Commando: You Will Never Watch it the Same Way Again

Pictured: Obvious symbolism

by Brian Long

The best way to describe the movie Commando for the uninitiated would be to paraphrase Lucy VanPelt of Peanuts in saying "of all the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies in the world, it's the Arnold Schwarzeneggerist." This movie has every cliché you'd expect in one of Arnold's movies: hilarious one-liners (including the classic "remember when I said I'd kill you last? I lied"), amateur henchmen, guns that apparently never run out of bullets and a gay single father trying to protect his daughter from the prejudices of the world and come to terms with his own sexuality. What? It does.

Commando's basic plot is pretty straightforward: Schwarzenegger plays former Special Forces operative John Matrix whose daughter, Jenny, is kidnapped by Arius, the ousted dictator of the fictional "one Hispanic country fits all" Val Verde. In order to get his daughter back he'll have to assassinate the current president of Val Verde (because they're friends? Or something?) and he must do it all in ELEVEN HOURS. Teamed up with the desperate despot is a former member of Matrix's Special Forces team, Bennett, who has won the U.S. Army's Freddie Mercury look-alike award for the past three years.

Plenty has been written in the past about the gay subtext of Commando but I'm going to take it a step further and say that the entire film is also a criticism of the policy of keeping openly gay men and women out of the military, as well as a criticism of a society that makes gay men and women feel as though they must stay closeted for the sake of maintaining careers and protecting family from scorn. Let's take a look at the breakdown:

1. My One Dad

Let's start with the absence of a mother figure in Jenny Matrix's life. Single fathers are nothing new in the world of film, but we don't even get a clue as to how John Matrix ended up as a single father. No throwaway lines about Jenny spending the weekends at her mom's house, or a boring monologue about Jenny's mom dying in a boat accident or some such nonsense. This suggests that Matrix more than likely adopted Jenny just before he left the military. No doubt that Matrix, a perpetual bachelor, suddenly adopting a young girl out of the blue might have raised some eyebrows with the upper brass. It's not absurd to think that the military would kick out a solider for any "suspicious" gay behavior in their personal lives. Consider the 1997 case of Timothy McVeigh who found himself at the nebulous end of the "don't ask, don't tell" laws when his private AOL account was discovered. The account listed his marital status as "gay" which led to the officer being reassigned and eventually dismissed entirely from the Navy (Source: The Advocate November 12, 2002). Wishing to avoid a similar fate, Matrix no doubt left the military on his own terms and decided to live in seclusion with Jenny to protect her from the prejudices that she would face from having a gay father.

Life seems perfect for Matrix and Jenny, until the past comes back to haunt Matrix in the form of Arius. Arius and his lackeys represent not only the literal past left behind, but the pressures of society to conform the heterosexual "normal" lifestyle. By taking away his daughter, they take away a young girl from a gay father, something that their bigoted society views as "warped" and "wrong." Matrix must once again become a tool for a militaristic organization that refuses to let him live peacefully.

2. Rae Dawn Chong?!?

Every action movie has its obligatory female character; it's the only thing that keeps every person like me with an English degree and too much time on their hands from writing a queer theory analysis of them. Commando's obligatory female is the flight attendant Cindy (Rae Dawn Chong) who ranks about a 6 on the Willie Scott scale of annoying sidekicks. And like all obligatory females is there strictly to be eye candy.

What's important to note is that Commando subverts the trope of the male lead becoming romantically involved with the female lead simply because she's there in this crazy situation. It's something that never makes any logical sense in the narrative of an action film, and it's somewhat impressive that Commando avoids it but let's face it, the people behind this film probably weren't thinking that deeply. To me, it simply cements the fact that John Matrix is gay and Cindy simply just doesn't have anything he's looking for.

3. Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The only clue we get to Matrix's past in the military is the character of Bennett, who, as I mentioned above, shares a strong resemblance to Freddy Mercury. Although the character is simply a top hat and cape away from being a full on cartoon villain, Matrix mentions that at one time him and Bennett were best friends until Matrix had him "kicked out of the unit." Much of the "Commando is gay" theory comes from Bennett's appearance which includes the aforementioned Freddie Mercury mustache, chainmail for some reason, and tight leather pants.

We never discover just what it was that Bennett did to get himself kicked out of Matrix's unit, but there is a clue that comes very early on in the movie. In the opening scene Matrix makes a joke about pop singer Boy George to his daughter about how he should change his name to "Girl George; it would cut down on all the confusion." This dialogue suggests that perhaps Matrix has an element of self-loathing about his homosexuality. It would explain why he keeps himself so secluded and hasn't taken on a partner despite the challenges of raising a young girl alone. These insecurities point to a possible reason as to why Bennett was kicked out. Perhaps Bennett and Matrix became close, too close for John to feel comfortable and outed Bennett to his higher ups as being gay, getting him kicked out of the unit. There's plenty to point to that suggests that Bennett and Matrix had a relationship deeper than friendship. For example, this line:
"I really love listening to your little piss-head soldiers trying to talk tough. They make me laugh. If Matrix was here, he'd laugh too." The part of the quote in bold is delivered by Bennett with a sigh, as if he was a love sick teenager.

And of course, we have this exchange during the final showdown between Matrix and Bennett that carries some strange sadomasochistic tension between the two men:

Matrix: Come on Bennett, throw away that chicken shit gun, you don't just want to pull the trigger, you want to put the knife in me, and look me in the eye, and see what's going on in there when you turn it, that's what you want to do, right?

Bennett: I can kill you John!

Matrix: Come on, let the girl go, just between you and me, don't deprive yourself of some pleasure, come on Bennett, let's party!

Shortly after this exchange, Matrix kills Bennett with a huge honking phallic symbol that'd make Sigmund Freud blush.

4. "Until the next time…" "No chance."

With his ex-lover plus 95 other people (not an exaggeration) dead and his daughter safe and secure, Matrix departs from Generic Evil Hideout Island #54C leaving behind for General Kirby "just bodies." Before Matrix can depart though, the General can't help but make one last attempt at getting his star soldier back into the fighting fray. He asks Matrix to come back, and this exchange follows:

Gen. Kirby: I'd just like you to start up your unit again, John. All it would take is your coming back

Matrix: This was the last time.

Gen. Kirby: Until the next time.

[pause]

Matrix: No chance

Matrix has realized that the life of his daughter and the acceptance of his lifestyle are far more important than a career that would make him hide his true self. You will never watch Commando the same way again.