The Delta Force (1986)

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...

Fmovies: I used to watch THE DELTA FORCE all the time when I was a kid. Chuck Norris was my hero, the coolest guy in the world who could take on any threat single-handidly and come out out of the conflict without a drop of sweat. It isn't LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, but THE DELTA FORCE is a solid, well-made action film with a pretty standout cast of actors, with Robert Forster making a truely dispicable terrorist. The rapport between Norris and Lee Marvin, while not concentrated on that much, is good, and the action scenes deliver the kind of response people like to give when watching the good guys wipe out the bad guys with no mercy, the way it should be. It's all capped by an excellent climax in which Chuck unleashes revenge on Forster, which is both serious and funny at the same time because the guy never gets to lay a single blow on Chuck. (Maybe Osama Bin Laden will be meet a similar fate. :) ) Alan Silvestri's Synclavier score is fun, too, with a great main theme. It may not be a complete carbon copy of the 1985 TWA hijacking/standoff incident that inspired it, but it's incorporation of some of the real incidents from that event gives it some added realism. For anybody who wants to fantasize about scumbag terrorists getting what they deserve (especially after September 11th), THE DELTA FORCE is one for you.

"The Delta Force" is an exciting action picture starring Chuck Norris in one of his best movie roles. The film is about an American airliner en route from Athens to Rome to New York that's hijacked by Middle Eastern terrorists which is loosely based on the real-life hijacking of a TWA jetliner in July 1985. This part of the film is terrifying. These hijackers mean business, and they provide a lot of cruelty to some of the passengers and crew members. When the U.S. government gets word of the hijack, they sent in The Delta Force, a tough team of U.S. commandos led by Lee Marvin and Chuck Norris. Do they get the job done? You'll just have to see for yourself. "The Delta Force" is an excellent film because it delivers plenty of action, plenty of suspense, and plenty of realism. The movie also has an all-star cast. Besides Norris and Marvin, "The Delta Force" also features Robert Forster (a decade before winning an Oscar nomination for Quentin Tarantino's "Jackie Brown") in a very good performance as the lead terrorist; Bo Svenson as the pilot of the hijacked airliner; Hanna Schygulla as the head stewardess of the plane; Robert Vaughn as a U.S. General who gives orders from the U.S. President to the Delta Force; and Martin Balsam, Joey Bishop, Lainie Kazan, Shelley Winters, George Kennedy, Susan Strasberg, and Kim Delaney (a decade before TV's "NYPD Blue") as terrified passengers on the hijacked plane. If your a fan of action movies, you're going to like "The Delta Force".

***1/2 (out of four)

The Delta Force fmovies. ****SPOILERS**** "Delta Force" begins in the darkness of the Iranian desert at "Desert One" on April 25, 1980 with the disastrous attempt to rescue the US hostages in Teheran. The movie then goes ahead to the summer of 1985 where a passenger plane with some 200 persons, mostly Americans, is skyjacked on a flight from Rome to Athens. It's there where the Delta Force redeems itself from what happened to it that dark April morning five years before.

Based loosely on the TWA 847 skyjacking and brutal beating and murder of Navy diver Robert Stethem "Delta Force" takes some liberties on the historical facts of that event. Like the movies of WWII that were made to uplift the American public "Delta Force" far more succeeds then fails in it's message that it's was trying the bring to those here in the USA and elsewhere on Americas, as well as the free worlds, "War on Terrorism" back then in 1986.

Admittedly over-the-top heroics by the Delta Force especially Maj. McCoy & Col. Alexender Chuck Norris & Lee Marvin. Who I think is the real hero, in the movie and in what really happened in real life on that plane, is the planes German stewardess Ingrid, Hanna Schygulia. Ingrid in real life showed more courage, as well as kindness and humanity, under pressure from the terrorists on the plane then the whole Delta Force combined showed in the make believe of the skyjacking and phony action scenes in the film.

High tension and terror in the sky as well as on land as a passenger plane is skyjacked by a gang of Arab terrorists. The Terrorists are led by their leader Abdul,Robert Foster, who threatens to blow up the plane and passengers inside unless the Israelis releases hundreds of terrorist that they have incarcerated.

