Missing in Action

The 1980s were known for many things, but one big trend was the fantasy of going back to Vietnam and getting to win this time. With many US servicemen believed to be still held in prison camps, the idea of going back and rescuing them became an irresistible premise for action movie producers. The first film of this sort was the solid 1983 picture Uncommon Valor, directed by Ted Kotcheff, produced by John Milius, and written by Wings Hauser and Joe Gayton. But 1984 was the year that really initiated this trend. Much of the reason was because of how much buzz was generated in Hollywood by James Cameron's screenplay for what would become Rambo: First Blood Part II. The sequel to the excellent 1982 Sylvester Stallone picture First Blood (the brilliance of which has long been overshadowed by the hyper-success of its less inspired sequels) was initiated when young screenwriter Kevin Jarre, the adopted son of composer Maurice Jarre, was commissioned to write a treatment. Jarre (who would later pen Glory and Tombstone) hit upon the idea that a good next chapter for Stallone's PTSD-riddled Special Forces killing machine character, John Rambo, would be to go back to Vietnam and search for POWs. After Jarre turned in the initial treatment, up-and-coming writer Cameron was brought on to write the screenplay. This was before The Terminator or Aliens had been made. Though Stallone rewrote the Rambo script, Cameron's draft was making many in Hollywood realize that this guy was a great screenwriter, especially of action.

Two people who noticed were Cannon Films impresarios Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus. Much as they had capitalized on the breakdancing craze with Breakin', a film they rushed into theaters long before the superior Beat Street came out, they decided they would be the first to get a return-to-Vientman POW/MIA movie on screen. And, after the runaway success of Breakin' led to Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo getting made and released in the same year, they felt two POW movies would make twice the money of one. Thus, Missing in Action and, four months later, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning.

Both of the Missing in Action films made it to theaters before Rambo: First Blood Part 2. Such was the highly effective cash-in ethos of Golan-Globus. The two movies were shot back to back. Director Lance Hool helmed the first part, in which we meet Chuck Norris' character, Colonel James Braddock, who is captured and held in a North Vietnamese POW camp run by a sadistic opium-growing Colonel. Joseph Zito helped the sequel, which is set 10 years later when Braddock returns to Southeast Asia to free men imprisoned in POW camps as he was. When the two films started coming together, Golan and Globus claimed they felt Zito's film was going to turn out better, so they changed the titles and released the second film first in Nov of 1984, and the first film (now a prequel) in March of 1985. It's more likely that the savvy producers wanted to make 100% sure that they got their version of the POW rescue story into cinemas well before Rambo. Either way, the scheme worked like a charm. Despite the terrible reviews, Missing in Action was a big commercial success, grossing over $22M off a $2+M budget, and went on to become one of Chuck Norris's most popular films. Missing in Action 2: The Beginning, while only making half as much as its predecessor, which had barely left cinemas, was still a significant success and spawned many more Cannon Films productions about POVs—Behind Enemy Lines in 1986, The Hanoi Hilton in 1987, and Braddock: Missing in Action III in 1988.

I'm not sure when Roger Ebert famously said, "No movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad," but I'm pretty sure it was after this year. Revisiting 1984 certainly puts his theory to the test, and Missing In Action, a rare film in which Walsh is second-billed, may fire a steady stream of machine gun bullets into the whole idea. Walsh is certainly the most lively thing in this low-energy picture, but he feels like he's trying too hard. Even the best supporting actor can't do much when there's so little for him to support, and Norris is just so bland. He looks great, at least in the rare instances that cinematographer João Fernandes shines enough light on him. His thick coat of chest hair is unlike any other action star I can think of, and it's not surprising he takes his shirt off as often as he does since it distracts from his stiff line readings. But Norris' look is another thing that undercuts the effectiveness of this story. His flowing blond locks look like they've been recently blow-dried in every shot, even when he's supposed to have been deep in the jungle for days.

In its time, Missing In Action was a solid enough piece of pseudo-military shoot-em-up, pro-America agitprop to be a hit and frequent VHS rental. But, honestly, a more fitting title would be Missing Action. Aside from the weak and utterly illogical third-act battle, the set pieces in this picture are incredibly disappointing. Much of the action occurs in darkness, with all of it playing as if it were staged and shot in slow motion. I'm not talking about the iconic shot of Norris coming out of the water firing in slow-mo, which is an honest-to-goodness red-meat crowd-pleaser; I'm talking about every sequence not filmed in slow-mo that plays lethargic and droopy. The narrative is even more bland and weak than the action. Especially coming on the heels of Uncommon Valor, which had compelling characters, a terrific cast, and a credible plot, the story in Missing In Action feels crafted by adolescents with no lived connection to any aspect of the Vietnam conflict. This is all the most surprising if you know that Norris had a brother who was killed in the war.

The film features all kinds of illogical beats that are baked into the script that could easily be fixed so that things make sense without compromising the action. For example, why are all those POWs surrounded by armed guards who take regular patrols around a camp hidden deep in the jungle? The war has been over for nine years; who are they being guarded from? The inevitable return of Colonel Braddock? And why does the helicopter that comes in to rescue everyone at the end not first destroy the incoming boat that's firing on M. Emmet Walsh's boat, enabling everyone to get to the chopper easily? Well, then we wouldn't get to see Chuck hanging onto the ladder as the Huey takes off under fire. Of course, these are not the type of questions a viewer is meant to ask when consuming this type of exploration action movie. Unfortunately, the way the script is written practically begs us to ask these very questions. There are so many things that get set up in this film that never pay off. Maybe they didn't have the money to shoot everything as written, but then why not simply edit out the bits that make us think we're going to get something that goes undelivered?

Oh well. No matter because, in the end, everybody won. Norris won, Golan & Globus won, audiences wanting to live out the fantasy of an American victory in Vietnam won, and even Sylvester Stallone won. Because, despite the success of both Missing in Action movies, the films' early releases didn't cause any collateral damage to Rambo: First Blood Part II. Directed by the great George P. Cosmatos from the script by Cameron and Stallone, Rambo was released in May of 1985 and made over $300M upon release—no thunder stolen.