Raw Deal (1986 Film)

''Raw Deal'' is a 1986 American action film directed by John Irvin and written by Gary DeVore & Norman Wexler, from a story by Luciano Vincenzoni & Sergio Donati. The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kathryn Harrold, Darren McGavin and Sam Wanamaker. In the film, Harry Shannon, an elderly FBI agent, recruits Mark Kaminski, an ex-FBI agent, to destroy a mafia organization.

''Raw Deal'' was released in North America on June 6, 1986 and grossed $16.2 million in the US against its $8–10 million budget.

Plot

A mob informant is under protection by the FBI in a remote wooded cabin, but is soon ambushed by a hit squad, who brutally slaughter the bodyguards and the informant. One of the agents killed is Blair Shannon, the son of FBI agent Harry Shannon, who vows to exact revenge.

Mark Kaminski, a small-town sheriff, lives with his alcoholic wife, Amy, who resents their way of living. Kaminski was also an FBI agent, who had brutally thrashed a suspect for sexually assaulting, murdering, and mutilating a young girl 5 years ago. Kaminski was given an option to "resign or be prosecuted" by Marvin Baxter, an ambitious prosecutor, and Kaminski got suspended from the FBI. Baxter, the present Special Federal Prosecutor, sets up a committee to investigate the dealings of Luigi Patrovita, the strongest of the Chicago Outfit crime bosses.

Due to a leak within the FBI ranks causing their agents to be killed, Shannon recruits Kaminski for an unsanctioned assignment to infiltrate and dismantle Patrovita's organization. Kaminski fakes his own death in a chemical plant explosion and poses as Joseph P. Brenner, a convicted felon. Kaminski manages to get an audience with Patrovita's right-hand man Paulo Rocca and convinces them of his worth by harassing Martin Lamanski, a rival mob boss, who is trying to move in on Patrovita's territory. While at Patrovita's casino, hidden in a basement level of a high class hotel, Kaminski makes the acquaintance of Monique, who works for Rocca's top lieutenant, Max Keller.

Kaminski continues to work his way into the good graces of the Patrovita family, including devising a plan to recover $100 million of heroin and cash seized by the feds from one of Patrovita's hideouts and simultaneously assisting in Lamanski's assassination. Keller is not convinced that 'Brenner' is who he says and manages to find proof of the deception, showing Kaminski's photo to a police informant who previously arrested the real Brenner. The leak, which the FBI has been looking for, is revealed to be Baxter, who is forced to stay close to Patrovita. Kaminski accompanies Keller to a cemetery for a hit job, but discovers that the target is Shannon, forcing Kaminski to blow his cover and kill Keller. In the ensuing shootout, Shannon is severely wounded and crippled.

Kaminski escapes with Monique's assistance and tells her to go to the airport and wait for him. After gathering an arsenal of guns and ammunition, Kaminski raids Patrovita's gravel pit, killing all of Patrovita's men and stealing a large amount of drug money. Kaminski sets off for Patrovita's casino, where he embarks on a killing spree, single-handedly wiping out all his soldiers, including the men directly responsible for the murder of Blair and his fellow FBI agents. Rocca and Patrovita retreat to a back room, but Rocca is cut down in a barrage of gunfire. Patrovita flees into an office pleading for his life, but Kaminski mercilessly guns him down. On his way out, Kaminski encounters a whimpering Baxter, who tries to talk himself out by apologizing for the suspension. Kaminski responds to Baxter by saying that because of him a lot of people are dead and now it is his turn and offers him a gun with the same line Baxter once told him: "Resign, or be prosecuted. Any way you want it." When Baxter attempts to shoot him, Kaminski turns and shoots Baxter dead in self-defense.

After driving to the airport, Kaminski hands a duffel bag containing $250,000 in cash to Monique, telling her that she can start a new life with no obligations to anyone. Kaminski is reinstated with the FBI and is reunited with a pregnant Amy. Kaminski visits Shannon, who refuses to undergo physical therapy. In order to thank Shannon for helping him, Kaminski asks him to be his child's godfather in exchange for completing his therapy, which Shannon accepts.

