"When The Running Man was first published in 1982 under Stephen King's Richard Bachman pseudonym, the United States was just beginning to feel the impacts of then-president Ronald Reagan's neoliberal economic policies. Under Reaganomics, massive tax breaks for the wealthy and deep cuts to social safety programs like food stamps and Medicaid drastically intensified income inequality. The rich got richer, poverty spiked amid a recession, and King used his novel to explore the ways that those kinds of changes could turn society into a dystopia."
"Aside from its title, character names, and core premise, Tri-Star's 1987 adaptation of The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was a very different kind of story: a big, bombastic send-up of '80s pop culture punctuated by appearances from professional wrestlers and jokes about Schwarzenegger being the world's biggest action star. But that Running Man still worked as commentary about how grueling life can be for people who aren't part of the one percent."
"Paramount Skydance's new spin on The Running Man from Edgar Wright splits the difference between the '80s film and King's novel. It cleaves much closer to the source material while knowingly - but not always successfully - aping the older movie's narrative tone. Though this Running Man leans into a kind of absurdity Wright typically thrives in, here, it feels like he's holding back on a lot of the directorial panache he's best known for from films like Hot Fuzz and Baby Driver."
The Running Man novel (1982) was published under Stephen King's Richard Bachman pseudonym as Reagan-era neoliberal policies intensified income inequality. Under Reaganomics, tax breaks for the wealthy and cuts to food stamps and Medicaid deepened poverty and informed the novel's dystopian focus. The 1987 Tri-Star film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger changed title, characters, and tone into a bombastic, self-aware '80s send-up that still critiqued economic precarity. Edgar Wright's contemporary adaptation for Paramount Skydance aligns more closely with the source material while borrowing the older film's narrative absurdity. Wright leans into absurdist elements but restrains the kinetic directorial panache seen in Hot Fuzz and Baby Driver, producing a film that often feels formulaic.
Read at The Verge
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]