{"id":14834,"date":"2012-04-03T01:59:47","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T00:59:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=14834"},"modified":"2012-04-03T09:59:54","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T08:59:54","slug":"film-notes-12-total-recall-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2012\/04\/03\/film-notes-12-total-recall-1990\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Notes #12: Total Recall (1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Total-Recall.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14836\" title=\"Total Recall\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Total-Recall.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SPOILER ALERT: Plot details will be revealed!<\/p>\n<p>Paul Verhoeven\u2019s sci-fi actioner is Number 12 in my Film Notes series.<\/p>\n<p>For those not familiar with this series of posts, it involves me watching a film every day for 30 days.<\/p>\n<p>The following rules apply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It must be a film I have already seen.<\/li>\n<li>I must make notes whilst I\u2019m watching it.<\/li>\n<li>Pauses are allowed but the viewing must all be one session.<\/li>\n<li>It can\u2019t be a cinema release.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The point is to capture my instant thoughts about a movie and my overall film diet for 30 days, as well as curate interesting links to the film in question.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my notes on <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Total_Recall\">Total Recall<\/a><\/strong> (1990) which I watched on DVD on Monday 2nd April. Give these people air!<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Wonderful trailing opening titles that suggest SUPERMAN (1978)<\/li>\n<li>Pounding title music by Jerry Goldsmith that recalls another Schwarzenegger film &#8211; Basil Pouledoris&#8217;s main theme to CONAN THE BARBARIAN (1982)<\/li>\n<li>Love the intensity of the opening Mars scene &#8211; Verhoeven really knows how to sell visceral violence (e.g. You really feel those eyes are popping out of his head)<\/li>\n<li>Slightly disappointed that he chose to go for the &#8216;it&#8217;s only a dream&#8217; edit in which Arnie sits bolt upright. Has anyone ever woken up from a dream like this?!<\/li>\n<li>Note that Sharon Stone is actually pissed off and jealous at the dream &#8211; a sign of things to come<\/li>\n<li>Verhoeven got his Hollywood breakthrough with ROBOCOP (1987), which blended 80s action movie with surprisingly sharp political satire<\/li>\n<li>TOTAL RECALL (1990) continues the trend with its social commentary blended within the framework of a sci-fi thriller.<\/li>\n<li>Films like THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998), THE MATRIX (1999) and INCEPTION (2010) played around with similar concepts<\/li>\n<li>Nice touches: fingernail polish, x-ray machines and video walls<\/li>\n<li>The x-ray machines are now standard in US airports!<\/li>\n<li>Production design is great &#8211; clever blend of sets and Mexican subway system.<\/li>\n<li>Love the recall salesman \/ travel agent &#8211; he&#8217;s actually selling me on this holiday<\/li>\n<li>Arnie&#8217;s line &#8220;don&#8217;t bullshit me&#8221; seems ADR&#8217;d<\/li>\n<li>The scene where Arnie explains what kind of woman he really<\/li>\n<li>Like the pacing in this film &#8211; no dicking around. 15 minutes in and we&#8217;re off.<\/li>\n<li>Sharon Stone is at her\u00a0glamorous\u00a0best in this film &#8211; you can see why Verhoevan cast her in BASIC INSTINCT (1992)<\/li>\n<li>The videophones are basically Apple FaceTime (they even have a portrait screen)<\/li>\n<li>Fight scenes are brilliantly choreographed by Vic Armstrong &#8211; we really feel every punch and crunch.<\/li>\n<li>Michael Ironside is a genuinely great villain. Charming, ruthless and we get the vibe he doesn&#8217;t mess around.<\/li>\n<li>Subway shoot out is brutal fun. Think they had to make cuts for the theatrical release.<\/li>\n<li>Notice how this is really a continuation of the previous chase (which hadn&#8217;t really ended).<\/li>\n<li>The tracking device predicts the current debates about the surveillance society<\/li>\n<li>Love the dryness of Arnie&#8217;s lines.<\/li>\n<li>Verhoeven\u00a0has been deftly handling action and narrative now for about 20 mins<\/li>\n<li>Sound design and Rob Bottin&#8217;s make up work are A-grade in the bug removal scene<\/li>\n<li>Good miniatures for the spaceships on Mars. Although this was made on the cusp of the ILM revolution ushered in by TERMINATOR 2 (1991) and JURASSIC PARK (1993) it still stands up for the most part.<\/li>\n<li>Kuato is freedom fighter who in this film we are expected to sympathise with but I wonder how the remake will play around with this idea in a post-9\/11 world.<\/li>\n<li>Rob Bottin&#8217;s make up is excellent in the airport scene.<\/li>\n<li>Note the use of a vertical set to simulate zero gravity (a trick Vic Armstrong<\/li>\n<li>Cohaagen\u00a0is to Mars what NCP was to Detroit in ROBOCOP (1987).<\/li>\n<li>Sets are believable because Mars is an indoor world anyway.<\/li>\n<li>Cab driver: &#8220;I&#8217;ve got five kids to feed!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Apparently during filming the crew all thought Rachel Ticotin was going to be the big star, not Sharon Stone<\/li>\n<li>The hotel room scene was almost certainly a big influence on INCEPTION (2010).<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t be fooled by the fact that this is a sci-fi starring Arnie &#8211; this is very good genre writing<\/li>\n<li>Lot of product placement in this film (Sony, Fuji Film and Miller Lite)<\/li>\n<li>Great female fight, expertly arranged by Vic Armstrong who really wanted to stage a memorable scrap<\/li>\n<li>The pacing is brilliant during Quaid and Milena&#8217;s escape &#8211; back when action was cleanly edited and featured smooth camera work<\/li>\n<li>Rob Bottin&#8217;s make up work is outstanding &#8211; especially the cab drivers arm and Kuato<\/li>\n<li>The villains have a devilish wit which gives the film a pleasing light touch.<\/li>\n<li>Obligatory &#8216;explanation scene&#8217; is actually an interesting exercise in making the audience uncertain<\/li>\n<li>Even by modern torture porn standards, the brainwash scene is brutally violent.<\/li>\n<li>Quaid&#8217;s line &#8220;Give these people air!&#8221; was referenced in Judd Apatow&#8217;s KNOCKED UP (2007).<\/li>\n<li>Even the goldfish die.<\/li>\n<li>Quaid: &#8220;Screw you!!!&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Slightly dated rear projection work with the reactor<\/li>\n<li>The pace in the second half of this film is absolutely tremendous<\/li>\n<li>Sound design also excellent. You can really hear guns and punches.<\/li>\n<li>The fight on the lift is another corker &#8211; notice the foley on<\/li>\n<li>I&#8217;ve always loved Ronny Cox&#8217;s line about being &#8220;home in time for cornflakes&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Climax also features great use of vertical sets<\/li>\n<li>Satisfyingly visceral gore of Cohaagen&#8217;s eyes popping out. More brilliant work from Rob Bottin.<\/li>\n<li>I think the VFX crew used the old milk in tank trick to simulate to clouds on the mountain. Also used in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and POLTERGEIST (1982).<\/li>\n<li>Nicely ambiguous ending which allows different interpretations (Verhoevan&#8217;s is considerably darker than Arnie&#8217;s)<\/li>\n<li>Cameras by ARRI<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-12-total-recall-1990.js\"><\/script><noscript>[<a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-12-total-recall-1990\" target=\"_blank\">View the story &#8220;Film Notes #12: Total Recall (1990)&#8221; on Storify<\/a>]<\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Verhoeven\u2019s sci-fi actioner is Number 12 in my Film Notes series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2487],"tags":[2498,393],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}