When art goes to the movies: The Expendables

You're a despotic-slash-murderous General looking for a hobby, what will you go for? Golf? Big game hunting? Live-ammo-paint ball? All of the above? For General Garza of the tiny country of 'Vilena' the obvious choice was easel painting. The brush wielding General is one of a number of unpleasant characters thrown together by Sly Stallone in his writer-director action pic The Expendables. And we're not talking run-of-the-mill despot here, the General is so unpleasant that his daughter teams up with Sly, Jet, Jason and  Steve to topple him. 

And so it is, with his kingdom falling down around him, (spoiler: this and the previous comma have been included to annoy the Minister of Culture and Heritage) the General takes comfort in dabbing away on his latest canvas until an even bigger villain (Munroe) spits out, “Your daughter paints too. This is how it starts.”

But wait, that painting style the General has adopted looks familiar. Yes, Sly has popped one of his own works onto the big screen. The general was faking it.

Other art-like projects in the movie include Mickey Rourke’s character ‘painting’ an acoustic guitar. You can read Lory Lockwood’s account of how it was in fact she who dollied up the instrument basing her imagery on Sly’s wife’s tats. Nice.

Images: Top, what’s that you’re painting General?. Middle, um if you could step aside. Bottom, kinda Stallone-like isn’t it?