Trying to get the terrorists to let at least the women and children go free the Delta Force tries to storm the plane when it lands in Algeria for re-fueling. At the same time there's a new group of terrorist entering the plane to reinforce those that are already there.

Navy diver Pete Peterson, William Wallace, who was brutally beaten to the point where he was almost dead is shot in the head and dumped on the tarmac in retaliation of the Delta Force attempted rescue. It's when the plane lands in Beirut that the real action begins and it's there where the Delta force, with the help of Israeli commandos, save the day and in the end rack this one up for the good guys.

Heart pounding and effective movie about the good guys giving it back to the terrorist in a movie that was made some 15 years ahead of it's time, September 11, 2001, that shows if you mess with Uncle Sam you'll only get burned in the end. Chuck Norris & Lee Marvin are great as the Delta Force team-leaders in some of the most enthusiastic action scenes you've ever seen in a war movie since WWII. Lee Marvin looks too old for the role of a hard as nails Delta Force soldier, he was 62 at the time and looked like he was about 80, but his reputation as a tough guy easily made you overlook that fact. "Delta Force" was Lee's last movie.

Chuck Norris was at the top of his game with his martial arts fighting chopping up the terrorists and his unbelievable motorbike that has machine guns mounted on it and rocket launched from it's front engines and back exhaust, do they really have something like that in the US military? Chuck & Lee made the terrorists see what real red-blooded American hero's can re

Lee Marvin was already very ill when he appeared in this movie, and his grave condition sometimes shows onscreen. Still, he's able to give it all that he's got like in his previous films, and it's nice seeing that he went down still a tough guy. The rest of the movie proves to be just as surprisingly enjoyable. It does go on too long (125 minutes!), and there is not as much action as you may be expecting. But the drama portion of the movie proves to be compelling, and the few action scenes there are turn out to be exceedingly well done. Certainly no masterpiece, but it is entertaining. Fans of Norris and/or Marvin, however, should be warned that the two of them don't appear in as much of the movie as they may be expecting.

As a product of the eighties (I had the misfortune to be born at the very beginning of them), I grew up on movies like this.

One has to wonder what went wrong. In the late sixties and seventies, America was putting out some of the best movies in the world. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that Americans (as a people) were suddenly not afraid of having faults. Vietnam and Nixon made America realise that it had a dark side, and this came through in its cinema. The results were some of the most palpable incarnations of the anti-hero ever put to film.

Alas, in the eighties, something changed. Suddenly, American heroes were not only invincible, but ethically flawless and totally righteous too. 'The Delta Force' is one of the pinnacles of the American hero movie.

In a nutshell, some evil Arab types take a plane full of innocent Jewish Americans and it's up to Chuck Norris and his crew of bad-ass GIs (all of whom sh*t stars and bleeds stripes, of course)to save the day. Watching it in the ultra-liberal, post-911 21st century, it's hard to believe this film even got made. It's so un-PC that it make Bill Hicks look like Porky Pig.

But here's the catch, it's so damn refreshing to see a piece of action cinema that serves no purpose but to entertain that 'The Delta Force' becomes a beautifully nostalgic piece of escapism that is hard to resist.

It is certainly a flawed film. The editor and director could sure have used a few lessons in pacing, notably around the totally extraneous character development scenes where we have it reinforced beyond any doubt that Jewish Americans are beyond reproach. However, one is more than willing to forgive this insult when presented with such testosterone-infested action sequences and cocksure pro-Americanism. It's one of those films that is so bad it's good.

'The Delta Force' is a movie that necessitates the disengagement of the brain and the full attention of the balls. If you have the capacity to do this, and overlook the fact that it is a disgraceful tool of American propaganda, you'll love it. I can just imagine this being George Bush's favourite movie...

Chuck Norris is, in many ways, the ultimate American hero; ruthless but virtuous, kind hearted yet bad-as-hell, the underdog yet the victor. After saving American soldiers from those nasty far-Easterners in the 'Missing in Action' series, Chuckie truly outdoes himself here. Taken with a large pinch of salt, or as a very shrewd satire (a la 'Team America'), 'The Delta Force' delivers in ways Bruckheimer and can only dream of.