The Delta Force, 1986.
Directed by Menaham Golan.
Starring Chuck Norris, Lee Marvin and Robert Forster.
SYNOPSIS:
During a routine flight from Athens to New York via Rome, Lebanese terrorists take control and insist that the flight heads for Beirut. An elite team, led by Norris and Marvin, are ordered to engage and neutralise the terrorists before the passengers, now potentially hostages, are killed.
Split into two succinct parts, Delta Force is a great example of the quintessential action movie made during the 1980’s. Following the terrorist acquisition of the flight, retired war hero Major Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) returns to his colleagues as part of the Delta Force, an elite group of soldiers. Under the command of Colonel Alexander (Lee Marvin in his final screen role) the group attempts execute their plan to recover the hostages and eliminate the threat led by Abdul Rafai.
The first part tries its best to convey the stress and terror of the passengers and crew of the stricken flight; Shelley Winters and George Kennedy leading the way in this department. Winters pleads with the terrorists as, together with others, her husband is taken from her due to his Jewish sounding surname, while Kennedy (as Father O’Malley) joins the group of separated “Jews” as a follower of Christ. Although the opening has a modicum of dramatics about it of course it doesn’t show Chuck Norris and his talents, and that’s what the rest of the film is rightly all about.
After an aborted attempt at a rescue by supposedly the elite team, the plane lands and the terrorists disembark, together with their “Jewish” hostages, to a stronghold in Beirut. After tracking them down, Norris leads the group, employing a stealth approach by night using landing craft and motorcycles which seemingly defeat the whole idea of a stealth approach. This doesn’t matter though, because the hero is Chuck Norris, and he’s got a motorbike with rocket launchers on it!
One by one the terrorists are picked off, leading Norris to a one-on-one with Rafai. Using his martial arts and jumping-through-windows skills, and his rocket-launching motorbike that doesn’t miss, he eliminates the final threat and rescues the hostages. There is a brief echo of the more serious stage of the film towards the end as a member of the team, one used in a flashback intro to McCoy during the opening credits, succumbs to injuries caused during the battle.
The editing isn’t great and the soundtrack is typical of its time, but on the whole, Delta Force is a great example of what the Cannon studio specialised in and in one of several extras on the disc, Mark Hartley presents a good piece on Cannon’s legacy. This Blu-ray release is the perfect chance to upgrade your old VHS copy or to just enjoy Chuck Norris at possibly his best. Remember, his best is the best of the best.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
J-P Wooding – Follow me on Twitter.
Originally published May 5, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
