You don't need to follow Mike Huckabee, or even politics, to appreciate that Chuck Norris is everywhere these days.
On television spots for the former Arkansas governor, Norris, the star of shoot-'em-up fare like Missing in Action and Walker, Texas Ranger, is there. ("My plan to secure the border?" Huckabee says in deadpan. "Two words: Chuck Norris.") On T-shirts, Saturday Night Live skits, Mountain Dew ads, and Web sites like the satirical Thetruthaboutchuck.com, Norris - or at least his image - is there.
Now, suddenly, he is not alone, as several other action stars who peaked in prominence in the 1980s are rejoining him on the pop culture landscape.
Sylvester Stallone, at 61, is starring in the first Rambo film since 1988, called simply Rambo. Hulk Hogan, 54, who was doing face plants in wrestling bouts back when Frankie Goes to Hollywood was still riding the charts, re-emerged this month as the face of NBC's unlikely new hit, American Gladiators. Mr T, the Mohawk-sporting muscleman who squared off against Stallone in Rocky 3 back in 1982, when Leonid Brezhnev was still the Soviet leader (and when there was still a Soviet Union), is back as a television pitchman for the popular World of Warcraft video game.
Even the Terminator is back - in Fox's new series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles - although the original star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is too busy with other engagements in California to participate.
The leading action symbols of the Reagan era - with all their excess, jingoism and good vs evil bombast - have returned, as outsized and obvious as they were in the decade of stonewash. Yet as stars of prime-time hits and feature films (not to mention Republican mascots), these actors are still as ripped and imposing as they were 20 years ago, and they continue to carry an undeniable authority with fans old and new.
Indeed, at a time when the US is faced with a new tangle of problems, the return of the 1980s action hero suggests that some Americans, particularly men, are looking to revel in the vestigial pleasures of older times and seemingly simpler ways. (Witness the popularity of the best-selling Dangerous Book for Boys, a celebration of the traditional rugged joys of boyhood.) It helps that these figures need no introduction. "Stallone and Rambo are huge, iconic images already," said Tim Palen, who works at Lionsgate, the Rambo studio, as a co-president for theatrical marketing. "It's really kind of holy territory, especially when it comes to young males, and males in general."
When marketing executives were deciding on a strategy to sell the new Rambo film, they shunned splashy posters in favor of a minimalist image of a black spray-painted stencil outline of Rambo's head on a white background.
"We called it Che Guevara crossed with Jesus Christ by way of Andy Warhol," Palen said. "In a way, he's all of those."
At an age when mere mortals find their biceps reduced to cookie dough, these human action figures have retained not only their muscle tone but, more important, their value as brands. Mark Koops, an executive producer of American Gladiators, attributes its success in part to Hogan's enduring status as a symbol of both high-testosterone swagger and integrity in the eyes of fans - certifiable dudes, undoubtedly - of all ages.
"Since the summer, when we first sold the show, we put together a target list of who we thought could capture what the show was," Koops said. The list had just one name: Hogan. "He has such a huge following - kids from 6 to 60." When Hogan and Koops attended a recent San Diego Chargers football game, Koops recalled, "all the NFL players came running up to him, even when they were supposed to be warming up." Without a doubt, nostalgia on the part of Generation X is a strong factor in the continuing appeal of these actors. The same guys who grew up watching First Blood and The Delta Force on VHS are now old enough to hold positions of creative power at advertising firms and film studios, Palen said. "I'm in my 40s," he explained, "and growing up a young guy in Kansas, Rambo was huge."
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