This story has been told recently in the must-see documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films. Charting the story of Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus and the rise and fall Cannon Films (part of The Cannon Group Inc), their company that changed the face of mainstream film-making in the 1980s, Hartley’s film follows the infamous producers from Israel to Hollywood, mapping their metamorphosis from young indie film-makers to wild-eyed market dominators.

 

Israel film producers and directors Yoram Globus (left) and Menahem Golan, owners of Cannon Films, at the Cannes Film Festival, France, circa 1987. (Photo by Richard Blanshard/Getty Images)
Israel film producers and directors Yoram Globus (left) and Menahem Golan, owners of Cannon Films, at the Cannes Film Festival, France, circa 1987. (Photo by Richard Blanshard/Getty Images)

Cannon Films was, in its prime, the most potent independent production company in the world, specialising in creating inexpensive movies for an international market. After injecting life into the Israeli film industry in mark the 60s and 70s, Golan and Globus purchased Cannon in 1979 from founders Dennis Friedland and Chris Dewey, and unfurled an array of vibrant productions that went on to reshape the nature of the industry. Knocking out works at an unprecedented rate, their films transcended genres, confounded critics while subjugating cinemas and video rental stores throughout the 1980s.

Enter The Ninja (1980)After early playful productions including The Happy Hooker Goes To Hollywood (1980), bizarre rock opera The Apple (1980) and Enter The Ninja (1980), Cannon started capitalising on cultural trends, churning out what it considered to be marketable content at a fraction of their competitors’ cost. Originally focusing on horror, martial arts and sex comedies, Cannon then bottled the early 80s break-dancing sensation for the (now) achingly retro Breakin’ (1984) along with it’s sequel Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (1984).

breakin 2

The company evolved, producing films from a wide range of genres, including period dramas amongst their more male dominated works but went on to unleash a flood of exploitative action flicks during the 1980s fronted by the likes of Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson.

From the Death Wish franchise to Mission In Action (1984), Exterminator 2 (1984) and Invasion USA (1985) amongst countless others. But Cannon continued to conjure/distribute rickety horrors (The Company Of Wolves (1985), Lifeforce (1985), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (1986) and martial arts features (Ninja 3: The Domination (1984) and American Ninja (1985).

The work of the “Go-Go boys” (as they were known in the industry) received mixed to mostly negative reviews and was often frowned upon for being cheap, juvenile and in some cases totally insane. Yet Golan and Globus were bequest with the gift of being easy to work with and suitably business minded, granting their directors a degree of creative freedom that was unheard of. As a result, the cousins attracted a wide range of cinematic talent to the Cannon family.

As well as specialising in no frills, commercial schlock the Go Go Boys were foremost major film fans and went on to sign up renowned directors such as John Cassavetes for Love Streams (1984), Franco Zeffirelli for Otello (1986) and Andrei Konchalovsky for Runaway Train (1985): a film that surprised many due to its unexpectedly brilliant execution, despite its B movie concept. Runaway Train went on to earn Oscar nominations for stars Jon Voight and Eric Roberts.

The wonderful Thai poster for Runaway Train.
The wonderful Thai poster for Runaway Train.

John Frankenheimer was another director who openly stated that he enjoyed working for Cannon (on Elmore Leonard adaptation 52 Pick Up (1986)) and considered Golan and Globus to be story-tellers who respected artistic integrity with the added bonus of knowing every element of the film business. Their affluent nature and determination combined to fuel the company and its productions but after a series of lesser received works and lower box office takings, Cannon’s success and prolific run slowly started to wane.

During Cannon’s lifespan, Golan and Globus spent an extortionate amount on advertising. They purchased a chain of UK cinemas (ABC) in the 1980s while controlling others in Italy, Germany and Holland and acquired a mammoth share of the British film industry including Elstree Studios and Screen Entertainment (for £175 million). Cannon also owned the “Classic” and “Star” UK cinema chains and set the standards of ridiculously high salaries for film stars in the 1980s by wrangling the rate of Sylvester Stallone’s pay for arm-wrestling action drama Over The Top (1986) until it was too absurdly high for him to refuse.

over the top stallone

In the latter half of the 1980s, Cannon began producing more superhero, sci-fi and fantasy films, adding productions to their roster that included; Invaders From Mars (1986), Robotech (1986) and Masters Of The Universe (1986). Cannon even had the rights to produce a Spider-Man film but failed to due to financial dilemmas.

After being forced to shrink the budget of the notoriously trite Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (1987), from $36 million to $17 million, the demise of their much loved company was imminent. Whether it was due to The Go Go Boys’ arguable lack of an understanding as to what constituted as quality or their crazy determination to take on more than they could handle, Cannon’s days were numbered.

Superman 4 The Quest for Peace

With an unprecedented rate of production pre-sales, based solely on poster design concepts, being lapped up at the Cannes Film Festival, by the end of the 1980s Cannon finally folded. As well as having to shelve plans for their mooted Spider-Man film, Cannon also abandoned its planned sequel to Masters Of The Universe but mingled the pre-prepared sets and costumes for both productions in the Jean Claude Van Damme sci-fi Cyborg (1988).

In the 1986 BBC documentary The Last Moguls (see the full doc below), Menahem Golan stated that he believed himself and Globus to be “like those troubadours in the middle ages” who “go to the market place and tell fairytales and stories to the people who had dreary lives.” Even though Cannon’s output was high concept, low brow mire in the minds of many, there is no denying the playful vibrancy, energy and love that permeated their work.

In retrospect their output resembles that of Ed Wood and Roger Corman’s (Golan was even an assistant to Corman in his early days). Loaded with passion and with a growing cult following of fans recently discovering their work due to Hartley’s documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story Of Cannon Films and from recently re-mastered Arrow blu ray releases.

With the right kind of eyes it is easy to see through the shoddy productions values, wooden performances and slapdash execution to spot the wild eyed and child-like fervour that blossoms within their work.

Written by Daniel Goodwin.