Cast

Production

Filming took place in October 1985 in Chicago, Illinois, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

Reception

Box office

''Raw Deal'' released in the United States on June 6, 1986, and made $5.4 million in its opening weekend. It went on to gross a total of $16.2 million in the United States. Despite turning a box office profit and becoming a hit, its earnings were still considered a disappointment.

Critical response

Roger Ebert gave the film 1.5 stars out of four and wrote, "This plot is so simple (and has been told so many times before), that perhaps the most amazing achievement of 'Raw Deal' is its ability to screw it up. This movie didn't just happen to be a mess; the filmmakers had to work to make it so confusing." Vincent Canby of ''The New York Times'' wrote that the film "isn't exactly Oscar material. It does nothing for the cause of nonviolence. It will warm the hearts of gun lobbyists everywhere, and its final body count may be even higher than that in Mr. Stallone's 'Cobra.' Yet 'Raw Deal' somehow manages to be measurably less offensive. At times, it's almost funny — intentionally." Todd McCarthy of '' Variety'' reported, "Comic book crime meller suffers from an irredeemably awful script, and even director John Irvin's engaging sense of how absurd the proceedings are can't work an alchemist's magic." Writing in the ''Los Angeles Times'', Sheila Benson began, "Has it come to this? That we can feel vaguely cheered that ''Raw Deal'' (citywide), where the bodies again pile up like cordwood, is a better made movie than ''Cobra''?" However, she praised Schwarzenegger, saying that his strength as an actor is "not that he can toss grown men over ceiling beams, but that he has a vein of sweetness and self-deprecation that no amount of mayhem can obliterate ... it has shone from him since '' Pumping Iron'', it has allowed him to surmount silly and unwise pieces of action (such as the drunk scenes in one of the ''Conans'' and here), and even his own awkwardness as an actor." Gene Siskel of the ''Chicago Tribune'' gave the film 1 star out of 4 and noted that it had "essentially the same story" as ''Cobra'', "but it is told with so many superfluous characters that we're never really sure whose side a few key people are on. Needless to say, in a film filled with punch-outs, we very quickly don't care." Paul Attanasio of ''The Washington Post'' dismissed the film as "a mostly tedious, cheaply made shoot-em-up" that "recycles the clichés that have long been the cud of television cop dramas." Pauline Kael of ''The New Yorker'' called it "reprehensible and enjoyable, the kind of movie that makes you feel brain dead after two minutes—after which point you're ready to laugh at its mixture of trashiness, violence, and startlingly silly crude humor."

John Nubbin reviewed ''Raw Deal'' for ''Different Worlds'' magazine and stated that "Although the picture begins with a set of great hooks which drag the audience in immediately and completely, it isn't long before the twists in logic start to ruin everyone's good time. Coupling this with the needlessly foolish villains, the totally inept marksman they hire to protect them, and the godawful bits of story such as Schwarzenegger going to kill a man simply to get in good with the mobs, or his healing of the sick in the movie's incredibly maudlin ending, you have just another ready-mix, non-varying formula movie, the kind people are, luckily, going to see less and less of as the years drag by."

''Raw Deal'' holds a score of 31% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, based on 16 reviews with an average rating of 4.6/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 44 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

See also

* List of American films of 1986
* Arnold Schwarzenegger filmography

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Raw Deal
1986 films
1986 action films
1980s American films
1980s English-language films
American action films
American films about revenge
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group films
Fictional portrayals of the Chicago Police Department
Films about the American Mafia
Films about the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Films directed by John Irvin
Films produced by Martha De Laurentiis
Films set in 1985
Films set in Chicago
Films set in North Carolina
Films shot in Chicago
Films shot in North Carolina
Films with screenplays by Gary DeVore
Films with screenplays by Luciano Vincenzoni
Films with screenplays by Norman Wexler
Films with screenplays by Sergio Donati
English-language action films