Total Recall - The Film

A Review of Total Recall


Total Recall was the last of the major Hollywood films that retained the spirit of a sixties B-movie.  This bizarre combination actually helped blockbusters.  They never took themselves seriously and retained the sort of adventure spirit that Edgar Rice Burroughs would have approved of.  I don’t exactly know when this spirit left, but I think Michael Bay is responsible.

Total Recall follows the story of Douglas Quaid, a construction worker who has dreams about Mars.  He wants to take a vacation there but cannot afford it.  So he goes to get a fake memory implant of a “perfect vacation” at Rekall, a futuristic business specializing in such implants.  While there, Rekall uncovers some repressed memories of his time as a spy on Mars.  This leads him to actually go to Mars to uncover the identity of the people who destroyed his mind.

Or does it?  Like Blade Runner, Total Recall is a film that has sparked endless debate about whether or not the events in the film actually take place and are not just the result of some intense hallucination by Quaid.  The evidence is there for both.  Characters in the film first appear on advertisements on bus stations only to appear in the flesh later.  Subtle hints about the nature of Quaid’s supposed vacation.  The length of time he spends on Mars is the same length he paid for in the memory.  It is a film that requires the viewer to actually pay attention.  At the very least they will receive an opportunity to see Arnold Schwarzenegger try to act.

Yes, that is the other main aspect of the film.  Many would dismiss the film as another testosterone filled action romp due to the presence of Arnold.  Yet I will say he does the best he can possibly do.  He doesn’t act like a hulking superman.  He actually acts like a scared individual who is in mortal danger from the enemies chasing him.  It was almost a complete turnaround of what he had been doing in the past.

...

Read more...

Total Recall - The Film - Directory

Total Recall (1990) - IMDb
Directed by Paul Verhoeven. With Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, Rachel Ticotin. When a man goes for essential vacation memories of the planet ...

Total Recall (2012 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Total Recall is an upcoming sphere-fiction action film based on the 1990 film of the ... On the set, filming a futuristic car chase in Toronto, Canada. ...

Total Recall - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Total Recall is a 1990 American method fiction action film. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rachel Ticotin, Sharon Stone, Michael Ironside, and Ronny Cox. ...

Total Recall (2012) - IMDb
As the polity states Euromerica and New Shanghai vie for supremacy, a factory worker (Farrell) begins to suspect that he's a spy, though he is unaware ...

Total Recall
Das internationale Holy day des nacherzählten Films