Band of the Hand (1986)

The Miami Vice influence is heavy in this silly cheesy film. Michael Mann is the producer. Director Paul Michael Glaser also directed several episodes of Miami Vice and you will spot several Mann regulars in this movie such as Martin Ferrero and Stephen Lang.Lang plays a military survival expert and former Vietnam veteran in the Florida everglades, an improbable native Indian. He has created a program to rehabilitate a small bunch of juvenile delinquents in this hostile environment, one of them even gets bitten by a snake. However the group of youths after some complaining soon bond in the Everglades.After that the youths move to a house in Miami, however they fall foul of the local drug lords who rule the area. The group led by Lang wage war against the violent gangs.There is a lot of mid 1980s music here as well as the title track sung by Bob Dylan. The film is uneven in pace, I could never buy these bunch being somehow rehabilitated and united in the Everglades, never mind becoming a fighting force in the streets of Miami.

When I first viewed Band of the Hand in the 80's it had a profound impact on me. At first I thought that the treatment of the youth was too much. But the movie showed the positive impact of uniting to overcome societal ills and personal weaknesses. This movie is a good model to use in similar communities with similar situations. Although things may not seem the way they do in the movie, people who have experienced personal challenges may agree that Band of the Hand showed how certain strategies can have successful results. Band of the Hand can be summed up as: Unity is the key to success. I am planning to rent the movie again to compare it to today's problems in effort to find possible solutions.

The people who rag on BAND were probably the same who bought Don Johnson sport coats in the 80s and are now ashamed. You trendy-then now-pretentious fools, it's not supposed to be freakin' Shakespeare! BAND is a stylish 80s flick with plenty of heart, action and coolness. It's the ultimate fantasy for 15-year-olds. Five troubled 'yoots' are sent to an experimental last-chance program in the Everglades run by Joe, a mysterious Miccosukee Indian/Nam Era elite commando. (See? Already off to a good start)! Joes lays it down: learn to live in this wilderness or die. The 2nd half of the movie (and 'program') takes place in a Miami ghetto run by local drug lord LARRY Fishburne, replete with cute lil' lines buzzed in the sides of his high-top fade. (There's also an underaged Lauren Holly to consider, long before that drooling idiot Carey came and went).War ensues in the hood as Joe trains the yoots to fight. Purists and prudes can shove it...when Dorcey's machine gun lights up the street from the roof of the feel-good 80s pastel renovated crackhouse it's a spinal moment. The characters don't have to be 'deep' cause they're all the way likable and automatic gold star for the guest appearance of a vulcan cannon (aka "that's a goddam minigun!") If you don't dig this flick, YOU'RE OUT OF MIAMI!

I first saw this film in the mid-eighties, when I was out of school on a snow day. I thought it was a great movie. So when I saw the opening credits pop up on the tv screen one day when I was channel surfing, I thought I would enjoy a nostalgic treat from my teen years. I got 15 minutes into it and realized that I must have had terrible taste in movies when I was 17, because this film was just flat out bad. I can still enjoy some of the other teen films from this era, i.e. "Breakfast Club", even if only for the nostalgic value, but not this turkey. It was just unwatchable.