Total Recall (2012)

Title: Total Recall (2012)

Director: Len Wiseman

Writer: Kurt Wimmer, Mark Bomback

Cast: Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel

Review:

I recently wrote an article in which I compared both versions of Total Recall: Paul Verhoeven’s 1990 film, and this new remake. On that article I pointed out the many differences and similarities between both films, because let’s face it, it’s kind of difficult not to compare the two, especially when you’re such a fan of the original one. But now that I’ve said my piece about both films, I feel like this new one is good enough to get its own review. So, here it is a review for Len Wiseman’s Total Recall, sans any comparisons to Verhoeven’s film. But remember, if you’re interested in reading about how the new and the old compare, don’t hesitate to check out my previous article which does just that in a pretty extensive way.

On this film we meet Douglas Quaid, a blue collar worker who can’t wait to escape his redundant life, he doesn’t know what it is he wants, but he knows he wants a change. While drinking at the local bar he asks his co-workers if they are happy with how their lives have turned out, spending their shitty pay drinking shitty beers in a shitty bar. Quaid wants more out of life, unfortunately he is stuck in his same-o same-o life. But salvation awaits! ‘Rekall’ is a company that sells you fake memories, they can implant fake memories into your brain and make you believe you’ve done whatever you ever wanted to do. Of course, Quaid finds all of this very titillating, it is exactly what he needs, the great escape. So Quaid ends up buying the ticket and taking the ride. Problems arise when the fake memory implants awaken a hidden personality which was lying dormant somewhere in the back of his mind. Now people are chasing him and trying to kill him! Is Douglas Quaid who he thinks he is, or is he someone else?

First things first, I loved the themes on this film. I’ve always said that the best sci-fi films are those that comment on the world we live in rather then just being a showcase for  special effects and I’m glad to say that this new Total Recall does just that, it comments on the way society is structured and on they way governments are operating, making their moves so to speak in order to keep a certain part of the population enslaved. Slavery isn’t over; it just changed its name. This new film makes us question the structure of society and if this is the way things should be. On this film when Douglas Quaid is on his way to work, he has to step onto this giant elevator to take what they call “The Fall”. Basically, the working class travels to their jobs by traversing through the core of the planet on this huge elevator. The thing we need to notice about this scene is how tired and bored everybody looks from doing the same thing every day.

Same as the working class that Chaplin portrayed as sheep in Modern Times (1936) or the workers who enter the giant elevator to work in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927), the workers in Total Recall are portrayed as sheep as well. Interesting how going to work and commuting is called “The Fall”, the symbolisms didn’t escape me at all. It’s the idea that we are being treated as herd and that our lives are being wasted doing menial, repetitive jobs that lead our lives nowhere. I take the train to work everyday and can’t help to think we’re all sheep when I see so many people getting on and off the train, looking tired and bored out of their minds; like sheep in a heard in deed. Or rather, like lambs to the slaughter, day by day, the blue collar workers lives are sheered by the scissors of redundancy and time. Why does life have to be like this for some? Can’t life turn out to be something more interesting? Can it all be changed somehow? Can humanity focus their efforts on something more worthwhile? These are some of the questions that Total Recall considers.

This version of Total Recall is really about waking up from that slumber, about disconnecting from that dormant state and taking control of your lives. Quaid is about to take the ‘Rekall’ trip, which is really just a way to try and forget the world and live in a temporary state of bliss. In this film, Quaid is buying a fake escape, not unlike the fake escape that drugs and alcohol offer. These escapes are only temporary, when you wake up; your problems are still there. A smarter solution to redundancy would be to identify it and take the steps to eradicate it from our lives. In a way, Total Recall is also commenting on the stupidity of succumbing to mind numbing drugs to escape our problems. One thing is to use drugs for recreational purposes, but it’s far more damaging to use them to forget about your life, to ignore and escape your problems instead of facing them. There’s a quote from Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), by the way, one of my favorite films ever and a film that addresses some of the very issues that this new Total Recall film addresses; and that quote says: “My father says that almost the whole world is asleep. Everybody you know, everybody you see. Everybody you talk to. He says that only a few people are awake, and that they live in a state of constant amazement” I totally agree with this sentiment, and it’s what this new Total Recall film is talking about, waking up from that slumber; taking control of your life and doing what you really want with it.

In Quaid’s case, what he feels he needs to do with his life is joining the revolutionary movement so he can change the status quo of society, shake things up, destroy the old way of doing things and starting something new. The idea of destroying something in order to create something new is not a new idea in cinema or in life for that matter, but it is a path seldom taken by society. Big changes occur when old patterns of action are left behind; this I feel is something that has to happen in the world. Things have to change in order for everyone to be happy and free, in order for all of us to truly enjoy life. Not just a select few. Not just the rich and powerful, but everyone.

