Despite a reputation comparable to the top-tier of American action stars, Chuck Norris doesn’t have the catalogue of roles you’d expect for such a lofty status. The “best” of a bad bunch is Texas Walker Ranger, getting beat up by Bruce Lee in Way of the Dragon and Menahem Golan’s the Delta Force – the latter of which is among the latest to be given the enviable Arrow Video treatment.
Norris is Scott McCoy, an ever-reliable soldier who always gets the job done. As the film opens, McCoy and the Delta Force squad (led by Colonel Alexander (Lee Marvin) are sent on a mission that backfires in the most literal way possible. With this disastrous outcome, McCoy retires from the squad. A retirement that is over as soon as it began, with the news of a hijacking of American Travel Ways Flight 282 by the New World Revolutionary Organisation. Quickly reinstated and promoted to Major, McCoy and the Delta Force head to Beirut to recover the hostages and kill the bad guys in the most flamboyantly explosive fashion possible.
Ironically for such a focused action film, its greatest asset is one dramatic passage where Norris and his greased up, muscular friends are nowhere to be seen. On Flight 282 there is a large Jewish contingent and the kidnappers are Lebanese. The tension of this 30-minute passage is quite remarkable as these two conflicting Peoples are faced with a dilemma of faith and history. The suggestion that one of the passengers survived Auschwitz is a brave decision. By extension, the air hostess Ingrid (Hanna Schygulla) flat-out refuses to single out the Jewish passengers at gunpoint as a matter of her German pride. This half an hour segment is remarkably in its contrariness, a status that only ripens with the rest of film abandoning any deftness of touch for Chuck Norris doing his action hero routine.
Ironically for such a focused action film, its greatest asset is one dramatic passage where Norris and his greased up, muscular friends are nowhere to be seen.
THE DELTA FORCE
Back into the expected with the action and what do we film but a film that suffers greatly at the hands of time. Action cinema has gotten more extravagant over the years, whether it’s in scale or choreography, these films just aren’t the same anymore. As such there are two ways to approach Delta Force, one is from a rose-tinted perspective and the other is from the eyes on a modern viewer. From the prior, Menahem Golan’s film is a work of pure, silly escapism. Blowing up buildings just to aggravate the bad guys, Chuck Norris’ motorbike which fires missiles from either end or Norris’ inability to ride the aforementioned motorbike. Delta Force comes from an altogether more innocent time for action movies, a much more beloved time for action movies.
Funnily enough, the modern viewer approaches it from the same angle, however, from a modern perspective, this is very much a product of the decade it was born in. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, films made in the 1980s (and 90s) to a lesser extent often feel older than some silent movies, Delta Force is a prime candidate for this way thought process.
Delta Force is not a good film. However, it would be churlish to overlook it as an icon of its time, where whether it was well made or coherent didn’t matter, all that mattered was the fun factor. With that goal in mind, Menahem Golan has put together an action film drenched in 80s eccentricity. Even with a passage that flirts with a level of thematic depth and intrigue beyond its contemporaries, this is a dumb action movie, and there is an audience who will lap this up.
THE DELTA FORCE IS OUT NOW ON ARROW VIDEO BLU-RAY
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