Raw Deal, 1986.
Directed by John Irvin.
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Robert Davi, Sam Wanamaker, Ed Lauter, Darren McGavin, and Joe Regalbuto.
SYNOPSIS:
A former FBI agent now working as a small-town sheriff goes undercover in the Chicago mafia after the son of an old friend is murdered.
Raw Deal is something of an oddity in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career, coming as it did between the evergreen double-whammy of 1985s Commando and 1987s Predator but not igniting the big man’s reputation as it probably should have. This is because Raw Deal is a compromise movie – a compromise between Schwarzenegger and producer Dino De Laurentiis as the actor wanted out of his contract and De Laurentiis wanted more Conan movies – and was not written with the Austrian Oak in mind, and this is the most glaringly obvious fault with the movie.
Arnie plays Mark Kaminski, a former FBI agent who was forced to resign after brutally beating a suspect who abused and murdered a young girl. Kaminski is now the sheriff in a small town where not a lot happens and life seems to pass him by, something which his heavy-drinking wife is very keen to remind him of whenever she gets drunk, but one day he is visited by his old friend and former FBI colleague Harry Shannon (Darren McGavin), who informs Kaminski that his son Blair – also an agent – has been killed by the Chicago mafia and he wants Kaminski to infiltrate the organisation and bring it down from the inside by targeting local Don Luigi Patrovita (Sam Wanamaker), who happens to be getting investigated by federal prosecutor Marvin Baxter (Joe Regalbuto), the prosecutor who forced Kaminski to resign from the FBI.
Kaminski agrees and fakes his own death, re-emerging as convicted criminal Joseph P. Brenner. Very quickly, Brenner gets in the with Patrovita’s underbosses, including enforcer Max Keller (Robert Davi) who suspects that Brenner is not who he says he is, and as things escalate Brenner is put to the test to prove his loyalty, resulting in a bloodbath as Brenner/Kaminski must choose between the job and his friend.
A pretty straightforward gangster movie, Raw Deal tries very hard to repeat the formula laid down by Commando the previous year, but whereas Arnie cemented his action hero chops in that movie by playing to his strengths and basically just blowing the guts out of everybody who isn’t on his side, Raw Deal just doesn’t work in the same way. First of all, there is a plot; admittedly not a great one but a serviceable one and one that, if the right actor were in the role, could have lifted the script as it was written into something more dynamic and exciting. As it is, we are asked to accept that a 6’ 2” bodybuilder with a German accent can infiltrate and move about in the Chicago underworld without raising suspicion, all within a few days and nobody with any connections doing their homework on who this guy is.
But once you get past that small detail, you start to notice other little details that probably wouldn’t matter so much if this movie had the same amount of energy and sheer abandon as Commando. Making Mark Kaminski/Joseph P. Brenner a charismatic character is the right move – after all, this man has to charm Robert Davi and potential love interest Kathryn Harrold, and so he would need to be endearing – and Arnie got through the complex dialogue of Commando(!) with a quip and a one-liner, so Raw Deal would do the same, right?
Well, not exactly, with only Kaminski’s badly delivered “Don’t drink and bake” line to his drunk wife being the only line that anyone ever remembers from this movie. And why did the police not find a body when Kaminski faked his death? Never mentioned. What about his wife? Mentioned at the end but you’ll still question it. And just how could Harry Shannon get Kaminski reinstated in the FBI after he performs one undercover – and illegal – operation? Your inner voice will be keeping you awake long after the movie has finished with these types of logical inconsistencies.
But despite these flaws, is Raw Deal so terrible? Judge it as a Schwarzenegger movie and it isn’t great, only beaten by Conan the Destroyer to be his worst movie of the 1980s, but by ‘80s action movie standards it isn’t that bad. There are plenty of familiar faces to keep you scrolling through IMDB to see what else you’ve seen them in – and it does have Robert Davi in it so there’s some instant ‘80s action credibility – as well as shoot-outs, explosions, the Rolling Stones in the soundtrack (in a weak attempt to ape Martin Scorsese and his use of classic rock tracks during key moments) and peak Arnie shooting big guns with no effort whatsoever, so on that level it does its job, but it is a fairly flat and unspectacular experience, especially coming off the back of the more stylish Commando and The Terminator.
Having been restored in 4K, the image is a bit inconsistent when it comes to contrast and brightness, with some scenes looking very dark and washed out, and others looking quite sharp and colourful. Anything red seems to pop out so the numerous blood squibs show up nicely, but skin tones look a little off, either being slightly grey or too pink, depending on the lighting.
Extras come in the shape of a short documentary about Arnie’s rise to fame in Hollywood (the same one that is also on the recent Red Sonja disc) and an interview with author Dave Saunders about Raw Deal and how it fits in Arnie’s body of work (which has been ported over from the previous Blu-ray release), but for collector’s the disc is available in a Zavvi exclusive Steelbook edition, which looks very fetching (and also very red).
Raw Deal is an average movie at best, featuring enough guns and violence to keep it in the same ballpark as any other major action releases from the time but there is nothing about it that puts it in the same league as Arnie’s other ‘80s output. With another actor it may have been a better movie, with a different director it could have been elevated to something more notable.
However, as it is, Raw Deal is really a movie only Arnie completists would have any love for, and this release of it, whilst an improvement on any old DVD release you may have, doesn’t really present a significant upgrade from the previous Blu-ray release, unless you absolutely must have the red colour of the opening credits be just a touch more lurid.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
