The Delta Force (1986)

So, "The Delta Force" is basically a remake of "Operation Thunderbolt" and it comes from the same director/producer (Golan/Goblus team) but this time more concerned in the big bucks from the box office taking advantage of the then new current wave of terrorism (hijakcing of airplanes) instead of preoccupied in making a good movie. Like the Oscar nominated film, "Delta" also comes from a real story, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 and the very few I could verify this movie does not disappoint in terms of accuracy of facts, who took the plane, the casualties and how the affair ended. Hollywood spectacular fiction kicks in when Chuck Norris comes on board and becomes the hero of the day with his motorcycle loaded with rocket launchers exploding all the villains to the sound of an annoying score which I'm gonna discuss later on. That part of the rescue never happened.

You probably know the modus operandi of those things: Arab terrorists take over a commercial flight going to the States, changes its route to Beirut and demands for the release of political prisoners. Tension ensues when they discover Jewish passengers and a small group of U.S. Navy divers on board. To help the innocent passengers U.S. forces send a special rescue team led by Lee Marvin and composed with Norris, Steve James and others; with Norris character still conflicted with their last failure while trying to save the American hostages in Iran, 1979. Cut to the chase: the movie delivers in this routine being the scenes on the plane and the whole tension very effective. All the energy from those get sucked by the exterior scenes following the action men or the bureaucrats trying to give a go to the mission.

If I hadn't seen "Thunderbolt" first I might have liked it more. Or maybe not. But I suggest you to watch the other first. If possible, back to back just to see how similar they are. One trademark from the director: a kid spots the terrorists before anybody else and way before they take everybody hostage. A similar shot of a suspicious kid (except that in that film the Israeli boy was far more critical and annoying). Golan/Goblus has several of those moments copied and pasted between both movies. That's why it gets a little tiring seeing this movie.

The inclusion of a stellar cast (Shelley Winters, Martin Balsam, Robert Vaughn, Lainie Kazan, Bo Svenson, Hanna Schygulla, Robert Forster) is an indicative that it wants so bad to be like those disaster epics from the 1970's; it's like an "Airport" but with real terrorists - hey, they even managed to get George Kennedy to play a courageous priest in here. They're all fine, some are really lost and only in it for the money, and Forster is the most memorable as the terrorist leader.

We need to talk about the music score by Mr. Alan Silvestri. Has to be one of the most annoying, irritating and senseless movie themes ever composed, it stays in your head for a long time because the director insisted on using it in almost every (expletive deleted) action scene. The fault is also on Silvestri, for not knowing how to create more themes or learning like master of composing usually do: variations of a same theme. His over-synthesized score is useful in one or two scenes but to hear it in more than those it's just painful, and dates this movie a lot. Glaldy, he lived on to make genial contributions in Robert Zemeckis films and the frightening music from "The Predator".

Generic action picture that manages to walk on the water on a lazy afternoon when you have nothing better to do. But they need to tell me how in the world a world before Snowden's revelations, the U.S. intelligence and Lee Marvin's team knew about the plane's situation, how many kidnappers were there while it was on the air and without the hijackers or the pilot even communicating about the plan? As far as I know, the plane only changed of route. They always know what's going on there without anyone telling them about? Lame! Beware: Chuck Norris only gives one roundhouse kick in this thing. 6/10