Sylvester Stallone. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Chuck Norris. Bruce Willis. All those icons of 1980s cinema were supposed to be joined by Fred Ward, very capable actor these days best known for character roles. Alas, his attempt to join that exclusive club by playing protagonist of 1985 film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins failed.
The film is based on The Destroyer, long-lasting series of pulp novels originally written by Waren Murphy and Ben Saphir. At the beginning we are introduced to the character of Sam Makin (played by Ward), tough New York police officer and Vietnam War veteran. One night he gets involved in fight with vicious street thugs that would ultimately end with him and his patrol car in the river. When he wakes up, he discovers that his face has been altered by plastic surgery. He is informed that Sam Makin was pronounced dead and that his only chance of life is to work for CURE, small and super-clandestine US government service that had selected him as its agent and gave him new name “Remo Williams”. His task is to take out individuals and organisations that are simply too powerful or well-connected to be dealt by regular law enforcement and judicial system. Before he begins, he is to be trained by Chiun (played by Joel Grey), elderly Korean martial arts master that teaches him various skills that include dodging bullets. Remo then confronts George Grove (played by Charles Cioffi), extremely powerful defence industrialist who, with the help of corrupt generals, made his wealth by selling faulty and useless equipment to US military.
Titled Remo: Unarmed and Dangerous in international markets, this film was supposed to be the first in the series featuring American answer to James Bond. Both director Guy Hamilton and scriptwriter Christopher Wood actually had quite success with James Bond films, so the general idea was to make Remo slightly different. Fred Ward plays him as distinctively “blue collar” protagonist, far from suaveness and sophistication of aristocratic British superspy. He also has a look of tough guy and this serves film in the series of imaginative and dynamic action scenes, of which the best is showdown at the scaffolds surrounding Statue of Liberty (which went through renovation in mid 1980s). That scene, on the other hand, makes the final showdown, that takes place on US Army proving range, somewhat lame in comparison (Wood later explained that he had written much more spectacular ending, ultimately abandoned over budget considerations). Another good asset of the film is humour, which is mostly provided by character of Chiun. Played by white actor Joel Grey (of Cabaret fame) under layers of heavy make-up (which is something difficult to imagine in our “woke” times) he glides through ethnic and cultural cliches while adding his own, often sarcastic dimension to otherwise effective “buddy buddy” dynamic between master and his reluctant pupil. Very effective and memorable soundtrack by Craig Safan, that sounds very much like 1980s, represents another good addition to the film.
Unfortunately, while many elements in the film worked, many didn’t. The most obvious failure is lack of truly remarkable villains. Instead of evil megalomaniacs, Communists, terrorists or drug dealers, protagonist has to deal with quite bland and forgettable tycoon played by uninspired Charles Cioffi. Patrick Kilpatrick as his deadly henchman appears too late in the film to improve general impression. Halfway around the film, scriptwriter suddenly remembers that this supposedly Bondian film lacks female character, so he introduces character of inquisitive US Army Major Flemyng, played by Kate Mulgrew and makes her Remo’s partner, even hinting at some sort of romance. In the end, future Captain Janeway of Star Trek: Voyager adds nothing other than proving that she looks great in uniform.
In the end, Remo failed and became one of the more obscure films of its time. But those who watch it today will become aware not only of its unfulfilled potential, but also of the way it glimpsed into the future. Main concept of protagonist being unwilling recruited as assassin for secret service was few years later much more successfully used by Luc Besson in Le Femme Nikita. And the plot is one of rare examples of Hollywood dealing with inner workings of what is today known as Deep State as well as corruption within US military-industrial complex (a real life issue covered in The Pentagon Wars decade later).
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/10553-remo-williams-the-adventure-begins Critic: AA
