Director: George P. Cosmatos
I wanted to give this 8 million stars, but I felt that was a bit extravagant. Where to begin with Cobra? Its 80s pop soundtrack where, after killing a terrorist, the music opines that the title character has been 'workin' too hard'? Its place in the pantheon of a proud tradition of films that endorse Fascism? (Dirty Harry and Boondock Saints come to mind immediately, I'm sure there are many others). From its opening sequence where a bunch of weirdos click axes and claw hammers together in some sort of unexplained ritual, I knew this was going to be one of the greatest movies of all time, and it delivered. Cobra is a Stuffed Crust pizza with extra cheese - the director wastes no opportunity to be ham-fisted (or should that be cheese-fisted?). I could discuss this movie forever, but it's one I definitely should have seen 15 years ago. I try not to say this about anything, but when it comes to a film like Cobra, I don't think they quite make them like they used to.
Boondock Saints is certainly not a fascist film in the same way that Dirty Harry is a fascist film. I assume that with your mention of Boondock Saints you are echoing Kael's famous criticism of Straw Dogs, as the two have in common the sense that their protagonists live under mob rule, and the only way that personal safety can be assured for anyone is with the use of violence by moral men against immoral men. This is not so much fascist as it is a sort of bizarre crusading anti-anarchism (the type of anti-anarchism that in practice only breeds more anarchy).
ReplyDeleteThis film, however, sounds like it is fascist in the same way as Dirty Harry, and much of Schwarzenegger's oeuvre, and really almost any pseudo-realistic action film from the 80s - it is about how the threats against the common man by those outside the law are so great that those entrusted with enforcing the law must exercise immediate, absolute judgment. The tacit endorsement of fascism through police brutality or military intervention is more insidious to me, but generally more entertaining, than the often-preachy "citizen vigilante" theme.