Back in 1986 Arnold Schwarzenegger did a movie more so as a business move to desperately complete a studio deal. This was also a movie made for the primary purpose of funding another future Arnold film that at the time had Patrick Swayze cast in the lead. Sadly, this movie would be a box-office bomb but looking back at it with a more retrospective approach one can see where it delivers plenty of cheesy 80s action violence and bravado. This is also a bit of a hidden gem for Schwarzenegger.
At this point in ‘86 Arnold was certainly a well-known action star but not quite yet a global icon. He captured the world’s attention with The Terminator in ‘84 while also starring in Conan the Barbarian in ‘82 and Conan the Destroyer in ‘84. He played a sort of knock off Conan in 85s Red Sonja and that same year he would star in Commando, his answer to Stallone’s Rambo. This would really be the first film where Arnold would be given denser dialogue, not too dense, but much more than audiences were used to with him playing a robot or a barbarian.
Commando would be the movie that slightly humanized the hulking action star and with its success would come 1986s Raw Deal, a by-the-numbers action flick, mashed up with an organized crime film that would rely on everything that worked well for Arnold at that point in his career. Looking intimidating, launching the humble beginnings of his trademark one-liners, and taking out armies of men all alone.
As I mentioned in the intro Arnold had zero interest in being in this movie outside of finally getting to wear suits since he stated in an interview that his wardrobe budgets were usually around $10. At this point in his career Arnold was still locked into a multi-picture contract with Dino De Laurentiis who during the 80s had his own studio the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. Arnold had done his two Conan movies for DEG and was then supposed to fill a beefed-up cameo in Red Sonja in ‘85.
What was supposed to be a week turned into almost a month and when Arnold saw the film, he realized he’d been elevated to co-star without his knowledge. Now also at this time De Laurentiis was heavily into a film idea called Total Recall. Arnold very much wanted to star in this Total Recall movie, but De Laurentiis didn’t feel Arnold had the range plus he had Patrick Swayze already lined up for the role.
Clearly being typecast as a relatively dialogue-free barbarian by De Laurentiis, Arnold agreed to star in Raw Deal, a film De Laurentiis was making for the sole purpose of generating money for Total Recall with Swayze. Arnold’s condition for doing Raw Deal was that his contract with DEG would be dissolved. With a paycheck of course and considering he earned $2M for Commando in ‘85, then $3.5M for Predator in ‘87 you would assume it would’ve been somewhere in between.
Raw Deal would be given a budget of $8.5M. John Irvin, who only had a few films under his belt, most notably The Dogs of War starring Christopher Walken, would be hired to direct. Routine Sergio Leone writers Luciano Vincenzoni and Sergio Donati were brought in to write the script. Gary DeVore and Norman Wexler would come in and write the screenplay, with added revisions to tailor the material more to Arnold’s skillset. This is where you can see the contrast between crime drama elements and pure 80s action cinema.
Filming would last from October to December of 85 throughout parts of Chicago, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Other working titles for this movie were Let’s Make a Deal, and Triple Identity but ultimately Raw Deal was chosen since it sounded like a more standard action movie. Once completed Raw Deal would hit in over 1700 theaters across the US and would pull in $5.4M to land the #2 spot between Top Gun at #1 in its 4th week and Stallone’s Cobra which sat at #3 in its 3rd week.
Unfortunately, the film would only pull in $16.2M in the states and Raw Deal would fail to be the moneymaker De Laurentiis had hoped. Soon after De Laurentiis would file for bankruptcy and many of the properties under the DEG umbrella were sold to Carolco, including Total Recall which Arnold would later star in. De Laurentiis would leave DEG to eventually start another company and would continue to produce films, and Arnold would grow into a global star, but the two would never work together again.
Now as an action film from the 80s Raw Deal is more than adequate. It’s far from spectacular and it’s far from as splashy as other movies Arnold would go on to star in. However, I think it holds its place as one of those films from the first half of the decade that was more similar to the grindhouse action movies of guys like Charles Bronson where bloody violence took more of a focus than the more explosive action that would dominate the back half of the 80s.
It’s a standard plot for the time. Arnold plays Mark Kaminski. He’s a former FBI agent turned small town sheriff. Meanwhile FBI agents attempting to infiltrate a violent mob syndicate are being killed signifying a leak in the department. So, Kaminski is secretly recruited to go undercover to bring the whole thing down. That’s essentially the gist of it. There are more plot threads and to be honest the story overall is a bit messy and filled with a few too many holes to be a compelling crime drama. Yet it lays more than enough substance for a straight-up action flick.
The film keeps a swift pace, and it maneuvers itself to fit Arnolds trademarks. He’s more human in this role despite his action-figure physique and his confident sarcasm fits the mood nicely. He’s charming, he’s intimidating, and a bit humorous as he dispenses a few cheesy lines. But really, it’s all fluff to fill the time between the violence and this department could be a reason as to why the film gets overlooked.
The action in this movie is fine, and Arnold commands the screen when needed. But there’s nothing overly memorable in this movie outside of maybe just how ordinary all the violence really is. There are a few fight scenes that consist of Arnold dropping guys with one hulking punch or throwing them like a ragdoll. There’s also a solid chase sequence later in the film that gets the adrenaline up a bit with the use of old school practical effects and stunt work.
He even gets his Commando moment where he assembles his mass of artillery to prepare for a final act battle. But him driving through a quarry listening to the Rolling Stone and taking dudes out from a few hundred yards, with a machine gun, while driving all over the place, doesn’t land with the intended impact. Nor does his final one-on-many showdown in the closing that feels more like standard cinema gunplay than anything that can get your blood flowing.
Raw Deal really felt like Arnold’s response to Stallone’s Cobra. A crime-drama/action movie hybrid much like Cobra was a psychological thriller/action movie hybrid. Raw Deal’s problem is it takes itself too seriously during the quiet moments when the substance isn’t really there. Still, in the hands of Arnold, Raw Deal is a fun movie to revisit if you want to see Arnold’s early rise as an action star because despite this film’s flaws his screen presence is can’t-miss.
CAST: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Darren McGavin, Sam Wanamaker, Paul Shenar, Ed Lauter, Steven Hill DIRECTOR: John Irvin WRITER(S): Gary DeVore/Norman Wexler (Screenplay), Luciano Vincenzoni/Sergio Donati (Story) DISTRIBUTOR: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group RUNNING TIME: 101 minutes RATING: R (For language, sexual content, brief nudity, violence) YEAR: 1986 LANGUAGE: English GENRE: Action/Crime
Anthony J. Digioia II © 2023 SilverScreen Analysis
