THE RUNNIG MAN
DANIELE BARBIERO
THE RUNNING MAN – Soundtrack [1987]
Once again a dystopian movie. The 80’s has been a prolific decade for sci-fi addicted.
And for hairspray, questionable jackets and aerobics.
The world clock still strikes two –maybe three – minutes to the midnight, the oil
price has increased, the politic context is not so rosy and soon it is going to burst
indeed. The perfect background for the writers to imagine the worst possible future
for our kind to come.
This (so far from the book The Running Man) screen adaptation of the Richard
Bachman’s (aka Stephen King) novel, takes place in a sealed-off and militarized US,
where police controls art, communication and censorship. It’s 2017. Not so different
from our 2017. A successful reality shows, The Running Man, is 24/7 live: the
sentenced-to- death criminals can serve in prison or they can take part to the deadly
show, making their way to freedom through bloodshed and traps. Our hero Ben
Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a former police officer framed for a massacre of
starving people, is forced to join the show after a failed jailbreak.
He must pay or play the Running Man.
The soundtrack composer, Harold Feltermeyer, is the second best musician money
can buy at the time. His talent was discoverd by Giorgio Moroder (the numeber one
composer) in the Seventies, who brought him to Hollywood from Germany. Better
known for the synth-pop hit Axel F, main track of Eddie Murphy’s Beverly Hills Cop,
Feltermeyer composed the Tom Cruise’s Top Gun theme and several scores for the
pictures industry such as Tango&Cash and Fletch, before going back to his mother
land in the late 90’s.
The score for The Running Man, is a pure joy for the audience. The lilting dark synth
perfect follows the characthers along their blood-red journey to freedom, against
the body hunters "Stalkers". It perfectly enhances the gloomy world you are living
in: you must fight back to stay alive, you must fight to keep the show on.
GUESS WHAT?
- The Stalker Dynamo is the Dutch actor, baritone and Olympic weightlifter Erland
van Lidth, who died for heart attack few weeks before the Running Man release.
- Both two featuring actors, Jesse Ventura (Stalker Captain Freedom) and Arnold
Schwarzenegger, went to be elected Governators of Minnesota (Ventura) and
California (Schwarzy).
- Dweezil Zappa, son of legendary American musician Frank Zappa, played a little
role in the movie.
REFERENCE>
www.soundtrackdreams.com/2015/02/soundtrack-review- the-running- man-harold- faltermeyer-1987/
www.soundtrackgeek.com/v2/soundtrack-review- the-running- man/
www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/trivia