Recently, I had a conversation with a couple of friends regarding movie directors and their movies that we can watch over and over again. Names such as Scorsese, Tarantino, Kubrik, Coppola and Spielberg came to mind quite easily. And then, we spoke of the following movies: Predator, Die Hard, Die Hard with a Vengeance and Hunt for Red October all directed, I finally realized, by John McTiernan. And so, I decided that I want to review some of my favorite films from McTiernan’s repertoire.
My first film from McTiernan was 1987’s Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura. The movie is about a special ops unit who are lead to believe they are on a rescue mission in an undisclosed area in Central America. Schwarzenegger (Dutch) and his team find out that they were brought in under false pretense, but that’s the least of their problems. There is something in the jungle hunting them down it is not of this world.
The first aspect about Predator is that this is really a guy’s movie. It’s dark, dirty, full of testosterone and has no love interest.
The second aspect I really enjoyed is the director's use of the "point of view technique" usually associated with horror movies at that time; seeing what the Predator sees as he is hunting. Too cool.
The Predator is a methodical killing machine with an arsenal of space age weapons at its disposal…it was badass!! It had the Special Ops team off their game and since Schwarzenegger was known for being the biggest badass around, it was fun to see him looking over his shoulder. McTiernan really made this alien hunter seem like it was evenly matched with such a huge action icon like Arnold Schwarzenegger.