Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Delta Force (1986)

Having a fortune and a reputation on a film based on the Israeli raid on Entebbe, Cannon rejiggered the true life adventure into a star studded action film with Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin as the heroes of an American rescue team.

The plot of Delta Force has a group of terrorists lead by Robert Forester seizing control of a plane of American B actors (Joey Bishop, Lainie Kazan, George Kennedy, Martin Balsam) Its left to Norris and marvin and their band of good guys to get them back. It’s the usual heroics with a rah rah American attitude.

This is a solid action film. It’s not high art, but it’s extremely entertaining. Part of the reason I think the film works so is that it really is close to the Entebbe story. I remember watching it when it came out and I wondered if they were just riffing on the real life events. Apparently they were and using it lends a sense realism that is missing from most action films. (Unreality would creep into the sequel which had Norris and an John P Ryan in a rare good buy role taking on Columbian drug dealers. The film is completely over the top and silly – and so much fun I watched it twice in a row when it played in theaters being one of the few times I ever just stayed in the theater and watched a film back to back)

Definitely worth your time and a bowl of popcorn.

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