Opposing Force

The veteran Major Logan (Tom Skerritt), Lieutenant Casey (Lisa Eichhorn) and a group of selected Air Force pilots go to an isolated island for training for prisoner of war. The team jumps out of the plane using parachute and they are captured in the island and sent to a camp under the direction of Commander Becker (Anthony Zerbe) and Sergeant Stafford (Richard Roundtree). Each pilot is submitted to torture and humiliation in very realistic situation, but pilot Botts (Robert Wightman) is selected as a kind of example of humiliation to the other prisoners. Becker unsuccessfully tries to convince the tough Lieutenant Casey to give up the training since he is not prepared to have a woman but she does not accept the request. When Logan learns that Becker raped Casey during the night, he realizes that Becker is insane and the training has become reality. Now Logan, Casey and Botts have to fight to survive.

"Opposing Force", a.k.a. "Hellcamp", is a full of action film about a group of elite soldiers that discover that their training is for real since the commander is insane. In 1986, this storyline seemed to be impossible, but in the present days the news informs many cases of accidents in realistic military training. Who knows? My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Força Oposta" ("Opposing Force")

Zerbe scares the sh*t out of me again! Seriously, this guy plays menacing like few can. Not just a mindless hunter type of fear...his villains are cunning, his gaze unsettles and his smile sends shivers down your spine. This movie makes me cringe with his sadistic portrayal of Becker. A man who convinces himself that his actions toward the female prisoner are for her own good. He justifies everything he does to her and never seems to realize that he is doing these things because he wants to. That is frightening to watch.

Roundtree's character is disappointing. Too weak for a big man like him to play. He is, in essence, the Nazi, just following orders even though he knows they are wrong. By the time he wakes up to his cowardice, it is too late. But in the same vein as Zerbe's character, the tormentors have rationalized their actions, and as history shows us, this seems to be how these things play out. People under control, looking weak, held by people in authority who start abusing their power over them. I've seen the Iraq example given several times, or Gitmo. It is a fair comparison...so is the Nazi model.

They had the makings of a good movie here. A group of soldiers are taken out to a jungle camp for a rigorous P.O.W. survival course, but instead of a "controlled" experiment, they begin to suspect that the camp's commander has gone "over the edge" and is turning the experiment into a deadly reality. However, the premise is muddled by adding a female soldier to the mix, a choice which seems gimmicky and which throws off-balance the rest of the plot. (Ironically, the female angle is probably what "sold" the idea to the studio.) Some viewers may enjoy the male-bondage scenes but it's sad to read that the actor who plays Ripkin and is memorably shown tied bare-chested to a X-shaped cross committed suicide in 2001. Anthony Zerbe, America's answer to Frank Thring, is unimaginatively cast as the villain. And yes, the movie seriously weakens in the last 10 minutes.

OPPOSING FORCE, better represented by its original title, HELLCAMP, draws its inspiration from THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME/ZARKOFF'S HOUNDS, and in turn clearly served as inspiration for G.I. JANE. Major Tom Skerritt joins a band of young elite soldiers, including a female (Lisa Eichorn), who are sent to a remote island for special training. They are quickly caught by soldiers stationed on the island and subjected to all sorts of realistic POW conditions: minimal food, frequent beatings, mind games, isolation units, forced marches and even waterboarding. No one breaks, least of all Eichorn, which infuriates the base commandant (Anthony Zerbe) who by his own admission has been on the island too long. He cracks under the strain and instead of ending the "exercise," ups the torture quotient, zapping Skerritt with electricity and raping Eichhorn. Zerbe's sergeant, played by Richard Roundtree, stands by and does nothing about any of this. Zerbe then sends Skerritt off into the jungle, pursued by his evil Asian henchman, played by steely-eyed George Cheung. Skerritt quickly turns the tables on the bad guys and pretty soon, it's all-out war between Zerbe's and Skerritt's men. Skerritt is terrific as always, and Eichorn play a proud and determined soldier who shows she can hold her own against the enemy. The film is quite graphic and contains large dollops of nudity and deaths. Full of unexpected twists and turns, HELLCAMP is well worth your time.

"Opposing Force", or "Hell Camp" can be divided in half. The first half is honestly quite boring as volunteers for a secret military experiment on P.O.W. torture are degraded and tortured like you have seen in dozens of war films. Only here it lasts for just short of an hour. Anthony Zerbe is the Commander running the "Hell Camp", along with Richard Roundtree. Until Zerbe completely loses it and rapes Lisa Eichhorn, nothing much happens except the usual P.O.W. stuff. The rape sets off a rebellion and escape that turns the movie into a chase in the jungle similar to any "Most Dangerous Game" clone. While the second half is definitely better than the first, everything about "Opposing Force" is so familiar, that it all becomes a "so what". - MERK