![]() The true villain of the film, in the embodiment of the grandmother, Eleanor (Carroll Baker, in full domination mode), who claims she just wants to be a “family” again, sends nervous tingles up and down my legs every time I consider it. This trend predated the rise of the stay-at-home dad, and the ever-changing redefinition of what it means to be male and female, father and mother, teacher and cop.Įven the main villain of the film, the drug-dealing murderer Crisp, is a mama’s-boy who just wants to be reunited with his son, so he can raise him alongside the boy’s cruel and hell-bent grandmother. This is a long cry, let’s just say, from Rambo and Commando. ![]() These early scenes in the film are fascinating to watch because they force the tough guy archetype to become vulnerable, to tap into the feminine forces of his nature, for once, and respond to people as if their emotional needs are a priority. Sure, he can pull out his shotgun and intimidate an eyewitness into testifying against his archnemesis, Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson), but he can’t even go 10 minutes in a classroom of youngsters before they ruffle his feathers, forcing him to scream, “Shut up!” at the top of his lungs, and then retrieving his pet ferret to calm down the emotional trauma he just inflicted. We all can nervously laugh when the fumbling Detective Kimble attempts to help a young girl unbuckle her overalls so she can go to the bathroom, and has to ask a female teacher for assistance. The Enduring Value & Critique of Kindergarten Cop (1990)Īfter 30 years, why are people still drawn to a comedy-thriller about a police detective forced to perform the “duties” of a kindergarten teacher? Maybe it was because of the new type of male masculinity that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger presented in Detective John Kimble, as Tatiana Prorokova points out, in the journal Masculinities and Social Change? I mean, the comedy of the film is purely of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s social era: a self-described tough guy who takes on a predominantly female profession and is humiliated to the point of exhaustion and fear by precocious young children.
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