Barb Wire? Why You Don’t Remember Pamela Anderson’s Movie

Pam & Tommy touches upon the release of Barb Wire, the 1996 movie that Pamela Anderson and her team had hoped would her movie career. The eight-part Hulu series focuses heavily on Pamela and Tommy’s lives during the leak of the stolen tape, while also delving into Pam’s personal and professional motivations. Why does the name Barb Wire not strike as something familiar in popular consciousness?

Anderson was already riding the wave of fame due to her consistent and memorable presence through five seasons of Baywatch, offering the perfect segway for her to launch her movie career. Enter Barb Wire, a superhero film based on the Dark Horse comic book series of the same name, which was co-written by Ilene Chaiken. Despite high hopes of the studio and Anderson’s faith that the movie would do well, Barb Wire was a disastrous flop as it was critically panned and received nominations for multiple Golden Raspberry Awards.

As a film released in 1996, Barb Wire takes place in a dystopia of sorts, the year 2017, during the Second American Civil War. Anderson, obviously, is the titular Barb Wire, a nightclub owner who is essentially a mercenary and bounty hunter. The plot follows the existence of a bioweapon, which is in possession of a former government scientist, who wishes to escape to Canada to expose the nefarious plans concerning the weapon itself. However, when a pair of contraband lenses that are essential for evading airport security arrive at Barb’s nightclub, she must make a choice between what’s right and what pays well.

Barb Wire is an extremely loose adaptation of Casablanca, without any of the original’s depth, charm, or thematic insight. There are hardly any convincing details about the war-torn, nightmarish world that the film claims to be set in, and the tidbits of information offered are extremely vague and confusing. While the film attempts to set up Barb as a formidable, no-nonsense bounty hunter, the gross over-sexualization of the character undercuts these elements almost immediately. This, coupled with the fact that the narrative drags on without setting up genuine atmosphere, even during the tensest of scenarios, drags down Barb Wire to oblivion.

Pam and Tommy delves into the behind-the-scenes events during the release of Barb Wire, and how Anderson felt about the film’s potential to jumpstart her movie career. Now, with the power of hindsight, it is difficult to gauge how the studio expected the film to be a smash hit, given the glaring issues inherent within the central idea as a whole. Nevertheless, it is interesting to garner a glimpse into Anderson’s thought process, her key motivations as an actor, and who she viewed as her role models for inspiration.

About The Author

Debopriyaa Dutta
(328 Articles Published)

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Apart from being a features writer and critic at ScreenRant, Debopriyaa is a news writer at /Film. She is also a contributor to High on Films & Fansided, and an editor at Digital Mafia Talkies. Her poetry has been published in a wide array of journals, such as Gideon Poetry, White Noise Magazine, and Literaria. Find her on Twitter @angelusatani.

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