Review: The Delta Force

In events very slightly based on a factual incident, Lebanese terrorists headed by Robert Forster (!) hijack a plane and force the pilot (Bo Svenson!) to head for the Middle East. Meanwhile, Forster forces the German flight attendant (Hanna Schygulla) to round up all the Israelis among the passengers, to be taken to a terrorist hideout as hostages. The solution? The Delta Force, headed by Lee Marvin and Chuck Norris (and Steve James), who await orders to move into action. Among the toughest of passengers are Martin Balsam and George Kennedy (as a brave priest), whilst Shelley Winters plays Balsam’s frightened wife, Lainie Kazan is another passenger who hopes no one notices she’s Jewish (it’s obvious), Susan Strasberg, Joey Bishop, a young Kim Delaney plays a nun (!), and Robert Vaughn is a General on the ground.

 

There aren’t that many Chuck Norris films I’d say are truly watchable. There’s “Code of Silence”, “The Octagon”, “Lone Wolf McQuade”, “Missing in Action”, and “Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection”. Those are at least an easy watch. “An Eye for an Eye” at least had a good supporting cast I guess, but not much else. There’s really only one that I’d whole-heartedly recommend however. That film is this 1986 effort from director/Cannon Group co-founder Menahem Golan. Scripted by Golan and James Bruner (“An Eye for an Eye”, “Missing in Action”, the truly awful “Invasion USA”, and the not bad sequel “Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection”), it’s a combination of an Irwin Allen all-star disaster movie and the standard Norris commando action movie deal. It proves to be a pretty good example of the former and certainly one of the best of the latter.

 

Unlike most Norris vehicles for Cannon/Golan-Globus, this time they’ve forked out some money to amass one heck of a great cheesy supporting cast for the Irwin Allen disaster movie portion of the movie (which is really a terrorist/hostage crisis, I suppose). They’ve even roped George Freakin’ Kennedy from the “Airport” series into this one. Joe Patroni himself is playing a tough Catholic priest! Mr. Kennedy gets one of the film’s best cheesy moments where the Jewish passengers are all being rounded up and he stands up bravely to proclaim that he too is Jewish, just like Jesus Christ himself. Grade-A cheese right here of the very best kind. Shelley Winters from “The Poseidon Adventure” gets to have another go-round here playing a loud…well, it’s pretty much Shelley Winters doing what she did on and off-screen for much of her career. She’s immediately good fun here, alongside one of the best American character actors of all-time, Martin Balsam (going the opposite route of Winters and underplaying to good effect) as her loving husband. Meanwhile, you’d think any hijacked flight that has George Kennedy on board would be in fine enough shape without Chuck Norris, Steve James, and Lee Marvin having to save the day, but we’ve also got Bo Svenson as the pilot!

 

Amidst all of the cheese, Hanna Schygulla has a really interesting role that provides a touch of seriousness as the German flight attendant tasked with pointing out all of the Jewish passengers on board. You can understand her reluctance to do so, given her country’s rather sordid history on such matters. I’m not saying the film suddenly turns into a film as high-minded as “Schindler’s List”, but it’s a bit of a loftier moment in a film that otherwise isn’t trying for anything other than cheap action-thriller entertainment. The first half of the film is probably a bit more enjoyable than the second, which is where Norris, Lee Marvin, and Steve James (the latter to much lesser extent) take charge. However, the two halves don’t create that much of a clunky whole, really. In fact, flaws are minor. Obviously, Norris’ usual stone-faced performance is among the debits, and Robert Vaughn gets utterly wasted in a talking head part that he has no issues phoning in. Joey Bishop having a role here also tells you that you’re not watching a five-star classic, either. The cheapo music score sounds like your usual Cannon stock score by Jay Chattaway, but is in fact the work of the eclectic Alan Silvestri (“Forrest Gump”, “Young Guns II”) at his near-worst. He was indeed given a pissweak amount of cash to do the score, thus the cheapo synth. Apparently it was later used for many years for IndyCar broadcasts in the US.

 

The biggest flaw here is probably that a miscast Robert Forster plays the most Greek-looking, Russian-sounding Arab terrorist in film history. I’ve never quite been able to excuse his casting here, though apparently the actor enjoyed working for Mr. Golan from what I’ve read. It’s also a crying shame that the charismatic and talented Steve James gets shunted off to the side. Yeah, he gets to lead a team himself, but it’s the third team in the pecking order, whilst Norris has some nondescript blonde kid as his number two, a role that would’ve better served James in terms of screen time. The man never got his proper dues in Hollywood, and it’s a crying shame. On the plus side, Lee Marvin is good fun in sadly his last role. His no-nonsense tough guy presence is very welcome here. Trouper that he was, you can’t tell Marvin was in poor health and serious pain during filming. Look out for apparent cameos by Liam Neeson, Kevin Dillon, and Mykelti Williamson as Delta Force team members. I could spot Mr. Williamson quite easily, but unless that’s Neeson somewhere in the cotton fields for a millisecond, I couldn’t spot he or Dillon at all.

 

It might seem a little difficult to enjoy a film about a plane hijacking in our post 9/11 world as pure entertainment, but remember this film came out not long after a real-life incident of a similar nature anyway. So I didn’t really have any such problems re-watching this in 2021. Your mileage may differ, though.

 

An enjoyable mixture of all-star hostage drama and Chuck Norris rescue actioner. The all-star cast is largely fun, particularly George Kennedy, Shelley Winters, Lee Marvin, and Martin Balsam. Shame about Robert Forster’s supposedly Arab terrorist villain and that awful synth score, though. Norris is Norris. Still, worth a recommendation, if only just.

 

Rating: B-