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Against evil in the world: Sylvester Stallone is »Samaritan«
Photo: IMAGO / Picturelux
Sylvester Stallone recently had his upper arm tattooed.
More precisely: where the portrait of his wife Jennifer used to be, his long-dead dog Butkus now stares out into the world.
There is of course a tragic story behind this, without which Stallone would not do: Shortly after their silver wedding anniversary, his wife divorced Stallone.
The rustling in the forest of colorful leaves began just a few days before the 76-year-old appeared with a new film.
He should open a new, a final chapter in his career.
Stallone seems to have finally wrapped up "Rocky" and "Rambo," although that's not without drama either.
He recently freaked out on Instagram when it was announced that the producer of his "Rocky" films was planning another spin-off with "Drago".
He apologized to his fans and wrote that the "Rocky" characters were being exploited by parasites.
In any case, Stallone wants to start again, apparently it's not enough for him to paint pictures.
His first series, »Tulsa King«, starts in the USA in November, and now he can be seen in »Samaritan«, a comic adaptation that was supposed to be released in cinemas but was slowed down by the pandemic and is now on Amazon's Prime Video streaming platform celebrates its premiere.
To get straight to the point: »Samaritan« didn't turn out to be a good film.
That shouldn't really come as a surprise either.
But in a strange way, this largely predictable, somewhat listless-looking assembly line work is touching.
It's suffused with Stallone's screen persona throughout;
you think you recognize Rocky Balboa and sometimes John Rambo, not to mention the lesser-known Lincoln Hawk from the sentimental 1987 father-son drama Over the Top.
Basically, »Samaritan« is a deep tribute to the career of a man who – for better or for worse – has shaped Hollywood since the 1970s.
And whose machismo has long since fallen out of time.
Joe (Stallone), the inconspicuous hero of this superhero adventure, also seems to have fallen out of time.
He lives in a tenement, makes ends meet as a garbage collector and repairs defective devices in his spare time because he believes that it's not just people who deserve a second chance.
In truth, he is Samaritan, a hero with superhuman powers who is said to have died years ago.
It's safe to say that, even if the boy next door, Sam, takes a long time to confirm his suspicions.
Sam could use some superhuman support because his father has died, his mother is a poor nurse and Sam is in trouble with some crooks belonging to the gang of big-time criminal Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk).
When he prepares to force the city under his thumb, Samaritan has to exchange sandpaper and screwdrivers for heavier equipment and stand up to him.
For the most part, the film is exactly what its plot sounds like: anyone who hasn't spent the last few years in a nuclear bunker knows how things work.
Stylistically, director Julius Avery also has nothing to add to the genre: the Danish actor Asbæk is allowed to look enchantingly dark, it's often surprisingly dark because superheroes apparently prefer night shifts, and of course some things explode, but mostly obviously only simulated by computer tricks.
Stallone's face, on the other hand, looks pleasantly real.
His inimitable dachshund look hasn't changed, perhaps his sad expression has even gotten stronger over the years.
This reinforces the contradictory impression this face has always conveyed: there was one driven by anger, with considerable aggression under over-inflated biceps;
and one who was obviously tender, remaining melancholic and lonely at the end even in moments of greatest triumph.
This has always distinguished Stallone, the man of sorrows, from his counterpart, the cheerfully manic Austro import Arnold Schwarzenegger.
In »Samaritan« there is also the fact that the film depicts a social dystopia in which Rocky, the hero from the streets, and Rambo, the outcast from society, are reflected.
Unemployment, homelessness, unfair pay, poverty: things are brewing in Granite City, the film's fictional setting, and the cynical Cyrus wants to exploit people's fears - a blatant Trump reference, of course.
As a Samaritan, this gives Stallone the opportunity to look at the world even more melancholy and to share some wisdom about social peace.
In general, Stallone was, if he didn't stand so much for a version of the
American dream
in which the individual can achieve anything with will and perseverance, was always easy to imagine as an honest boy from Castrop-Rauxel, for example, maybe even with an SPD party membership in the pocket.
Stallone's characters are unthinkable without his heart for the workers and so-called little people.
But alas, the seventies and eighties with their clear contours and fronts are long gone, and with them Stallone's heyday.
At the end you see him briefly in a flashback with a younger face, which of course also comes from the computer and looks terribly artificial, and somehow this short scene gives you a stab in your heart.
It's good that times are changing.
But always painful.