Predator review – 80’s action at its most masculine

‘A team of commandos are flown into the South American jungle. After carrying their mission they find themselves hunted by a ruthless alien.’

In our current climate of sequels, remakes and reboots. Where the vast majority of movies seem to be an adaptation, or based on an already existing property. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Netflix UK [in April 2016] had released the original 1987 film, Predator, a classic of the Eighties action genre. Being a child of the Nineties, films from that era will always evoke a nostalgic euphoria within me.

These were the films we had to sneak around to watch behind our parents back. They were bloody and violent, and with many of them being 18 rated, they didn’t feel the need to cater to a variety of target audiences when compared to today’s mostly tame and bloodless 12A films. Predator is a prime example of those Eighties action films.

Although the film has become part of a long running franchise.​ With a few above average sequels and some atrocious crossovers, the original itself, directed by John McTiernan, is refreshingly self-contained. There’re no obvious clues when watching of a planned follow up or hints of a larger world and bigger narrative. It’s a very straight forward plot about a group of Special Forces marines led by Arnold Schwarzenegger who are sent on a rescue mission into the jungle and find themselves hunted down by an extra-terrestrial being for sport. It’s a very uncomplicated story which you can enjoy on its own.

One of the other things that struck me when re-watching this classic is how much characterisation has changed over the decades. In today’s contemporary action film characters need some kind of redemptive ark or to go through some emotional journey and have them express their feelings all over the place. Predator is cut from a different kind of cloth. Made in Schwarzenegger’s heyday. It’s filled with the kind of men whose emotional range scale from angry to uncontrollable rage, where when startled the appropriate response is to empty their weapons blindly into the jungle. It’s a film full of men who don’t do a lot of emoting and don’t even have time to bleed. Also, in today’s film culture where studios are trying to appeal their action films to a female audience, McTiernan had no such concern, having just one female character mostly there to be rescued and give important exposition. This film’s all about the testosterone.

With any creature feature a good portion of its success depends on its monster. With Predator it’s fair to say that McTiernan and his team came up with something iconic. For most of the film McTiernan goes the Jaws approach and keeps the predator hidden from us by use of a cloaking device so all we see is a strange blur with slight glimpses here and there, or seeing through its point of view as it hunts Schwarzenegger and his team. 

At 7 foot 2 inches tall, Kevin Peter Hall, as the predator, creates a strong and intimidating presence. He brings a real physicality to the performance when we finally see him in that final confrontation. Throughout the film we see the predator’s gruesome handiwork of turning its kills into trophies by ripping out the skull of its victims, which works surprisingly well in convincing us that this creature is even capable of unsettling a group of heavily armed and experienced Special Forces soldiers.

Jim and John Thomas’ script is also great in the sense that it’s mostly a series of one liners. It’s hardly high art but then again Predator isn’t about writing real and believable characters, it’s about big men with big guns blowing stuff up and spewing out memorable quotes like “If it bleeds, we can kill it” or, who can forget Schwarzenegger’s heavily accented cry of “Go! Get to the chopper!”.

The jungle works well as a location as it isolates our heroes and creates a very claustrophobic environment.​And Alan Silvestri’s score helps heighten the tension, suspense and create a constant sense of urgency. Considering the age of the film the special effects also work well, particularly the look of the predator when it has its cloaking device on; as one character notes, it’s like the jungle is alive and picking them off.

The physical design of the predator is good, creating an imposing figure with its collection of weapons and gadgets. The animatronics are good and realistic in bringing it’s unique facial structure to life. Today, where CGI can be used too much, it helps to have a very physical aspect to the predator which only adds to its fearsomeness.

‘It’s not surprising so many studios are wanting to reboot these popular films from the Eighties.’

We’ve already had Robocop and Conan the Barbarian to name just a few, and they weren’t half as popular as the originals. They package them as 12A’s, sacrificing the blood and extreme violence in the hopes of drawing in bigger crowds, not realising that those things are just as much a part of what made the original good. My advice; forget these pretenders, sit down and enjoy one of the best the 80’s had to offer.