Since Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting a year older, now is the time to look back at the era of world domination in the box office and the cult appeal of the action genre. For a while it was a decisive battle between Sylvester Stallone and Schwarzenegger. Often this could turn into heated debates on the playground about who is better. On the one hand, Stallone has two iconic pop-culture characters — Rocky and Rambo. Arnold has T-800. Of course, Arnie had Conan, but the appeal of this barbarian brawler was never as widespread and mercilessly faked as his cyborg character (as well as Stallone’s two iconic characters).
On the other hand, Schwarzenegger’s view of hits began to look much more confident than that of Stallone.
In addition, going beyond his comfortable genre, Arnold got more pleasure from comedy, and in general from everything that had an element of science fiction/fantasy. After all, his real breakthroughs were in science fiction/fantasy thanks to Conan the Barbarian and The Terminator. Stallone may have won an Oscar for his acting thanks to Balboa, but as his career progressed, his characters became more two-dimensional, while Arnie was mostly content to keep things simple and play on his enormous charisma. .
Arnold, embodied in the life of a comic, with almost inexplicable muscle mass, at that time was something like a unique character on the big screen.
Only Lou Ferrinho was close to becoming as big as life. There were others who had a physique worthy of Mr. Olympia, who stood in front of the camera, but they often lacked Arni’s presence or magnetism. For Schwarzenegger, this also did not happen immediately. He became famous in bodybuilding and worked as a popular or secondary artist. His debut in “Hercules” in New York took place at the “Plan 9 from Space” arena, where he was so bad that he was even good. Then followed several episodic roles and walks before the big break, in which he played a bodybuilder in the film “Stay Hungry” together with Jeff Bridges. This role even brought him the “Golden Globe” as the best newcomer.
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However, the film remained almost unnoticed, and only after its appearance in the documentary film “What kind of iron” did people (especially famous producers) start paying attention to it. “Conan the Barbarian” became a hit, and it was even met with solid reviews of a genre that was considered dead in the 60s (and it never elicited rave reviews). He had a continuation of “Conan”, but then he backed off a little. His performances with the barbarians were, of course, the best material for category B films, but he would certainly have had bigger offers. Schwarzenegger chose a science fiction horror film shot by a former visual effects artist who was fired from his first directorial job. Some upstart called James Cameron.
Arnold agreed with the idea and, some 35 years later, appeared as the Terminator for the fifth time, in the franchise’s sixth film last year.
The Terminator was a great success and received excellent reviews. Then, starting in the mid-80s, Arnie achieved some pretty impressive success, releasing an endless stream of cult films. Stallone dominated the box office in 1985, but then seemed to lose some of his Midas touch. At this point, Arnie began to be considered a contender and began to overshadow Stallone. “Commando” was not liked by critics, but fans relished it. This was Arnie Rambo’s answer. By this point, he and Stallone were in the same zip code, but while playing Commando, Arnold stepped into the same arena and threw down the gauntlet.
The film was not as financially successful as Rambo 2, but it was still an aggressive move by Schwarzenegger. He was going for the crown. People love Commando and its appeal has grown
Among a couple of more traditional action films (again, perhaps as a boost to what Sly was doing) in Red Heat and Raw Deal, Schwarzenegger directed Predator, The Running Man and Total Recall. His combination of sci-fi with action, one-liners and over-the-top masculinity became a staple. Predator and Total Recall in particular are great and showcased Arnie’s knack for finding hits. They weren’t sure about the shooting either. A jungle creature movie with a rather inexperienced director was not a guaranteed success.
Luckily, this director ended up being the guy who made Die Hard. Predator is a B-movie. It is also divided into three parts: but his biggest hit to date was his first foray into comedy with Gemini. Such was its success that perhaps some studios wondered if that might be its main appeal. However, he filmed Total Recall. At that time, this was Arnold’s largest budget, a lot depended on him. Many will call Terminator 1 or 2 the best movie, others will call Total Recall, Predator or Conan the Barbarian, and I know some who will vehemently argue that it is Commando (moreover, ” Commando is the greatest action movie ever made. Conversely, during that period, Stallone made Cobra, Lock Up, Over The Top, Tango and Cash, Rambo III and Rocky V.
Arnold wins by TKO (some Sly movies are better, especially Tango).
Arnold then donned his glasses and leather for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. This will be his biggest film to date. He had just toasted 1990 with two hits, and consequently, although James Cameron was experiencing a financial disaster with The Abyss, a huge amount of money was thrown at T2 (reputedly the biggest budget film of the time, according to some sources). It then became Schwarzenegger’s biggest hit. Adjusted for inflation, the film is still his most successful film. Last Action Hero was a financial and critical disappointment, and although True Lies was a great financial success, it became somewhat forgotten over time.
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The end of the 90s was a period of gradual decline for most action films. His first film, The Last Stand, was very routine and by the numbers, but actually very underrated by his fans. Terminator Megadrive (or Genisys or whatever it was called) and Terminator: Dark Fate both failed. Where he’ll take his career now remains to be seen (though the streaming/Netflix route would be smart, especially for any aspirations to reboot something like Conan), but during his peak, did any of his contemporaries do it better than Schwarzenegger?