In the world of Total Recall, and in many parts of the real world we live in governments have taken steps to oppress the working class even further, while lying through their teeth about how they do it. The villains of this film are a dictator and his army of cops. The dictator tells the people that they are putting more cops on the street to protect the population, when in fact what they are really doing is gathering more cops to increment their own private little army with which to oppress. In this respect, Total Recall also reminded me a lot of those faceless cops in George Lucas’s THX-1138 (1971), by the way, THX-1138 was an obvious inspiration for this film. I’ve personally seen the powers that be increment their police force, only to use it against the population and to violate said populations humans rights. Not to protect it, but to oppress. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at the media, where they portray themselves as protectors of the people in television commercials and news articles paid by themselves, to make themselves look like heroes. The film is telling us not to stand idly as these vile creatures take over the world, that in order for a change to occur, people need to rise up from complacency.

Aside from these heavy themes, the film is a great sci-fi/action film, I was never bored. Tonally, it’s a more serious film than Verhoeven’s film, it's not looking to make you laugh with one liners or jokes every five seconds, it doesn’t feel as overtly kinetic as Verhoeven’s film and that’s fine, we couldn’t really expect Len Wiseman, the director of this film to do the same exact film in tone or feel. This Total Recall was going for something different. Yeah we go through the same beats and moments, and there’s a nudge or two to Verhoeven’s film, but in the end, this new Total Recall was trying it’s hardest to be something different. I love Verhoeven’s film for all its craziness, but I also loved this new Total Recall for different reasons, mainly, the awesome art direction, the futuristic technology, I mean, how cool where those hand phones? I enjoyed the decidedly rebellious tone and the flying car chase sequence! They really out did themselves with those scenes. In terms of fx and action, this one pulled no stops, it’s a chase movie with nonstop action. So many things worked just right on this one that I can’t bring myself to say I didn’t like it, because I did like it very much so, it’s not as fun or gory, but then again, it wasn’t trying to be.  

Rating: 4 out of 5 

Equilibrium (2002)

Title: Equilibrium (2002)

Writer/Director: Kurt Wimmer

Cast: Christian Bale, Emily Watson, Sean Bean, Taye Diggs, William Fichtner

Review:

Director/Writer Kurt Wimmer has had an interesting career, though you might not think so at first because he’s only directed three films, he continues working as a screenwriter in big budget Hollywood action/sci-fi films like the recent Total Recall (2012) which in spite of being a “softer” film than Verhoeven’s blood drenched original film starting Arnold Schwarzenegger, still managed to be an entertaining film in my book. He also wrote Salt (2010) which by the way I absolutely loved; it got me to respect Angelina Jolie as an action star. Wimmer’s first directing gig was a Brian Bosworth action film called One Man’s Justice (1996) a.k.a. One Tough Bastard; but he got fired half way through the shoot of that film, so most of the time, he speaks of Equilibrium as his first directorial effort.  

Wimmer directs Bale

Equilibrium tells the tale of ‘Libria’; a world ruled under the tight regime of a dictator who is simply referred to as “Father”. What kind of a world is Libria? Well, because of the horrors brought on by war, this new society has decided that they want to stop feeling. In order to inhibit feelings everyone takes a drug called ‘Prozium’ at certain points during the day. To further hold a grip on society’s feelings, all forms of artistic expression have been prohibited. This means that poetry, novels, paintings, films and music have all been outlawed. Of course, not everyone agrees with this way of life and groups of rebels are spread out through out the land, hiding their music records, their books and paintings in little cache’s of cultural awesomeness. In order to find these cultural treasures and destroy them, the government has the ‘Grammaton Clerics’, police men who go around burning all forms of artistic expression. One of these Clerics is John Preston. Problem is that Preston has stopped taking Prozium and is starting to feel. Will he succumb to the wonders of sensation? Or will he remain a cold, robotic tool of the government?

Through his film, Wimmer comments on many things, one of them being emotional repression. Films make us feel, and Wimmer whose worked in the film industry for many, many years knows how repressed the filmmaking industry is. There’s no better example than Total Recall (2012); a film that Wimmer himself wrote. In my comparison between the old and new Total Recall, I felt this new one had been neutered, stripped of all that edgy violent coolness that the 1990 version had. On Equilibrium, we meet characters who are rebels and have stopped feeling. One of these characters is Mary. a character that has stopped taking the emotion repressing drug. When she is questioned as to why she wants to feel she says: “Feeling is as vital as breath, and without it. Without love, without anger, without sorrow, breath is just a clock…ticking” Equilibrium speaks about how repressed society has become, and more specifically how repressed the American film industry is.

Certain cultural artifacts in Equilibrium are rated ‘EC-10’ by the government, a not so subtle way of commenting on the nefarious ‘NC-17’, a rating that can kill a films chances at the box office. During a point in the film we even see a foot soldier of the government burning a roll of film, so yes, Wimmer was commenting on the repressive nature of the rating systems in the film industry. I read an interview in which Wimmer accurately compares films to a drug. We see a sad film when we want to feel sad, an uplifting one when we want to feel uplifted and a funny one when we want to laugh. And it is true; films are like a drug that can manipulate our emotions. How many times have you found yourself deeply moved by a film; to the point where you even drop a tear or two? Ever found yourself screaming for Rocky to win? We have a rating system to control what the younger population is be exposed to, but is it also used to control the ideas we are presented with? Through the drug that the people of Libria take in Wimmer’s film, he was commenting on the Motion Picture Association of America and how they try to hold back what ideas we are exposed to and what we can feel through films. 

