In hindsight this was a high water mark for Cannon Films and Chuck Norris. They must have thought this was a sure thing - Norris was coming off a series of successful films (Code of Silence even got good reviews), it was a rescuing-hostage drama which was pertinent and also tends to work. the director had experience in the genre making Operation Thunderbolt. So they ponied up for some big (ish) stars - they tried Charles Bronson but he turned it down (not wanting to share the spotlight?) and got Lee Marvin, who is a pretty good plan B. The support cast includes Shelley Winters, Martin Balsam, Robert Forster, Bo Svenson (a star for a bit in the 70s), George Kennedy, Kim Delaney (very pretty as a nun), Joey Bishop (!), Lainie Kazan, and Susan Strasberg - that's pretty good.
And the film has some good moments. It's very over the top and the Arabs are caricatures. And sometimes you can't help but laugh - such as when Shelley Winters cries out to the other passengers as the terrorists take her husband away ("there's only two of them!... it's like the camps").
But the fact is this sort of thing did happen -terrorists taking out the passports of the Jews, and killing the American soldiers. It is makes for decent drama.
The real problem with the movie is that its two films. First part (after a brief introductory sequence that is in the wake of Operation Eagle Claw in Iran 1980) is a hostage drama with what happens on the plane - Robert Forster leading the baddies, and a blonde German stewardess trying to be heroic, and George Kennedy giving himself up for Jews, and Martin Balsam giving a fine understated performance and Shelley winters playing to the back row.
The second part is cartoonish stuff with Norris, Marvin and his gang hooning around Beiruit on motorcycles, firing rockets and killing Arabs with the help of Israelis. To make things worse the terrorists have released the women and children by now lessering the stakes. Indeed at the end you kind of forget there are any hostages it's like people playing war games. Now I don't mind this sort of movie - but it's a cartoon and is based on cartoons whereas the first half is based on reality and the two sides do not mesh.
Marvin's part actually isn't that big but he still moves around a bit - he'd be dead soon. Norris isn't in the film that much either but kicks some but towards the end. They pump up the role of Norris' blonde friend played by William Wallace, so he can die and it can mean something and we can have a poignant moment as his friends stand around his corpse while the others sing "America the Beautiful".
It's a film which wears it's heart on it's sleeve, I'll say that for it.
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