MISSING IN ACTION 2: THE BEGINNING
US, 1985, 95 minutes, Colour.
Chuck Norris.
Directed by Lance Hool.
The Missing in Action films focus on the exploits of Colonel James Braddock. He is played by martial arts champion Chuck Norris - so the films are really Chuck Norris action adventures.
Norris built up a reputation in the late '70s as a champion turned actor. While his acting style is minimal, his screen presence has been strong enough for a series of hit films. By the mid-80s he was something of a popular folk-hero on screen.
These films also fit into the concern by Reagan's America for prisoners of war missing in action in Vietnam. Ted Kotcheff made First Blood and Uncommon Valor, focusing on returned soldiers or exploits to free prisoners of war. First Blood had a sequel - Rambo and Rambo, in the person of Sylvester Stallone, became the personification of the militaristic hero righting the wrongs of American defeat. Battle Rage and Missing in Action are derivatives of Uncommon Valor and the First Blood, Rambo films. Produced by Cannon Films, they have small budgets, Philippine and Mexican settings, elementary staging of action sequences - but, for a popular audience, have pace and movement which keeps the audience involved.
There is some criticism of these films for their raising hopes about prisoners of war, for families distressed about the loss of family members. There was much discussion, in the context of Rambo, about the rights and wrongs of such films. Nevertheless, they were immensely popular in the United States during the mid-'80s.
1. Popular war action? Chuck Norris vehicle? The concern about Vietnam, the defeat, prisoners of war, American heroics?
2. The location photography, the atmosphere of Vietnam and its battles, the prisoner of war camp, the mountains, the waterfalls, the rivers, the environment of the prison? Special effects and stunts for battle sequences and the escape sequences?
3. The title and its focus? The Vietnam war still being waged? The rave against the Vietnamese oppressors?
4. The focus on James Braddock? Chuck Norris's style and presence, the imprisonment, his relationship with his fellow prisoners, with the prisoner who allied himself with the Vietnamese? With the Vietnamese Commander? The French drug-smuggler? The Australian adventurer? The humiliations, the work, the torture? The details of the prison camp? The escape attempts? Mediation? The punishment for example the rat in the hood? His eventual escape, the plan of vengeance, the destruction of the camp, the final fight with the Commander? The escape?
5. The portrait of the camp Commander, the worst aspects of the Vietnamese oppressor? Sadistic? Militaristic regime, torture, humiliation? The drug connection ? The killing of escaping prisoners, of the Australian? The French drug-runner and the clash? The final fight and his death?
6. The sketches of the prisoners of war, their experience, the imprisonment, the conditions, the torture, their interactions? The negro prisoner and his being an aide to the Commander? The provocation of fighting between the prisoners? The disdain by the Commander? His ultimately giving his life for the others?
7. The Vietnamese prisoners, their humiliation, the old man, deaths?
8. The Australian adventurer, photography, his bluff, the arrest and his death?
9. The background of drug smuggling and easy wealth in the remote areas of Vietnam? The French Connection?
10. The spectacular action sequences - plausible or not? The escape? The revenge?
11. The impact of this kind of film of American society in the '80s? The memories of the war, the defeat, the prisoners of war? American self-assertion?
