CHUCK'S ROUNDHOUSE: The Delta Force (1986)

History is a series of chain reactions. On June 14th, 1985, TWA Flight 847 would leave Cairo for Athens, on the way back to San Diego. After landing in Greece, Lebanese Hezbollah member Mohammed Ali Hammadi and an accomplice would produce a pistol and two hand grenades. They hijacked the plane, beginning a hostage situation that would last for seventeen days. Hammadi's demands included the release of the seventeen men who had been involved with the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Kuwait, the release of Shia Muslim prisoners being held in Israel, the withdrawal of Israeli forces in the then on-going Lebanese Civil War, and the condemnation of the U.S. and Israel. During the seventeen days, the hostages were regularly beaten, those with Jewish sounding last names were especially singled out, and a Navy diver named Robert Stethem was killed. Hostages would slowly be released throughout the crisis until June 30th, when the remaining passenger were finally let go. This resolution was reached through combined efforts from the Lebanese and U.S. governments, the release of the Lebanese prisoners being kept in Israel taking place as part of the negotiations. Hamadei and the other perpetrators would escape, Hamadei not being assassinated until January of 2025 and at least three of the suspected partners remaining at large. 

Obviously, this was a distressing incident for all involved. Obviously, I don't support Hamadei and his cohort's actions, if that needs saying. I also don't support Israel's displacement of the Palestinian people and the on-going genocide. Events like the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 do not occur in a vacuum. Now, why do I bring this up while talking about stupid bullshit like Chuck Norris movies? Well, Norris' employer during the mid-eighties was Menahem Golan, half of the duo that ran the Cannon Group. Golan was a big fan of Israel and its government's actions. In addition to his prolific career as a producer, he was a director himself. In 1977, he had directed “Operation Thunderbolt,” a dramatization of the IDF's covert mission to free Israeli hostages in Uganda. Not even a year after the conclusion of the hostage situation aboard Flight 847, Golan decided to make a movie inspired by this event as well. Despite being based on a very recent international incident, “The Delta Force” would still be operating within the explosion-heavy action genre Golan's company had seen so much success with. Which, yes, meant Chuck Norris had to be there too. The result is a peculiar combination of unabashed Zionist propaganda, grim facts-based drama, and cartoonish action theatrics. 

After a botched operation, in which he rescued two fellow Delta Force members from a crashed helicopter, Captain Scott McCoy would leave the elite task force behind. Five years later, an unassuming American airliner is leaving Cairo. Its passengers are seemingly ordinary people: Two married old Jewish couples, a Catholic priest, a husband and wife and daughter, three Navy divers on vacation... But also aboard are Abdul Rafai and Mustafa, members of a revolutionary organization. They take the plane hostage, beating and segregating the passengers, and begin making demands. After several days, the Delta Force – led by Colonel Alexander, McCoy's old boss – are deployed to resolve the problem. Scott tags along on the mission. After returning to Beirut, the terrorists hide the remaining hostages in the city, leading the Delta Force to track them down. 

“The Delta Force” is essentially two very different movies, rather awkwardly stuck together. The first of which is an intense, grim thriller based on a real incident. Golan and James Bruner's screenplay inconsistently mixes fact and fiction, inventing new names for the actual people who lived through the Flight 847 incident. Hanna Schygulla's role is based on Uli Derickson, the real flight purser who was heavily harassed by the hijackers. Bo Svenson's character is inspired by the actual pilot of the plane and the slain Navy diver is maintained as well. The film is clearly trying to capture a realistic sense of panic, in the multiple scenes of the hijackers angrily threatening the passengers. Golan, to his credit, does a good job of capturing the sense of uncertainty and fear, of these ordinary people being suddenly thrust into a terrifying life-or-death situation. The cramped interior of the jet also helps increase the tension.

 

It plays a lot like a seventies disaster movie, like a grittier “Airport” sequel. This is made all the more true because George Kennedy is here, as the Catholic priest who puts his own life on the line. The cast feels a lot like an Irwin Allen movie, in fact. Aside from Kennedy and Svenson, other slightly washed-up luminaries and up-and-comers present include Shelley Winters, Joey Bishop, Martin Balsam, Robert Vaughn, Kim Delaney, and Susan Strasberg. Yet thrilling escapism is not the primary goal of these sequences. Despite the hijackers being Lebanese in real life, Golan's films pointedly changes them to Palestinians. When they separate the Jewish sounding passengers from the rest of the pack, explicit parallels are made to the Holocaust. Balsam's character is depicted as a camp survivor. Lainie Kazan, very much playing the stereotypical Old Jewish Lady, hides the Hebrew wedding ring she wears for fear of being especially persecuted for it. “The Delta Force” is extremely concerned with the idea that all Jews are always threatened by scary brown people. (Or, in the case of Robert Forster as the ringleader, Americans in brown face.) 
 

The morality of older foreigners coming to this land to take up residence without concern for the local population is never addressed. There are passing references as to why the Palestinians are so pissed off. Avi Loziah, as the most unhinged of the hijackers, mentions to a little girl that he had a daughter her age, emphasis on had. He flies into a rage at the Americans' presence, while Kennedy as the Catholic priest chooses this time to try and correct him on where exactly the USA has dropped bombs in the Middle East. To the surprise of nobody, a proud Israeli nationalist like Golan was not interested in examining the how and why behind the Palestinian rage at the government displacing them and blowing them up. In its more action-packed latter half, “The Delta Force” seems to delight in bloodily dispatching its antagonists. Chuck Norris becomes an avatar for Menahem Golan's Zionist rage, elaborately beating the primary villain in a way that borders on the sadistic.

 

A Chuck Norris movie – or any eighties action movie, for that matter – being militaristic propaganda of dubious moral merit is nothing new. If one pushes this aside, if any indeed such a matter can be pushed aside,  this does become a highly entertaining piece of ridiculous action camp. That is the second movie “The Delta Force” is and very little attempt is made to fuse these two tonally distinct halves. About the first hour of the film is a relatively serious, grounded thriller. From the moment Chuck Norris re-enters the story, it becomes an orgy of explosive action. There are multiple rocket launchers employed. Chuck swings from a zip-line while firing a machine gun. He rides a motorcycle through a stained-glass window. This is after multiple sequences in which rockets are launched directly from said bike. There's a pretty bitchin' fist fight against the steering wheel of a moving truck, Chuck clinging to the outside. A car chase shoot-out combination through the streets of Algiers is also gloriously excessive. As was the standard in eighties action, all the stunts are pulled off effortlessly and thrillingly, probably at great personal risk for the stunt team and coordinators. 
 

What can one say except that this is awesome? While Chuck's performance is more along the lines of the steely, unforgiving killer type seen in “Invasion U.S.A.” than the relaxed charisma of his better films, he still gets a few moments of personality here and there. Such as when he sternly shakes it head at an on-coming foe. He also has decent chemistry with Lee Marvin and Steve James, a tough guy legend in his final role and an up-and-comer following up his sidekick role in “American Ninja.” if “The Delta Force” was only a silly action movie, it would probably be a classic. It's certainly got a kick-ass theme song, courtesy of Alan Silvestri at his most heart-pumping and confidence building. Instead, the unsteady balance between facts-based tension and motorcycle jumping silliness leads to a seriously lumpy pacing. The movie probably needed to space its explosion out a little more, rather than mostly pack them into the back half. [6/10]

[THE CHUCK OF NORRIS: 3 outta 5]
[X] Facial Hair
[X] Jumps or Kicks Through a Window or Wall
[] Performs Spin Kick or Spin Punch to Enemy's Face
[X] Shows Off His Hairy Chest
[] Sports Some Cowboy Getup