Fantasizing
about Arnold, the action hero
By Nell Minow.
Corporate-governance expert
Nell Minow also reviews movies at http://movies.yahoo.com/moviemom
and is a syndicated columnist
September 5, 2003
When Warner Bros. chief Jack Warner first heard that
Ronald Reagan was thinking of running for governor of
California, his reaction was: "No--Jimmy Stewart
for governor. Ronald Reagan for best friend."
If we were talking about casting a movie that people
would buy tickets to see, Warner would have been
right. But when it came to the real-life role of
governor and then president, the voters cast Reagan.
He was able to show them that while he had a
performer's communication skills, he had a
politician's ability to address the issues. He became
far more successful in politics than he ever was as an
actor.
Most show biz personalities who run for office have to
overcome their image as lightweight entertainers, most
recently the late Sonny Bono, "Love Boat's"
Fred Grandy, and current California gubernatorial
candidate Gary "Diff'rent Strokes" Coleman.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid for the California
governorship is in another category. His background as
an action hero is not something he has to overcome; it
is a large part of what is appealing about him. It has
to be--there isn't much else that the public has had a
chance to learn about what kind of governor he might
be. He may just be the ideal candidate for this race.
- In a field of more than 100 candidates,
Schwarzenegger's greatest strength is near perfect
name recognition and almost zero understanding of his
stands on key issues. Everyone knows he is a
Republican, but everyone also knows he married into
the gold standard of Democratic royalty, the Kennedy
family. For the moment, at least until his
high-powered band of advisers starts issuing position
papers, Schwarzenegger is more Rorschach inkblot than
candidate. So each voter can project onto him whatever
is most appealing, reminiscent of Chauncey Gardner,
the blank slate on "Being There" who becomes
a presidential candidate, and, of course, Forrest Gump.
- Schwarzenegger is also the optimal combination of
both outsider and insider. Americans have always loved
candidates who were outside the political process and
therefore had some claim to purity. But we also want
people of achievement who will be taken seriously--not
taken. Think of "Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington."
- When politicians talk about what they do, they use
snooze-inducing words invoking process and compromise,
like "mark-up," "committee,"
"policy," "measured" and
"appropriate." They stand behind podiums and
they blink in the sunlight. Schwarzenegger looks like
a bronzed god. Schwarzenegger doesn't talk much in his
movies--he had less than two dozen lines in the first
"Terminator" movie, and not one involved
process or compromise. Schwarzenegger has created an
indelible impression as a powerful force, which has a
lot of appeal when America and its leaders seem less
and less powerful, economically, diplomatically and
militarily. Politicians have meetings. Schwarzenegger
acts. I don't mean that he uses technique and method
to create a subtle and persuasive character; I mean
that at least onscreen he does not discuss; he just
does things, and he does them swiftly and decisively.
In the "Terminator" movies, he is literally
a machine, killing without any hesitation, whether he
is the good guy or the bad guy. In "Total
Recall," the wife who betrayed him begs for her
life, "But we're married!" He shoots her,
replying, "Consider this a divorce." It does
feel that if we had just sent Arnold in there, Saddam
Hussein and Osama bin Laden would have been sharing a
plate of baked beans at Gitmo long ago. Or blown to
bits--think of, well, just about any Schwarzenegger
action movie.
- Politicians are always asking for money.
Schwarzenegger already has money. We may not admit it,
but secretly many people feel he could do a lot for
California's budget deficit by writing a check, sort
of like Jimmy Stewart in the Depression-era "Mr.
Deeds Goes to Town," using his $20 million
inheritance to help the farmers.
That is the ultimate fantasy, of course, the dream of
some great force for good that uses extraordinary
powers to provide magical fixes to the mundane or
complicated problems that overwhelm ordinary people.
That fantasy has fueled hundreds of blockbuster action
movies, the fairy godmother waving her wand to
transform Cinderella, and, of course, the most recent
rendition, the truly extraordinary powers of five guys
with magnificent taste to turn drab to fab in
"Queer Eye for the Straight Guy."
So, for a moment, until it's time to get serious about
finding a candidate who can turn this mess of a recall
election into a way to address the complicated and
serious problems facing the state, let's enjoy the
fantasy of having Arnold Schwarzenegger as governor of
California. So what if the closest he's ever been to
politics is some appearances promoting fitness and a
cameo in the presidential impersonation movie
"Dave?" Just imagine him bringing not just
the forceful solutions to problems he showed in the
"Terminator" movies, but the empathy for
women he showed as the pregnant man in
"Junior," the tenderness toward kids he
showed as the policeman working undercover in a school
in "Kindergarten Cop," and the sense of
humor about his own image he showed as a fictional
version of himself in "The Last Action
Hero." And Tom Hanks as best friend.
Copyright
© 2003, Chicago
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