Customer Reviews

Delta Force [VHS]

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Delta Force came out in 1986, not long after the Bombing of the marine barracks in Lebanon and the release of the hostages in Iran. These two events fuel the Delta Force about a passenger aircraft on its way to New York that is hi-jacked by Arab terrorists and diverted to Beirut. The cast looks like one of those big-budget, 1970's era disater films with Joey Bishop, Shelly Winters, Martin Balsam, Lanie Kazan, and George Kennedy all playing passengers on the flight. The terrorists are led by Robert Forster as Abdul.

With the hi-jacking, the Army puts the Delta Force to work to plan a rescue operation. Overseeing the command is Lee Marvin as Col. Alexander playing the grizzled veteran office not so different than the part he played in The Dirty Dozen. Chuck Norris Major Scott McCoy who is the leader of the team, called back into active action for the mission. The planned rescue mission is aborted when they soon learn that more terrorists boarded the plane when it stopped to re-fuel in Algeria. The terrorists are demanding Isreal release dozens of terrorists from prison or they will kill the hostages. They demonstrate their intentions by viciously beating and killing a young American naval diver as well as holding all the Jewish passengers separate from the rest. The women are eventually released but the men are taken to a prison once they land in Beirut and it's up to the Delta Force to rescue the hostages.

The stereotypes run hot and heavy in Delta Force on both the Arab and Jewish side. And not only that, but there's a German flight attendant who just CAN'T be the one to pick out the Jewish passengers due to her (evidently) instinctive guilt over the concentration camps and holocaust of WWII, and she courageously tries to help the American divers by telling them to hide their Naval ID cards. There's a lot of posturing speeches by both the terrorists and the hostages including George Kennedy who plays a Catholic priest and insists on being put with the Jewish men since Jesus was "King of the Jews". it's all pretty hokey but also great fun. Politcally correct? Maybe not but who gives a damn! It's really not unlike many WWII era war movies. The Delta Force is black and white and you know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Politics is not even worth mentioning.

Chuck Norris will never be considered a great actor but he also never tried to do too much. He played the strong, fairly silent type of hero perfectly, and with a strong sense of patriotism. The action scenes were very well done and you couldn't help but cheer when the hostages were rescued and the bad guys got theirs in the end. Cannon films churned out the action flicks in the 1980's and this was one of the best.

"Delta Force" is a classic of the Action/Adventure genre. Karate champ Chuck Norris has been in some pretty cool movies, like "Lone Wolf McQuaid" and "Missing in Action," but this is probably his best one. He's also been in some really crummy ones - the other day I watched a Chuck Norris movie called "Firewalker," and boy was it lame! Anyway, back to "Delta Force." As I was saying, it's a really cool movie. The plot is nothig creative: Norris plays a commando on the trail of a group of Palestinian terorrists who have hijacked a plane. What makes the story so great is that it is grounded in reality. For example, in the beginning of the movie we find Chuck and his Delta Force buddies trying to escape from Iran after a botched attempt to rescue the Ameriocan hostages bveing held there. As you probably know, this episode actually happened in real life (minus Mr. Norris, of course). Another thing that makes it great is the way it shows Middle Eastern terrorists as cruel, Jew-hating cowards, which they in fact are. These days, movies have to be politically correct when they are dealing with Middle Easterners. Actually, I haven't seen a movie since 9/11 that even deals with Middle Eastern terrorists. Bad guys in action movies nowadays have to be white boys so that Middle Easterners will not be offended. In Tom Clancy's book "The Sum of all Fears," the terrorists were Arabs, but when they made the movie they changed them into neo-Nazis. Fortunately, "Delta Force" was made long before all this PC stuff materialized.
As for the action scenes, I think that they can be summed up with the two words "Totally Awesome." "Delta Force" has not only action, buts lots of drama. The acting is very good - alright, so it's nothing that should have been nominated for an Oscar, but it's much better that you would expect. The actors and actersses manage to create scenes that are chilling, adrenaline pumping, and heartbreaking. Chuck Norris plays the hero really well, the dudes that play the terrorists do that really well, but I must say that the hostages steal the show.
So, that's what I think of "Delta Force," and I don't care if anyone tells me that it is corny or overly-patriotic. It's great to see Delta force kicking the butts of the wimpy terrorists, especially after 9/11. Thank you to Amazon.com for offering "Delta Force," thank you to Chuck Norris for doing a cool movie, and thank you to the real-life members of Delta Force for defending the USA.

The only thing I do not like about this movie being on DVD, is that the english subtitles (I.E. the translation of the language used by the hijackers and other foreigners) and the timelines for the movie were left out, whereas they were on the VHS version. If you make another version of this film (I.E. Special Edition, Director's Cut, etc.) please include those items. Other than that, the movie was excellent. I wish all forms of airline hijacking was handled this way.

Delta Force is one of the better of the handfull of anti-terrorist films that came out in the 1980's. Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin are a great combo. My only complaint is with MGM's production of the DVD. First, it's in standard full frame format. No widescreen version. Second, and more annoying is that MGM left out the English subtitles when the Arabs are speaking. My laser disc version of the film had them, so I know it's a mistake on the DVD. The only subtitles available are French and Spanish.

This movie is based on the TWA flight 847 hijacking in 1985. The events on the plane are true and many of the characters are real. The movie takes this real life terrorist event and combines it with exciting action packed patriotic excitement. The music is great and some of the best theme music ever made. The characters are well developed and there are very funny moments and sad moments in this movie. Overall I whole heartedly recommend that people watch this movie because it is a fun two hours of action and excitement.

