BH Interview: 'Recoil' Screenwriter Longs for '80s Action Heroes, Bemoans P.C. Restrictions

Hollywood once made its almighty dollar off of the backs of anti-authority men who stood for old school ideas of justice and right and wrong. These men included ’80s heroes from Rocky to Rambo to John McClane.

You could say the “conservative” silver screen hero went back all the way to John Wayne’s films, but the ’80s were where the anti-authority, good triumphs evil, bad men get their just deserves cinema ruled Hollywood.

Today, these films are considered politically incorrect and don’t push the kind of in-artistic agendas most Hollywood producers seem interested in pushing. Rocky and Rambo are considered corny and out of date, the Western is all but dead and John McClane is starring in movies where no one is quite sure who he is supposed to be exactly (see: A Good Day to Die Hard).

I recently caught a movie called Recoil out of pure boredom. I did not expect to like a movie that teamed up Steve Austin and Danny Trejo (though I thought there would be some fun to be had), but I was surprised to find a film that was one giant homage to the ’80s heroes. The film also bought into the Western mentality of good vs. evil and justice be done that is nowhere near prevalent in Hollywood movies today.

Excited to discover someone not the age of Stallone or Willis or Eastwood still interested in this kind of art, I reached out to the film’s screenwriter, Johnny Sullivan. We had a few interesting conversations and one of them follows. He talks about everything from why political correctness is poisoning Hollywood to his own work and interest in ’80s films and the “lone hero” movie.

Do you think Hollywood has changed in its attitude towards violence,authority and good vs. evil on film? Why don’t we see films like DieHard anymore?

Movies like Die Hard can still exist, but the problem is that the DieHard paradigm has been copied/ripped-off/imitated so many times that ishas diluted the brand. Sometimes a film like Olympus Has Fallen cankind of capture some of the spirit of [director John] McTiernan’s classic, but othertimes it usually turns into White House Down–a PC near-parody of thesubgenre.

Another issue is the bad guy question. Who are the bad guysthese days? It’s very difficult to find an enemy that A: Hasn’t beenused a billion times already or B: Might not be politically correct. Inthe ’80s–it didn’t matter … Russians, Arabs, drug gangs, SouthAmerican militia, China, Japan, etc … the filmmakers didn’t think aboutthe social or public relations fall-out from possibly demonizing anethnicity or religion or even a country.

Now, studios are owned bycompanies that are owned by companies and owned by companies. A filmcan’t alienate an aspect of the audience or court controversy. Thereare huge budgets and jobs riding on these films. Movies like Fast& Furious do quite well because almost every ethnicity isrepresented and generally represented positively. It’s a marketingdream.  

What were some of your favorite films from the ’80s?

I grew up on a lot of the typical, popular ’80s action films. Iwatched Rambo: First Blood Part II pretty regularly. Missing in Actionwith Chuck Norris was a favorite of mine. And I liked the sequels tothat one as well. Commando, Cobra, Red Dawn, Kickboxer, Roadhouse, Total Recall, Black Rain, Invasion USA, American Ninja were all inregular rotation in my VCR.

There were a lot of great obscureaction-adventure movies that I didn’t discover until I started workingat a local video store for four years. Movies like Armed Response,Bulletproof (with Gary Busey), Eye of the Tiger (also with Busey), ThePerfect Weapon (with Jeff Speakman). I tried to find really rare ’80saction movies, because there was always some hidden talent in them. Ireally like this hard-to-find siege movie called Enemy Territorystarring Jan-Michael Vincent. It’s probably out of print, along with agood C. Thomas Howell actioner called Kid. Outside of action, I’m a fanof some other classics like The Goonies, Critters, Lost Boys, WeirdScience, Real Genius, and Explorers.

Is it a sign that the “Western” mentality actionmovie is dying since we see older action stars like Stallone,Schwarzenegger and others still making them with not many younger, hotblooded actors trying for that kind of film?

I think there’s a lot of young talent outthere right now. I like Ryan Gosling, but I feel like he’s always gottabe the coolest, most attractive guy in the room in every movie. Samewith the Hemsworths [Chris and Liam]. I thought that someone like Colin Farrell might beable to pull off a late-era action hero career but he picks terriblemainstream projects.

Your movie Recoil is very much a modern day western where there’s a goodguy with old school values and a bad guy bringing down innocent people.Are these kinds of films still in high demand or does Hollywood notwant the next Rambo?

Everyone likes the Lone Hero. My movie Recoil is a good exampleof that, as is Homefront, Rambo, Eastwood’s westerns, the DieHards … it all goes back to Shane and Stagecoach. John Wayne perfectedthat character early on, but really it all goes back to Kurasowa. It’s atimeless narrative. Unfortunately, those movies skew old and havelimited theatrical prospects. Older adults might go see them in thetheater, but the coveted younger audience will wait until VOD orBlu-ray … maybe.

The Expendables series is an exception to therule … that franchise has done phenomenally well, and I think the gimmickof sticking all these action heroes into one film helps give it a hookbeyond ‘One guy beating people up’. Stand-alone actioners like BulletTo The Head, Homefront, The Last Stand, Safe have underperformed. Justone of these action stars in a movie isn’t enough. Escape Plan did verywell internationally, Arnie and Sly haven’t lost their luster in theforeign markets.

High demand? No–these type of movies are not in high demand, and I recommend shootingfor a DVD/VOD distribution model if anyone wants to write one.  

On the positive side, these movies aren’t too expensive to make(relatively) so a good action script can find a studio home with a lowfinancial risk. But it has to be really good. You can’t write a VanDamme movie in 2014 and expect it to go to theaters.

Any upcoming movies that Big Hollywood readers would be interested in?

I’m doing a movie with a major Expendable member this summer calledSecurity, which will be a fun, Assault on Precinct 13 type flick. Ouractor isn’t locked yet, but we have a great director and it will be anice return to form for this particular action star. My friend DerekKolstad wrote a great action movie called John Wick which is a thrillingrevenge movie and stars Keanu Reeves. That should be out this year. Ofcourse Expendables 3 looks great, I’m excited for Liam Neeson in Non-Stop.  

You can follow Johnny Sullivan on twitter here or check out Recoil here.