Cannon Films produced an awful lot of crap in the mid to late 80’s including Stallone’s Over The Top, Superman IV The Quest For Peace and Breakdance 2 Electric Boogaloo, but they did at least manage to deliver a few bullshit gems in their time as a production powerhouse. One of the best of these is The Delta Force, directed by Cannon’s very own Menachem Golan and served as a star vehicle for martial arts action star Chuck Norris.
The Delta Force is an extremely schizophrenic film, but at least both its halves are very good at what they’re doing (even if they don’t fuse together into a cohesive whole.)
The first half of the film is dominated by a solid airplane hostage drama that riffs on airplane disaster movies of the past (as signalled with the inclusion of Shelley Winters and George Kennedy in the group that are captured.) This section is often quite intense, serious in tone, has stong wrought performances and explores religious intolerance and fundamentalist politics along side the terrorism.
The other half of the film which takes over in the second hour is a bullshit action, military men-on-a-mission plot as Chuck and friends attempt to rescue the hostages. This is filled with Bond-like gadgets, deadpan one liners, unprompted heroic back-slapping and chuck portrayed as an indestructible and universally adored leader. And it’s great too; exciting, big scale gunfights, hand to hand combat and impressive, daring, done-for-real stunt work.
Add to that the great Lee Marvin, some gritty international locations and one of the best action scores on the planet courtesy of Alan Silvestri and you’ve got a mighty fine action movie. If only those two different halves were merged more effectively.
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