Chuck Norris does so much damage in this movie that it makes up for every negative aspect of the movie. Chuck Norris is so incredibly awesome, and all action sequences involving Chuck Norris had me raising my fists and shouting "YES!" This movie is a classic, not because of the acting or the costuming or the props (I found it amusing that the entire Delta Force was armed with Israelian mini-Uzis)or the story even, but because Chuck Norris kicks so much ass. Chuck Norris unarmed is deadly enough, but give him a sub-machine gun, bazooka, or motorcycle tricked out with machine guns, rocket launchers, and mortars, and he is the most deadly creature to ever walk the Earth, and the terrorists in this movie learn that fact the hard way. I recommend this movie to anyone who understands how truly awesome a Chuck Norris movie can be. Also, check out Octagon. The first half of the movie is boring, but it picks up after Chuck Norris bangs a hot brunette and then sneaks into a secret ninja training facility to slaughter countless ninjas and avenge his brother who died at the hands of the ninja-master. Chuck Norris is just so awesome.

This was an exciting movie from beginning to end. An airliner is hijacked by Arab terrorists. Chuck Norris was outstanding in this movie. His character was well complimented by the Lee Marvin role. This movie had nonstop action as the Delta Force commandoes pursue the terrorists and their hostages. When the Delta Force people finally catch up with the terrorists it is well worth watching. This movie closely resembles the actual rescue of the hostages in Entebbe by Isreali commandoes. It turns into an exciting rescue sequence. You should watch this movie. It is good.

Few countries in the world have not suffered from terrorist violence over the past three decades... Domestic and international terrorism is now at the top of the agenda for most nations...

Experts agree that there is almost always a strategy behind terrorist actions... Whether it takes the form of bombings, shootings, hijackings, or assassinations... Terrorism is neither random, spontaneous, nor blind; it is a deliberate use of violence against civilians for political or religious ends...

Terrorist acts are often deliberately spectacular, designed to rattle and influence a wide audience, beyond the victims of the violence itself... The point is as Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said at the Pentagon one day: "Terrorism must be vigorously opposed and soundly defeated wherever it exists."

The Delta Force was secretly created in October 1977 by US Army colonel Charles Beckwith in direct response to numerous, well-publicized terrorist incidents that occurred in the 1970s.

The number of terrorism attacks was at its highest in mid-1980s... Palestinians have long been associated with terrorism, including suicide bombings against Western targets and kidnappings in war-torn Lebanon during the 1980s...

Menahem Golan's 'The Delta Force' is inspired by the 1985 hijacking of TWA, which featured the famous footage of the plane's pilot leaning out of the cockpit with a gun to his head... The film opens with two fanatic terrorists taking over an American airliner bound from Athens to Rome and New York, diverting it to Beirut...

With no other option, the Pentagon decides to send the 'Delta Force' into the area for an emergency rescue operation...

Colonel Alexander (Marvin) is given the go ahead, and his elite team - specialized in rapid infantry assault, night fighting and airfield seizure - led by Major McCoy (Norris) energetically meets the terrorists...

Since Chuck Norris is on his motorcycle, the action is intense, sweaty, and fast...

It's been nearly eighteen years since THE DELTA FORCE was first unleashed, back in early 1986. Time has actually been good to this shoot-'em-up which, while it often seems like another standard issue good guys/bad guys action flick set against the fictional recreation of an actual 1985 TWA hijacking, actually manages to be quite tense and suspenseful much of the time.

Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin head up the elite Delta Force (which is an actual counterterrorist unit, though it has never been used in reality) as it is put into action following the hijacking of an American Travelways flight out of Athens, Greece. Onboard this plane, the hijackers, led by Robert Forster (a chilling performance from him here), demand the release of Palestinean political prisoners or they will blow the plane up. To ram home their point, they separate all the Jews onboard from the rest of the passengers and, when the Delta Force fails to nab them in Algiers, kill a U.S. marine (as actually happened in the '85 skyjacking).

But Norris and Marvin are not far behind. Although the film does become something of a conventional shoot-'em-up in its final forty minutes, THE DELTA FORCE turns out to be far better than most films of its ilk.

Complete with an all-star cast that includes Joey Bishop, Martin Balsam, George Kennedy, Susan Strasberg, and Shelley Winters, one is reminded to some extent of the all-star disaster films that were so successful during the 70s. But instead of being an encumbrance, this kind of casting actually keeps THE DELTA FORCE from degenerating completely into a comic-book bloodbath. Bo Svenson also gives a good performance as the ATW pilot. And Norris proved himself here to be a far better actor in such films than Schwarzenneger, Stallone, or Seagal could ever have dreamed of being.

But what really keeps the film on track is the presence of Marvin, THE veteran tough guy in Hollywood, who was making his last big-screen appearance here. His gaunt weariness and tough professionalism displayed here, as they were in films like THE DIRTY DOZEN, POINT BLANK, and BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK, are what made him a Hollywood legend in every sense of the word.

It's these things that make THE DELTA FORCE eminently watchable, even in this post-9/11 world. It's not always believable, but I've seen far worse.

Great action packed flick about a highjacked airliner and the successful attempt to rescue the hostages. This movie has almost non-stop action, especially in the last half. The music is really good too and goes well with the movie. The movie box is funny also because of the way Marvin and Norris look on it, and the fact that they are so obviously superimposed on it. Hehe I thought I'd point that out. Overall a great movie you'll want to see again and again. One of Chuck's best and Marvin's last.