Missing in Action (1984)

I like Norris and I like Cannon films, and this involves accepting the fact that Norris's politics are idiotic and most of his films are stupid. I get that, and a really idiotic piece of trash like "The Delta Force" is also an immensely entertaining near masterpiece of it's type. I really have to draw the line here. I not only didn't enjoy this film, I'd have to say I actively hated it. It's a really sincere and mean-spirited journey into Norris's delusional obsessions.

A long time ago, I saw an essay in a book of film criticism entitled, "How Hollywood Won the War in Vietnam." I started to buy the book, but to my regret I did not, and so I never got to read the essay. However, I think I am safe in saying that "Missing in Action" was one of the movies the essay would have discussed, along with "Rambo II."People who worry about words will quibble as to whether we "lost" the Vietnam War. Well, we did not lose it in the sense that we were not conquered by the Viet Cong, but we lost in the sense that we failed in our mission, that we gave up, pulled out, and let the Viet Cong take control of the entire country. And that made us feel bad.But it is Hollywood's job to create a better world than the one we actually have to live in. Now, Hollywood could not make a movie showing us conquering the Viet Cong and making the country safe for democracy, because the direct contradiction to reality would have been too stark. Instead, it made a movie in which an individual soldier, Colonel James Braddock, along with a few associates, goes back to Vietnam and succeeds in freeing some American soldiers still being held in a prisoner-of-war camp.The Vietnamese government categorically denies having these prisoners, but to what end is a mystery. We simply have to assume that they just enjoy making these American prisoners of war miserable, or that they know that we know they have the prisoners, and that they just enjoy frustrating American efforts to get them back. In either event, they are mean and spiteful.But what is important is that they give Braddock a mission that he can carry out. The first part of Braddock's mission is to appear at a diplomatic function and display his contempt, as when he refuses to shake hands with a Vietnamese general. This ostensibly is directed toward the general, but it is really a put-down of American politicians who think that diplomacy is the way to get things done.The second part of his mission is to personally kill the general and a high-ranking officer who is shown through a flashback to be cruel and evil. This allows him some personal revenge before he sets out to kill a bunch of generic bad guys.The third part of his mission is to sneak into the jungle and free the American prisoners. Braddock and his few associates kill over ten times their number in doing so, proving that the American soldier is a vastly superior to his Vietnamese counterpart. You see, it was embarrassing that the world's greatest superpower was unable to defeat such a puny country. This movie essentially declares that it must have been a bunch of spineless politicians back home that caused America to lose the war, probably the same sort that are busy being polite at diplomatic functions, because it is clear that men like Braddock would have won the war given the chance to do so.This movie allows us some imaginary revenge against an enemy that humiliated us, and that makes us feel good. Of course, we would have felt a whole lot better if the movie had actually been entertaining instead of dull and plodding.

Colonel James Braddock (Chuck Norris) is an American special forces who escaped from a Vietnamese POW camp. Now he goes back to Vietnam to investigate other American MIA with Senator Porter. He confronts Gen. Trau (James Hong) and gets the coordinates of a prison camp. From Thailand, Braddock gets the help of Tuck (M. Emmet Walsh) to go back into Vietnam and rescue the POWs singlehandedly.There are so many things wrong with this movie. The most glaring is everything in Saigon. Basically he dressed in black and becomes invisible. He's the only white guy who's able to sneak around in Saigon and take on all opponents. And they deliberately make killing as the last resort which makes no sense. Once Trau tells him the location, Braddock had to kill Trau, but the movie only allows him to kill Trau after Trau shoots first.If there is any salvation, it is the mind numbing action. It starts with some good mind numbing Vietnam war action. After that, they're few and far between. And when the action happens, it's not filmed in an exciting way. Even as an 80's action movie, this is poorly filmed. This isn't even Rambo.

Col. James Braddock (Chuck) spent several years in a North Vietnamese POW camp. After escaping, he's now home, but he's a troubled man. He's invited by the American government to go back to Vietnam to investigate/talk about the phenomenon of soldiers still Missing In Action. Tensions flare, thanks to the evil General Trau (Hong). Braddock, being the badass that he is, decides to go off on his own into the jungle (actually with Tuck (Walsh), an old army buddy), and rescue any remaining POW's himself. While in the midst of their mission, they face an endless stream of baddies trying to stop them. It'll take all the firepower and skill Braddock has to defeat the enemy and save the missing men. Can he do it? This is classic Cannon all the way, and they really hit paydirt with this one. Thanks to the high-quality cinematography, the rousing, triumphant score, and the longer running time, Missing In Action has that big-screen feel. While the pace, at least for the first half of the movie, may seem a bit on the slow side to modern viewers, that's just the way things worked back then. It's a pre-ADD generation action movie. And we're all the better for it. It's ultimately a rewarding experience, and Cannon (as well as moviegoers) obviously thought so too, as this spawned two sequels to date (maybe we haven't seen the last of Braddock...?). Surely this film was at the forefront of the exploding hut/guy falling out of a guard tower/mindless shooting jungle movie back in the golden age of the 80's. Along with the Rambo series, not to mention countless Direct-To-Video items, these movies capitalized on the craze for patriotic movies with plenty of violence that were so in vogue in the Reagan 80's. To hammer the point home even more, stock footage of Reagan is actually IN Missing In Action 2. If you even THINK about communism, Braddock, Rambo, or any number of other heroes will mow you down with a machine gun that's taller than they are. So there. Take that you stupid commies.As for the cast and crew, Chuck Norris here started to take tentative steps toward his Texas-based clothing style that would manifest itself most fully during the Walker: Texas Ranger years. His hair and beard are at their reddest and most impressive here, and when he wears his sunglasses, you really can't even see his face. M. Emmet Walsh is always a welcome sight to see, and he plays a similar character in Red Scorpion (1988), which was also directed by Joseph Zito. As good as Walsh is, we also felt the role could have been played by Nick Nolte. Lenore Kasdorf of L.A. Bounty (1989) fame is onboard, as well as James Hong, who's been in pretty much everything. For our purposes here, he was in the same year's Cannon vehicle, the great Ninja III (1984), and much later was in Talons Of the Eagle (1992). Willie Williams, whose entire movie career seems to have been in Vietnam (or Nam-like) Jungle movies such as Final Mission (1984), Savage Justice (1988), Saigon Commandos (1988) and, not coincidentally, P.O.W. The Escape (1986), continues his tradition with the movie at hand today.Also it has been said that none other than Van Damme appears in an uncredited role as "Car Driver", but we didn't see him, so we can't necessarily confirm that that's actually true. But he's also credited with stunts, along with Aaron Norris, who would go on to direct the second sequel, Braddock, as well as Dean Ferrandini, who would go on to direct Overkill (1996). The next year after this, Zito would direct the ultimate Chuck movie, Invasion U.S.A. (1985) This is a nice trial run for that masterpiece.If there was going to be a movie version of the 80's Nintendo game Jackal, this could be it. It's a shoot-em-up where the hero must save the hostages. But here the hero is outspoken on the M.I.A. issue and is Chuck Norris. I guess those are the only two differences.Missing In Action is undoubtedly a classic and is completely worth seeing. In our eyes, however, the series would improve even more in the subsequent two outings, so watch out for those as well.