Left Field Cinema

Filmmaking which emphasizes ideal of Fascistic propaganda can be seen in a number of films. These can be documentary propaganda, all the way to action thrillers, religious parables or crime movies. The docket of fascism in films can range from the heavily influential Triumph of Will by Leni Reifenstahl, to the debatably fascist propaganda piece Dirty Harry. Dirty Harry was accused of Fascist sympathies on release, noted film critic Pauline Kael called it "right-wing fantasy [that is] a remarkably single-minded attack on liberal values". Other films have skirted with fascist ideology and have courted the tag however one must be careful to separate those films critiquing fascism and investigating it than those films which are propagating the ideals and stylistics for new generations of film goers. However it is absolutely notable that the action films which filled the cinemas and video shops of the 1980s are some of the most right wing and heavy handed fascist allegories ever to be seen on film, these are the products of the Reagan Administration, where the elements of fascist state control filtered into even the most escapist of fantasies. One filmmaker who can take credit for bringing in these new themes to American Blockbuster filmmaking is Sly Stallone; Stallone ended the 1970s on a roll. With both the Oscar winning Rocky and First Blood showing an intelligent screen presence, and a unique voice, highlighting the pain of individual over that of the state. He crucified the fading American dream looking at the abandoned poor in Rocky and the let down veterans of a forgotten war in First Blood. He seemed to be the Bruce Springsteen of Cinema, but how power corrupts! The 1980s began and the politics of Stallone's movies, both films he wrote and directed and films he starred in began to move to the right. Instead of investigating and invigorating the poor of society, as Stallone became richer he began to exercise his power as an astronomically cost effective leading man to make films which prayed upon the fears of the middle classes.

One film which cannot deny its fascist leaning is Stallone 1986's action film Cobra. The film was based upon a Stallone screenplay that was, if rumours are to be believed, recycled from a Stallone starring Beverly Hills Cop film which was binned as it would have cost too much to make. The film was directed by George P Cosmatos, whose notable work: First Blood Part II and Tombstone, share a right wing ideology. Cosmatos and Stallone begin the film proper, after a ridiculous opening credit sequence, with a robbery of a supermarket. A member of a gang of criminals, who the police inexplicably think is actually one serial killer called the Night Slasher despite all of evidence pointing towards a biker gang of multiple criminals, enters a supermarket and begins a robbery. He unloads a number of shotgun blasts into groceries while aiming poorly at the impressively, and not surprisingly, shocked customers. The criminal in the act of robbing the middle class church, the supermarket, then kills a young man who he pretends he is letting go. This robbery is not what anyone would call subtle! Despite there being hundreds of cops and the SWAT team on hand, the head cop sends for ‘’The Cobra’’. Stallone appears driving a classic car, wearing what can only be described as a combination of women’s clothes and a pair of sunglasses. One of the head cops thinks he is reckless and a man on the edge, the other head cop thinks he is necessary for jobs like this. He is after all on the Zombie Squad! Stallone enters the supermarket and confronts the criminal. The exchange of dialogue during this scene while not quite being Tennessee Williams is masterful from Stallone:

Supermarket Killer: Get back! I got a bomb here! I'll blow this whole place up!
Cobretti: Go ahead. I don't shop here.

After defusing the potentially dangerous situation by throwing a knife in the killer’s chest and shooting him 5 times, Stallone walks out of the Reaganite Church to face the excited crowd and baying reporters. One of the reporters gets in the Cobra’s face and asks him the reasonable question that perhaps he is using too much force and killing too many people, a state sponsored assassin if you will. The Cobra dragged the weaselely reporter to the dead Kid’s body and mumbled, “tell that to his family!” which despite its heartfelt simplicity does not really answer the valid question posed. Is this the most fear-mongering and fascist beginning to film? It plays upon the fears of society and attacks them where they are meant to feel safest, it shows how disturbed the world is and how you should never leave your house or you will be robbed and killed. Yet it offers a solution, more power to the police; a more powerful state, which can employ psychopaths to execute criminals.

The film continues in this vain, highlighting a number of common middle class fears and showing that only Stallone and his Zombie Squad partner Gonzales are able to defeat the threat to people’s personal safety. They defeat it by combining extreme violence and shockingly poorly written back and forth dialogue. They show how the only way modern criminals can be stopped in this modern world is through the maximization of police brutality and state control. The only character, who speaks out against this overtly fascist ideal, is the unlikeable police captain. Stallone’s script makes him one of the most annoying characters to have ever graced an American motion picture. Plus he is ugly. That is the way you can tell who the subversives are, they are ugly. All the criminals are ugly; if only we could get rid of them we could recreate a paradise free of crime and ugliness. Yet the police captain has completely the right idea, Cobra is a violent thug who is a terrible detective and should have been jailed for murder long ago. Yet in this film he is inexplicably the hero, more heroic than Abe Lincoln.

The main thrust of the narrative follows Cobra’s attempt to stop the criminals who want to bring about “the new world order” (sounds like a euphemism for Commies), they during one of their rather pointless murders left a living witness, who happens to be a supermodel who poses with Robots. After the criminals attempt to kill her, Cobra and the Zombie Squad is put on the case, a squad which seems to consist of Stallone and his partner, in fact this whole division seems to have about four police officers. No wonder crime is through the roof in their district. Stallone and his new blonde love interest evade the criminal element to the end of the film, which of course is one long hilariously over the top action scene.

The question is can one really take Cobra so seriously as to subscribe a dubious political ideology to the film. The film after all is incredibly stupid, good fun, but stupid. For instance, there is a scene where killers attempt to kill Stallone and the witness while they are driving out of the city to safety, during the usual car chase hi-jinks it very quickly changes from the bad guys chasing Stallone to him chasing the bad guys. This surely cannot be the correct etiquette for handling a vital witness, taking them on a high speed chase, chasing heavily armed criminals. There is a scene where Stallone fetishistically puts a gun together, the sound of the gun going together is loud and manly, then the camera cuts to a wide shot and Brigitte Nielsen is attempting to sleep in the same room, Stallone turns and asks why she cannot get to sleep, she says she does not know. Jesus! No-one could sleep what sounds like the preparation for World War Three. The scene has such inherent comedy; it is possible to believe Stallone was playing it for laughs. However, deep in the audience’s heart it is quite clear this is more serious than Hamlet. And the final scene which underlines the complete stupidity of this movie is the final action scene. The location of the action scene goes from a Hotel next to a railway track (see the bad guys came from the wrong side of the track, a standard 1980s visual metaphor), to an orange grove (highlighting the inherent unreliability of nature) then ends up finally in a factory. A factory that seems to make fire. It has no other purpose by the look of things, the factory is in full motion when the action arrives, machine are roaring and the fire is blazing yet strangely there is no staff. The day cannot be passed noon, yet there is no staff in. This is one of the most amusing sequences in cinema, perhaps they had all gone to lunch and someone had forgotten to deactivate the machines. A health and safety breach if there ever was one. It would have been a fitting end to the movie for the staff to come back in just in time for The Cobra to dispatch his last victim (victim must be said, because after 100 plus kills, even the harshest of criminal becomes a victim at the hands of this mad man).

Despite these moronic scenes, and many others not mentioned, it is definitely worth noting the fascist streak which is inherent in this movie. A fascist streak which stretches to the genre of the action film. It is quite disconcerting that the distortion of political ideology got to such a stage in the 1980s that a murderer who happened to be a member of the police was considered such a hero.

By the way, the film is excellent and highly recommended. Just do not leave your house to buy it, you could be killed!!

Wilson McLachlan