Delta Force

The Delta Force is a fast-paced, enthralling action film featuring a top-notch cast, great action sequences, and a poignant story line. Chuck Norris and the immortal Lee Marvin headline as members of the elite Delta Force commando unit who are called in to rescue a hijacked airliner heading back to the U.S. from Israel. Cameos by such Hollywood legends as former Rat Packer Joey Bishop and Twelve Angry Men's Martin Balsam abound, as well as a good performance by Robert Forster as our megalomaniacal and stalwart Palestinian madman, Abdul.

Some, including a few on the IMDb, have labeled the villains stereotypical, but I would have to disagree. The terrorists' portrayals were right on target, and true to form. Palestinian terrorists obviously DO NOT like Israelis, or any Jewish people, for that matter. That's not stereotypical, that's the truth!

To see The Delta Force's inspiration, check out Irvin Kershner's Raid on Entebbe from 1977. Based on a true account of the Israeli special forces rescue of hostages at Entebbe Airport in Uganda, you will see eerie similarities.

Both films are highly recommended.

The second half of Lee Marvin's final film is given over to the stuntmen, special effects team and armourers.

Based on the 1985 hijacking of an American airliner, it's set mainly in Beirut but inevitably shot in Israel - described by Robert Vaughan as "America's best friend in the Middle East" - the dirty dozen this time round being twelve swarthy, sweaty, wild-eyed sadists and psychos under the command of a moustached Robert Forster during the career limbo from which Tarantino rescued him ten years later.

Although Marvin is billed below Chuck Norris it's basically an ensemble piece. Personally directed by Cannon's Menahim Golan himself, it's a triumph of his and Globus's organisation and showmanship rather than actual filmmaking; having assembled an extraordinary cast which includes George Kennedy as a priest called William O'Malley and Martin Balsam in a rare overtly Jewish role. As usual there's a glamorous blonde fraulein aboard, but as played by Hanna Schygulla in her only English-language role she's a stewardess rather than one of the hijackers.

I have to admit I do love 'The Delta Force', perhaps because it was a favourite of mine as a child or maybe because it's sometimes relaxing to watch a flick which is very rigid in dividing people into black and white, good and evil, and the main focus is providing the audience with plenty of action.

Very loosely based on the true-life 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847, 'The Delta Force' sees an airliner bound for America being taken over by Palestinian terrorists, who demand the flight be diverted to Beirut. While the real life event led to the Israeli government being forced to release Islamic political prisoners to appease the hijackers, the hostages on this flight have Chuck Norris to sort everything out. As the hijackers are threatening to kill passengers, the US military send in the elite Delta Force, a team of highly-trained commando led by Colonel Alexander (Lee Marvin) and his second-in-command Major McCoy (Chuck), to retake the plane by force.

This is a film that won't win any prizes for being politically correct since the Islamic terrorists are blatantly depicted to have not one redeeming attribute and are instead nothing more than abusive, greedy thugs who think nothing of slapping around women and hitting old men. That said, surprisingly Hanna Schygulla and George Kennedy, in roles as an air hostess and priest respectively, do give good performances in portraying the idea that not all heroes show their might with guns and martial arts. And there is a saddening insight, until Chuck arrives on the scene, of what it is to be on a hijacked plane as loved ones are separated and people are left fearing for their life and the lives of their loved ones.

However, with Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin in the lead roles, it's obvious from the start that this will be a film primarily involving gung-ho behaviour and over-the-top action from the all-American heroes. Emotion is shoved to the side to make way for the guns, explosions and karate. My favourite example is a scene that sees two or three cars carrying terrorists armed to the teeth and ready for killing only to be stopped by Chuck, dressed in black on his motorbike with a brooding glare! That, and how our team are able to rescue one-hundred-forty-four people (some of whom are strewn across various areas of Buirut) with only two casualties lost on the good guys and Innocent's' team.

Overall though, this film can be quite enjoyable if not taking seriously and is instead treated like the Eighties action flick it is. And, in these post-September 11th times, there is something rather uplifting about the idea that there would be a crack team of specialists able to rescue hostages and shoot the bad guys without breaking a sweat. Certainly, it's almost haunting to reminisce of the days when hostages on-board hijacked planes only had to worry about was when they would get home for dinner rather than whether they panicking over the fear their plane is going to be rammed into a building, killing them and many others.

As a product of the eighties (I had the misfortune to be born at the very beginning of them), I grew up on movies like this.

One has to wonder what went wrong. In the late sixties and seventies, America was putting out some of the best movies in the world. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that Americans (as a people) were suddenly not afraid of having faults. Vietnam and Nixon made America realise that it had a dark side, and this came through in its cinema. The results were some of the most palpable incarnations of the anti-hero ever put to film.

Alas, in the eighties, something changed. Suddenly, American heroes were not only invincible, but ethically flawless and totally righteous too. 'The Delta Force' is one of the pinnacles of the American hero movie.

In a nutshell, some evil Arab types take a plane full of innocent Jewish Americans and it's up to Chuck Norris and his crew of bad-ass GIs (all of whom sh*t stars and bleeds stripes, of course)to save the day. Watching it in the ultra-liberal, post-911 21st century, it's hard to believe this film even got made. It's so un-PC that it make Bill Hicks look like Porky Pig.

But here's the catch, it's so damn refreshing to see a piece of action cinema that serves no purpose but to entertain that 'The Delta Force' becomes a beautifully nostalgic piece of escapism that is hard to resist.

It is certainly a flawed film. The editor and director could sure have used a few lessons in pacing, notably around the totally extraneous character development scenes where we have it reinforced beyond any doubt that Jewish Americans are beyond reproach. However, one is more than willing to forgive this insult when presented with such testosterone-infested action sequences and cocksure pro-Americanism. It's one of those films that is so bad it's good.

'The Delta Force' is a movie that necessitates the disengagement of the brain and the full attention of the balls. If you have the capacity to do this, and overlook the fact that it is a disgraceful tool of American propaganda, you'll love it. I can just imagine this being George Bush's favourite movie...

Chuck Norris is, in many ways, the ultimate American hero; ruthless but virtuous, kind hearted yet bad-as-hell, the underdog yet the victor. After saving American soldiers from those nasty far-Easterners in the 'Missing in Action' series, Chuckie truly outdoes himself here. Taken with a large pinch of salt, or as a very shrewd satire (a la 'Team America'), 'The Delta Force' delivers in ways Bruckheimer and can only dream of.

Lee Marvin was already very ill when he appeared in this movie, and his grave condition sometimes shows onscreen. Still, he's able to give it all that he's got like in his previous films, and it's nice seeing that he went down still a tough guy. The rest of the movie proves to be just as surprisingly enjoyable. It does go on too long (125 minutes!), and there is not as much action as you may be expecting. But the drama portion of the movie proves to be compelling, and the few action scenes there are turn out to be exceedingly well done. Certainly no masterpiece, but it is entertaining. Fans of Norris and/or Marvin, however, should be warned that the two of them don't appear in as much of the movie as they may be expecting.