As a historical witness (cue Civil War fiddle music-or maybe Horner's turtle drums) I can testify that yes, 'Commando' was a big deal-not just because it was continuously violent (hundreds of killings) and mordantly funny ('I lied'), but because any viewer with eyes could see that Schwarzenegger was already putting his own distinctive spin on the persona he'd created with James Cameron. I'm the right age to have seen all of the now-nearly-canonized 1980s R-rated adventures (including this one, the Rambo pictures, ' Aliens,' ' Predator' and ' Die Hard') in first-run theaters. Even though he played a villain in the latter, he imported his signature moves and performance tics into the role of a stoic meat-slab trying to save his daughter from Latin American death squads and their mercenaries. A perfect engine of meaningless destruction, 'Commando' followed Arnold Schwarzenegger's breakthrough hit 'The Terminator' by less than a year.
