A little while ago, I was watching the movie "Eraser," which was released back in 1996, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and the lovely, oh so lovely Vanessa Williams. It's a relative old movie, so I'm sure just about everyone has seen it at least once or twice. With Schwarzenegger once being such a heroic movie star, I sure we all have seen just about all of his movies. Using the movie "Eraser" as an example, let me ask you all this; during Schwarzenegger's heroic escapades and feats, why was he never arrested for murder, destruction of private property, assault, etc?
In the movie "Eraser," there is a scene where Schwarzenegger and Williams break into a highly-secured building disguised as paramedics to view some secret files Williams had stolen earlier during the film. When their location was compromised, and they began to make a hasty escape, Schwarzenegger brutally attacked a group of security guards who were just doing their job. After beating up the first security guard who tried to apprehend him, Schwarzenegger pulled the pin out of a grenade that was on the security guards utility vest, and pushed him into the elevator which just happen to reach the corresponding floor full of more innocent security guards. Needless to say, there was a huge explosion, everyone in the elevator died and Schwarzenegger began his dramatic escape. As Schwarzenegger was killing "innocent men," Williams was captured by the bad guy (James Cain)and forced to the roof where a helicopter was awaiting them. As Cain was being air-lifted with Williams as his hostage from the enraging Schwarzenegger, the head of the security team who had just lost about eight men tried to ambush Schwarzenegger only to have his neck broken and left on the roof like a dead pigeon.
Now I know one may argue that the company was involved in some shady business (which it was), and everyone that died was perhaps involved with the dealings of Cain and his cohorts. From my point of view, it can also be argued that the guards Schwarzenegger killed were just responding to a crime in the building they were employed. I know that I may be looking too deeply into the life of a few characters whose only role in the film was to get blown to pieces, but if one looks into the greater context of Schwarzenegger's actions, we are able to see that the justice system doesn't apply to this "Last Action Hero."
If one would only take a closer look at some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies, they would see that every now and then, he actually killed ordinary citizens. This is a common theme that takes a back seat to the mayhem and explosions that make the audience forget about the person who just got injured, hurt, or killed. No one sues the city, state, or branch of government he is employed for that particular movie. What about Commando, when he was a retired solider; he caused utter destruction throughout the city. He single-handily destroy a portion of a mall, kidnapped a sexy black woman, broke into a gun shop, stole weaponry, escaped police custody and was an accomplice to attempted murder on police offices. Then at the end, after he rescues his daughter, he is walking with no thought of future lawsuits or potential arrest. I'm bothered by this, and what bothers the most is the mere fact that kids watch action movies everyday, but never see the repercussions of violent action. I don't have anything against Arnold Schwarzenegger or his movies. As a matter of fact, I have a couple on DVD, and have seen just about everything he has made, it just bothered me when he killed those police guards and I thought it would be interesting to see how many other movies he has hurt an innocent person, but it was overlooked by mayhem. It turned out to be a lot!!!
