Over the Top

Dir: Menahem Golan

1987

*****

Anyone who says Over the Top isn’t a great movie should drop and give me twenty. You’d be correct in many respects but also incorrect, due to overlooking certain truths. The fact is that sometimes, hardly ever to be fair, but sometimes, a film can be both awful and beautiful at the same time, and if a film is truly beautiful, how can it be awful? You say twisted logic, I say logic. Menahem Golan, one half of the infamous Cannon Group Inc, never made a bad film in his life. He made some truly awful films but pretty much all of them were masterpieces. People hear the word ‘Cannon’ and expect a certain level of quality, a low level generally. However, fans of Cannon – and there are quite a few – understand that these low-level quality films are actually works of art. The world had their masterpieces, Cannon had their versions of, Over the Top is essentially Cannon’s version of Rocky. Unlike other copy-cat film companies (like The Asylum for instance), Cannon had more of a feeling of authenticity about them, because they would basically paid through the nose for the actor or the rights of the film they want to copy, rather than fake it. Indeed, years after the film came out Sylvester Stallone (who obviously played Rocky), admitted the he agreed to star in the film saying “Menahem Golan kept offering me more and more money, until I finally though, What the hell – no one will see it anyway!”. That’s the Cannon method of getting what they want, it’s all about the Benjamins and pretty much everyone in Hollywood can be bought. Good job too, as second choice was Don Johnson and that wouldn’t have been a film I would have liked to see. Stallone was reportedly unhappy with the final film. In an interview he said that if he had directed the film he would have made it with a darker tone - changing the setting to an urban environment, using scored music instead of rock songs, and making the Las Vegas finale more ominous. I’m not sure any of those aspects were the problem, but surely he must take comfort and enjoy the fact that all these years later Over the Top is genuinely loved across the globe by many a film-freak such as myself. Also, he made Over the Top between some of the worst Rocky films of the series as well as a few other stinkers some years later. A carbon copy of Rocky would have been too obvious and Stallone would certainly have said no, so the story was about Arm Wrestling instead of Boxing. It should be said at this point that the story was co-written by Stirling Silliphant and Stallone himself. David Engelbach, the original scriptwriter who came up with the concept later stated that his original version “wasn’t nearly as dumb as the final film” and admitted actually crying (I’m guess not with joy) upon watching the final version. What does he know though, I mean, he would say that wouldn’t he, sour grapes and all that.

Once more the film is about a man down on his luck who has made mistakes in the past but is looking to correct them, one by one. Stallone stars as Lincoln Hawk, a truck driver by day and an Arm Wrestler by night, the pinnacle of manliness that this espadrille-wearing man-child could only ever dream to be like. When Hawk’s estranged wife Christina asks him to pick up their son Michael after he’s completed military school, he sees an opportunity to bond with the boy he barely knows. Christina is gravely ill and her and Michael live with her father (played by Robert Loggia) who may or may not be some sort of gangster, all we know is that he’s super rich and has men. Her father clearly disliked Hawk and is cited as the reason he left her when Michael was young. Now, knowing that he might lose Michael forever, Hawk takes his son on a road trip from Colorado to California to get to know him and to take him to his mother’s side. Grandpa has other ideas as sets his men on them to try and steal back his grandson. The father and son don’t bond initially, with Michael showing himself to be the spoilt brat he is, but after watching his father arm wrestle other men in bars and exercising with him in front of his truck at sunrise, he forgets he abandonment and start to love his dad. However, Michael’s expensive education clearly pays off when his grandad eventually catches up with them and choices to stay with his grandfather in his big old gold-trimmed mansion, because the trucking life isn’t for a young boy, and besides, inheritance! Michael foolishly lets his emotions get on top of him though when Hawk gets to the televised grand final of the World Armwrestling Championships (only American citizens may apply) in Las Vegas. Michael steals grandad’s car and credit card and makes his way to lend his old dad a bit of love and support. An underdog, the bond between father and son, trucks, sticking it to your father in law, sweating men…seriously, what’s not to love? It also has a steady stream of classic 80s rock songs playing constantly and a few choice montages. If it doesn’t make you want to punch the air in celebration then you are either watching the wrong film or you do not have any arms. If the film didn’t entertain you then there are still many elements that you may enjoy film fans. Fellow cinefiles would have spotted that the actor who plays Mad Dog Maddison (seen drinking petrol before his last match), Mr randy Raney, is also the same actor that played the Russian soldier in Rambo III who got his neck broken by Rambo before being blown to tiny pieces. Wrestling fans should be happy too, as it features quite a few of them. Professional wrestlers many Fernandez and Sione (a.k.a. The Barbarian) were flown to the set by the production company, but ended up not being used in the film. The wrestlers were given some money from the production staff and told they could go eat and drink as much as they liked, so the pair headed to a bar for drinks. According to Fernandez, Barbarian got so drunk that, after being insulted by a patron, smashed his and Manny's mugs of beer over his own forehead. Barbarian then laughed as blood poured down over his face. Even though Sione did not assault anybody else, the patrons were shocked and scared by his actions and called the police, who arrested him and put in him jail overnight. Manny called Sione's wife Seini to tell her about his ordeal, and she came to the jail to bail him out and fly him home. Sione later told Manny of how Seini had cooked him a nice big Tongan meal when they got home. When he started eating, Seini blindsided him with a skillet, chastising him for his actions, and yelling at him not to get drunk again. Sione said, "Brother, I crawled on all fours, and she kept hitting me."

Cannon actually ended up developing a real arm-wrestling tournament during production, the sets and extras were real patrons for many of the scenes and the tournament was taken pretty seriously off camera. The world of armwrestling hasn’t quite taken off as such and it remains outside of mainstream sports but I can only put that down to the fact that not enough people have seen Over the Top. It’s an 80s treat, a film for men, and men only (and also women). If you disagree, drop and give me twenty. If you agree, then also drop and give me twenty, just try and do so at either sunrise or at sunset (whichever is sweatiest for you), and in front of a truck.