important Martian environment plays host to its key second act, showing us the environmental and industrial hardships of the planet and its Terbinium mines, with its rich and poor divide ever widening as its dying civilization’s large resistance force remain in constant battle against the tyranny of its rulers and its goon squad army. The scenario of which Doug arrives is well realized through the stunning architecture of the Mexico location filming and on the country’s efficient soundstages boasting impressive quasi-future sets designed by William Sandell, with additional input from STAR WARS and ALIEN’s Ron Cobb. There’s also some accomplished model work backing it all from the then Dreamquest effects company and its subsidiaries, as the films multi-layered plot developments and occasional red-herrings add to the blockbuster mix and also weaves in such extra delights like mutants, mysterious alien civilizations and a pyramid mine, before its spectacular and explosively satisfying finale.
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| Arnie blows his "cover" arriving on Mars. |
Heightened by the films gritty cinematographer, Jost Vacano, TOTAL RECALL’s legendary action set pieces, many co-ordinated by British stunt icon Vic Armstrong, remain as vividly violent as ever, aided by a post THE THING’s Rob Bottin’s crazy but brilliant mask and make-up work. Who’ll ever forget Arnie emerging from the “big lady” disguise, the Martian people with their mutated faces or the eye popping visages of Doug and Melina as they emerge onto the Red Planet’s surface without protective masks.
Adding a vital layer of excitement and adrenaline to the film is a superb, pulse pounding score from the late Jerry Goldsmith, working well with London’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, in his career prime: its rhythms almost in tone with Arnold’s machine gun pumping, muscle flexing action as more enemy baddies and double agents fall to his heroic deeds.
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| Doug fights the dream machine! |
Ending the film with a twist as it eventually fades to white, Verhoeven gives us all one last important question to ponder: was it all a reality for our hero Quaid? Or was he still in the REKALL chair, playing out the agent programme fantasy to his lobotomized end?
Quaid’s ultimate destiny and fate may be in doubt within out minds, but one thing certainly isn’t, and that’s the fact that TOTAL RECALL is as compulsively enjoyable as ever twenty-two years on: intelligent, possessing a well structured and satisfying storyline, full of twists and turns, memorable characters, and laced with the aforementioned bloodiest and most violent of action sequences which still retain the ouch factor and an accompanying black comedy factor at the same time. It’s reputation as one of the best sci-fi/action hybrid genre movies ever made remains cemented.
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| Is life a dream for Doug and Lori? |
As if this enduring film wasn’t value for money enough in its new crisp picture and sound transfer, the accompanying special features material are also equally worthy of the ULTIMATE REKALL EDITION moniker, including two detailed classic Making ofdocumentaries, alongside a brand new and insightful interview with the exuberant and knowledgeable Paul Verhoeven, and a further new look at RECALL’s effects and designs. Plus restoration comparisons, a photo gallery and an original 90’s release trailer.
“Get your arse to Mars,” Doug tells himself during one of the films key moments. And so must you. Get your arse down to the nearest shop or online store to get hold of your copy of TOTAL RECALL. You won’t regret a minute of it!
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| Quaid goes airborne in a classic scene. |
KOOL TV RATING (movie and extras): 5 out of 5
Get hold of TOTAL RECALL here: Total Recall - Triple Play DVD + Blu-ray + Digital Copy 1990: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV
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