Review #529: 'Cobra' (1986)

"Crime is the disease. Meet the cure." So reads the tag-line for Sylvester Stallone's now cult favourite Cobra, a quote that really sums up the whole action genre of the 1980's. While America was still suffering from the demoralising and embarrassing defeat in Vietnam, audiences were calling out for all-American heroes that could kick ass again, and prove that they would stand up to any potential threats. Therefore, violent criminals were the target (as well as the Viet Cong in frequent vets-return-to-Vietnam-for-one-last-mission movies), shown as mindless thugs that needed stamping out. Enter Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti (Stallone) - tight jeans, reflective sunglasses, leather gloves, and match-in-mouth.

After a shooting spree in a shopping mall, police negotiations fail, so Cobretti steps in to take down the mad man. Before he dies, the gunman informs Cobretti that there is a new order in town, a neo-fascist group that is wiping out the weak in order for the strong and powerful to prevail. A series of gruesome murders occur, and after witnessing the group commit a murder, led by a hulking man listed simply as the Night Slasher (Brian Thompson), model Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) finds her life in danger. Faced with opposition from the suit upstairs Detective Monte (Andrew Robinson), Cobretti takes Ingrid into his protection, but with the suspicion of a police insider, Cobretti and his partner Gonzales (Reni Santoni) find themselves relentlessly pursued by the axe-wielding maniacs.

In the modern-day world of liberalism and grass-roots problem-solving, it's quite difficult to empathise with Cobretti's shoot first, ask questions later approach. He is really nothing more than a vigilante with a badge, without a care for the lives of others as he blows up and shoots his way through busy streets. I know this is Hollywood Action Cinema, and not to be taken as anything but mindless entertainment, but this is a direct reflection of America's right-wing attitudes of the time. Therefore the bad guys are given no character depth whatsoever, and is unclear as to what they're exactly trying to achieve (apart from standing in what looks like a warehouse banging axes together above their head).

This was popular at the Razzie Awards, picking up nominations for Worst Film and Worst Actor for Stallone, but an extremely successful box-office showed that audiences didn't care, as long as shit was getting blown up. The critical hammering it received is unfair, however, as it really isn't that bad at all. The questionable morals aside, it has some half-decent action scenes, and the film is rather nicely shot by cinematographer Ric Waite, who captures the carnage in crisp blue neon. A mainstream movie would never get away with such a ham-fisted (anti)hero in the modern age - our leads tend to be much more complex nowadays - so Cobra is an amusing reminder of the days when the answer to crime was to simply shoot at it.


Directed by: George P. Cosmatos
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, Brian Thompson
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie