Soldier
1998
D: Paul W. S. Anderson
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With the dominant trend of enforced mediocrity resulting in things like the Star Wars sequel trilogy, it’s become commonplace to reevaluate disreputable movies from the past. Some might say that this is from nostalgia and the soft bigotry of low expectations, but it’s definitely valid to question a critical consensus that has proven itself unreliable. Soldier is a movie I disliked when I first saw it years ago, partially due to its flawed director, but I found it much better after a recent viewing.
I once found it moderately annoying that this movie was supposed to be a spin-off of Blade Runner, but now I believe it to be a creative addition to the franchise, even if it might not be “canon.” In fact, I believe it does for more justice than Blade Runner 2049, which, enjoyable as it was, seemed bit too much like a rehash that sullied the excellent finale of the Blade Runner Director’s Cut. While BR2049 boasts vastly superior cinematic technique, Soldier works as part of the universe while still being a distinct story. It is slightly cheesy in comparison, but it has an old-school charm and many of the stylizations are quite nice, which is possibly because of help from cinematographer David Tattersall. The action is decent, and nothing in it is annoyingly tacky in a way that detracts from the experience. It does have the occasional moment of surprisingly unobtrusive CGI and some pretty good miniature effects. It has good production design with some a few edgy designs for the vehicles, but it’s not completely perfect: I’ve never understood, for example, how 80’s/90’s sci-fi directors got the impression that the Franchi LF-57 looked “futuristic” when it actually looks like the 50’s submachine gun that it is.
The movie’s introduction involves the automatic induction of orphaned infants into a special military training program in 1996. They are desensitized to death and executed for failure to perform and comply in a brutal regimen akin to the one I assume Moe’s put its employees through to ensure that they reliably say “Welcome to Moe’s” when you enter the restaurant. They come out of the training with no apparent emotion and are willing to execute any civilian if it is efficient. The protagonist, a soldier named “Todd” 3465 (Kurt Russell) later admits that he still feels the fear that the indoctrination is based on; he grapples for any other emotion to counter it and the only thing he could come up with is “discipline.”
The plot begins when Todd and his comrades are replaced by an improved batch of soldiers that are heavily implied to be replicants. These newcomers prove to be physically superior to Todd’s batch in virtually every way, and, when defeated by one of the replicants named Caine (Jason Scott Lee), Todd is dumped onto junk planet Arcadia 234, where he is adopted by a small community of struggling exiles. The movie does a good of showing his character grappling with newfound emotions that are being validated for the first time as he struggles to fit into the community. He remains awkwardly stoic and borderline mute, but he develops loyalty for the people and is protective of a mute child (Jared & Tayler Thorne). There is some skepticism from the group, but he is backed up by Mace (Sean Pertwee). He is momentarily exiled due to a misunderstanding, but he returns to help when the director of the soldier programs, Col. Mekum (Jason Isaacs) selects the colony for a purge. Todd uses his experience and cunning to believably fight the replicant soldiers, and acquires help from his old unit, who have been reduced to menial roles. Eventually he succeeds in escaping the planet with the colonists and his comrades as the villains are left behind with an armed nuke. It’s a fresh twist on the outside-rescues-village archetype.
The cast is strong. Kurt Russell, always charismatic, shows further versatility by nailing the role of a stoic character who’s trying to grasp newfound emotions; his normally blank expression still betrays the suppressed terror that motivates him, and his body language is abrupt and efficient the few times he does move. Unlike Finn from The Force Awakens, he actually acts like someone who has been trained since early childhood to be a remorseless killing machine. Jason Isaacs is memorably slimy as the villain, and Gary Busey, despite being part of a malicious soldier program, comes off as strangely grandfatherly in a corrupted way. The solid cast includes Connie Nielsen (as Sandra), Jesse D. Goins, K.K. Dodds, and Michael Chiklis.
The movie is well-executed, fun, and stylish. In an example of one’s favorite thing’s not necessarily being the best thing, I find myself listing a Paul W.S. Anderson movie as my favorite from a year that gave us true classics like The Big Lebowski, Saving Private Ryan, Dark City, Mulan, and Prince of Egypt. It goes to show that sometimes it’s good to rethink your priors.
SANDRA: Sgt. Todd…what’s it like? What’s it like being a soldier? What do you think about?
TODD: …
SANDRA: You must think about something.
TODD: …
SANDRA: What about feelings, then?
TODD: …
SANDRA: You must feel something.
TODD: …
[Sandra begins to leave]
TODD: Fear.
SANDRA: Fear?
TODD: Fear and…discipline.
SANDRA: Now?
TODD: Always.
[Todd is prepping for battle]
SANDRA: How do you know they’ll be back?
TODD: Because they’re soldiers, Sir. Like me.
SANDRA: Why are they doing this?
TODD: They’re obeying orders, Sir. It’s their duty.
SANDRA: Do you know how many there will be?
TODD: Seventeen more, Sir.
SANDRA: Oh my G-d, you can’t fight seventeen more on your own, you have to organize us. We’re not cowards, we’ll do as you tell us. We’ll fight.
TODD: No.
SANDRA: Why not?
TODD: Soldiers deserve soldiers, Sir.
SANDRA: But one soldier against seventeen…What are you going to do?
TODD: [stops and looks at her] I’m going to kill them all, sir.
