This was one of my favorite midyear movies that just does the job. I remember seeing it alone in a theater in a weeknight in college and it’s nothing new but man, it works. Kurt Russell got totally jacked to play Todd, one of the elite super soldiers born and bred for war… until the new model redners him obsolete.
In his modern appreciation, Heath Holland repeats the popular “Shane in space” interpretation and that covers the plot, but the war machine learning human connection is a universal theme, and Todd chooses them. Also, had Shane killed civilians? Todd did because they never let him know anyone. So imagine reflecting on that once you make friends at age 38. The little boy looking up to Todd is definitely Shane though.
There’s a recent saying, the “five star three star movie.” That’s exactly what Soldier is to me. It’s simple enough that it’s never going to be come a Die Hard or Face/Off but what it’s doing, this is the best damn version of that you could make.
It probably looks better in 4K than it did at that college theater. The silhouettes of Todd and Caine (Jaon Scott Lee) running in that first contest are exquisite. The trash planet is mostly brown, but with deep shadow in thier cave dwellings, and also colorful from the found materials with which they decorate.
There’s plenty of surround sound in the new oldier gun demo, the sandstorm and all the ships flying over.
I actually remember the Paul W.S. Anderson and Jeremy Bolt commentary from the DVD as this was in the first wave of ‘90s DVDs where every movie got treated like a laserdisc.
New interviews with assistant director and art directors give the making of Soldier 28 years later, with special attention given to the soundstage construction. Imagine the Stallone or Keanu Reeves versions that almost happened! Production Designer David Snyder mentions deleted footage but they only show work print footage of shots that were in the final cut, so nothing new was surfaced.
The 1998 EPK really pushes the Blade Runner connection. That’s surprising because at the time, Blade Runner was still considered a cult film, and also because it’s really only an Easter egg connection in the film.