Delta Force

THE DELTA FORCE is an odd movie. The first hour of the film is a well written and directed portrait of an airline highjacking. The music is tense and the performances are solid (especially Robert Forster as the head terrorist). Then, when Chuck and Lee show up, the film turns into a patriotic cheesefest where the delta force whips out the terrorists along to cheesy 80s patriotic pop music. The film definitely goes down from here. The director should've realized that the first half was tense and realistic and decided to keep it that way, even if they were going to have the delta force take out the terrorists. I really dont know why they changed the mood of the film so much, because if they had'nt, this could've been an excellent actioner. The second half is still somewhat enjoyable and very unintentionally funny, but those who think that the second half of the film would be as gripping as the first will be disappointed. 3/5

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.

I used to watch THE DELTA FORCE all the time when I was a kid. Chuck Norris was my hero, the coolest guy in the world who could take on any threat single-handidly and come out out of the conflict without a drop of sweat. It isn't LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, but THE DELTA FORCE is a solid, well-made action film with a pretty standout cast of actors, with Robert Forster making a truely dispicable terrorist. The rapport between Norris and Lee Marvin, while not concentrated on that much, is good, and the action scenes deliver the kind of response people like to give when watching the good guys wipe out the bad guys with no mercy, the way it should be. It's all capped by an excellent climax in which Chuck unleashes revenge on Forster, which is both serious and funny at the same time because the guy never gets to lay a single blow on Chuck. (Maybe Osama Bin Laden will be meet a similar fate. :) ) Alan Silvestri's Synclavier score is fun, too, with a great main theme. It may not be a complete carbon copy of the 1985 TWA hijacking/standoff incident that inspired it, but it's incorporation of some of the real incidents from that event gives it some added realism. For anybody who wants to fantasize about scumbag terrorists getting what they deserve (especially after September 11th), THE DELTA FORCE is one for you.

This was an excellent action movie, and Chuck Norris does a great performance. This movie is based on a real hijacking that happened. The movie seemed to follow what actually happened aboard that TWA flight. The hijackers attempted to hold a press conference with the flight crew as hostages, with disasterous results. Yes, Lebanon at first refused to allow the hijacked plane to land at Beirut, and eventually permission was givin. The hijacked plane was refueled and flew on to Algiers. The only difference between the movie and what actually happened was the rescue. In actuality, the hostages were taken to Damascus, Syria, and released. It would have been great if it had happened the way the movie showed it, where a crack team of commandos were flown in to totally wipe out the terrorists. Still, the movie had great action, especially where Scott (Norris) beats up Abdul (Forster) and eventually blow him up in his limosine. Robert Forster did a great job acting as well.

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.