  

Of course, I am not against controlling the kind of images that our children are exposed to with a film. It would be stupid to allow a child to see a film like Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) for example. But why limit this films chances at appearing on the silver screen by rating it NC-17 and therefore limiting the amount of screens it can be seen in? Yes it is a violent and disturbing film, but it also comments about real life, in fact, the film is partially based on the exploits of real life murderer Henry Lee Lucas. It comments on real life horrors, and this, as seen by an educated adult shouldn’t be a problem. We all know that life is ugly, life is deadly, bloody, nasty, but it is also beautiful and uplifting and emotional. In life, things don’t always end with a happy ending; in fact the truth is that we rarely get a happy ending to anything! So why make believe that everything is pretty and clean and perfectly solved, when in real life this isn’t so? Aren’t films and art a mirror image of the world we live in? Doesn’t art imitate life? If this is so, then part of our world is in denial of who we really are. There’s a moment in Equilibrium when Cleric John Preston begins to feel, he looks at himself in the mirror and screams “look at yourself!” Maybe this is something that we as a society should start doing. Instead of trying to hide things as if they didn’t exist. There should be no problem in analyzing who we are through films; or maybe this is something that the powers that be don’t want the people to do? Think? Analyze? Learn? Again, as has happened before, film is seen as a threat, as a powerful tool that can change the way we see things as therefore, it is considered dangerous. This is also a theme I talked a bit about in my review for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers (2003).

It cannot be denied that Equilibrium is obviously highly influenced by Orwelle’s 1984, Huxley’s A Brave New World and Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 all books about societies living under fascist dictatorships. The burning of books, a totalitarian government ruled by a huge television screen, children who rat on their parents, art and sex being prohibited, rebels who want nothing more then to be themselves and be free, these are all elements that we’ve seen before on these books and films. What Equilibrium adds to the mix is the action and the style. It’s 1984 mixed with The Matrix. It’s no secret that Wimmer loves his kung fu style action; he always finds a way to work it into his films. This element was felt even stronger in Wimmer’s Ultraviolet (2006) a film that was taken by the studio and re-edited beyond recognition. Here’s the deal with Ultraviolet: you can see it has a lot of cool elements to it, the visuals are eye candy; the film is so colorful, always changing, visually, it’s never boring. It has a lot of that comic book style action Wimmer loves so much! Motorcycles that ride up buildings! Sadly, the film was re-edited by the studio who thought Wimmer’s cut of the film was “too emotional”. Again with the repression of emotions! The studio wanted to augment the more superficial elements of the film. As a result, we got a film that feels like a big old mess. But that wasn’t Wimmer’s fault; he wanted a film that would have as much action as emotion, yet it was the studio that wanted things the other way around. So if you find Ultraviolet to be a film that’s style over substance, now you know who to blame. I’d love to see Wimmer’s cut of the film!

Equilibrium benefits from having Christian Bale in the role of John Preston, a member of the government who suddenly finds he doubts what he does. He kills, nay, exterminates, the poor, the artistic and rebellious side of society. Their only crime is wanting to live in a world where they could be themselves; where they can be individuals. Not a world where we all think, dress, and look alike. Don’t know about you guys, but I fight for this everyday. For trying to be an individual, to say what I think and not be afraid to do so, to not wear a mask, to be the exception, not the norm, to be myself. This is what Equilibrium is all about. There’s this moment in which John Preston stops taking the drug and starts realizing that he is spilling the blood of innocents, he is no longer a cold robotic tool of the government, he feels and realizes he has someone’s blood on his hands. Wow, what a moment! Bale plays Preston in such a cold matter, with an emotionless face for a huge part of the film, but little by little emotion creeps its way into his life, then he is a tortured soul. That scene where he hears Beethoven’s 9^th for the first time, amazing stuff.

Of course the film is not perfect. Its budgetary limitations sometimes show their ugly face. For example, this is supposed to be a distant future, completely unrelated to the world we live in, yet the Clerics drive Cadillac Seville’s painted entirely in white? That takes me right out of this future world and takes me right back to the 90’s. Performance wise Taye Diggs is the only weak link in the film. While Emily Watson, Christian Bale and Sean Bean all turn in great performances, Digg’s fails to portray an emotionless being because he is always smiling or screaming in anger. What happened to the supposedly emotionless cleric? Worst part is that he says that he can detect someone who is feeling even before they know it themselves. Shouldn’t he know he himself is showing emotion all the time? He’s constant smirking gets a bit annoying. Also, the films comic book style action clashes with its heavy themes, but if you find comic book styled action entertaining (the way I do) then you just might find enjoyment in it. Especially the martial arts called 'Gun Kata' that Wimmer created specifically for this film. It's kind of like mixing Kung-Fu mixed with Guns, pretty cool stuff. Bottom line is this is a film with lots to say, heavy on themes, the way good sci-fi should be. It has a couple of weak moments that don’t allow it to be a perfect sci-fi, but it can certainly be qualified as  beyond average. This is a film that speaks about the importance of not loosing our humanity, and that matters a lot in my book.

Rating: 4 out of 5