Were you aware that the director of the original Rambo directed a Rambo-less Rambo 2, two years before Rambo 2 was released?
Yes-indeedy, despite sounding like some form of deranged tongue twister, First Blood director Ted Kotcheff followed up the introduction of Sylvester Stallone’s traumatised Nam vet with yet another film that not only directed its attention to the emotional upheaval caused by the Vietnam War, but pre-empted the entire plot of Rambo: First Blood Part II years before its release. The film was Uncommon Valor, a men on a mission movie that saw Gene Hackman rounding up a bunch of frazzled veterans to go back to Southeast Asia to try and locate and rescue his son who was taken prisoner by the Viet Cong ten years earlier. Yes, years later John Rambo tried to single-handedly rescue POWs held after the end of the war, but he didn’t have Popeye Doyle, Reno: Unarmed and Dangerous, Jack Deth and a former Captain America to back him up, did he?
In 1972, a group of soldier retreat back to their extraction site while Viet Cong bullets whizz all around them. While troops with named like Wilkes, “Sailor” and “Blaster” manage to get aboard, Frank Rhodes ends up getting left behind after trying to save wounded colleague, Paul MacGregor, and this sets in motion his father’s decade long quest to mount a mission to get him back. A retired Marine Colonel, Jason Rhodes has had to stomach a decade of excruciatingly slow progress and no longer is willing to wait for governments to start cooperating. Financed by the father of Paul, Jason has whipped up a plan to throw together a unit and go on an unauthorised mission to target the camp in Laos that’s strongly rumoured to be holding American prisoners.
Starting by bringing together cheerful demolitions expert, Blaster; traumatised tunnel rat, Wilkes and whacked-out, hulking machine gunner Sailor, he teams them with grizzled helicopter pilots Johnson and Charts, and to round out the group is over-eager, yet untested Marine, Kevin Scott. But as the group bond and feud during their training, soon they’re head for a date with destiny as they go back to Southeast Asia to right some long overdue wrongs.
However, things aren’t exactly sailing smoothly even before they start their mission thanks to the CIA sticking their nose in where it doesn’t belong and confiscating their equipment and weapons. However, Jason isn’t about to be deterred now, so improvising and making do with the best that they can lay their hands on, they mount their dangerous mission to free men held hostage for over a decade. But is Frank even still alive; and even if he is, can this motley crew of burnouts and weirdos manage to come back alive from Nam a second time?
Despite the presence of the legendarily serious Gene Hackman, Ted Kotcheff doesn’t seem to be overly interested in reinventing the wheel when it comes to the basics of a good, solid, man on a mission movie. Yes, there’s still the lingering, First Blood politics of how America ultimately treated it’s veterans after a war the world seemingly rushed to forget, but rather than a plainly crazy Stallone hiding out in the woods wrapped in animal skins, Uncommon Valor is a far more cheerier affair despite the rather somber subject matter. The main problem is, despite the fact that Kotcheff’s movie beating the Rambo sequel to the punch by a comfortable two-year margin, the fact that the more bombastic and famous franchise flick was noticably more popular and spectacular, Uncommon Valor seems weirdly over familiar if you didn’t watch it first. Also, the 1983 film may have Gene Hackman barking orders and the sight of Randall “Tex” Cobb erratically dancing at sunset, but it didn’t have exploding arrow heads and Stallone being absurdly iconic in a headband.
However, that doesn’t mean that this mission should be scrubbed. In fact, Uncommon Valor has quite a few things going for it – which is handy because despite some textbook barking of orders, Hackman looks faintly annoyed that he’s there at all. Yes there’s a political message to be delivered and parental anguish to be acted, but for the most part, the movie feels more like a standard action/war romp with plenty of explosions and subplots flying about the place. But what actually helps the film stand out is a supporting cast crammed with familiar faces who make the enterprise far more gripping than it should be. It may have sounded like I was being flippant when I started reeling off character names, but if you’re somehow unaware of who’s in this film before watching it, it’s virtually a who’s who of craggily beloved character actors who each have their own parts to play.
Strangely enough, one of the major highpoints proves to be Reb Brown’s perpetually cheerful surfer dude, Blaster, which is stunning considering he’s mostly been fucking terrible in everything else I’ve ever seen him in (the Captain America TV movies, Space Mutiny, Howling II, Strike Commando; you name it, he stinks in it). Elsewhere we get the always dependable Fred Ward getting to sink his teeth into a PTSD suffering tunnel rat who probably could handle the entire mission on his own if his trauma hadn’t lumbered him with a whole bunch of phobias, and Randal “Tex” Cobb as the type of battle frazzled, friendly neighbourhood maniac who could be your best mate despite wearing a live hand grenade as a necklace. Adding even more to the cast are Harold Sylvester, Tim Thomerson, Robert Stack and a pre-Dirty Dancing Patrick Swayze as a frustrated rookie desperate to rack up some manhood experience.
And rack them up they do, as Kotcheff ticks off the military men on a mission plot beats one by one. Each recruit has some sort of emotional obstacle to overcome that’s seemingly helped by trying to get themselves killed in a foreign country, and if you’ve been paying close attention, it’s not too hard to figure out which of the men are coming home and who aren’t. However, while the action is fairly standard, it’s big and loud enough to entertain, and a typically spirited James Horner score takes up a lot of the slack. There’s even something of a bitter twist in the tail to remind us that despite all the cool conflagrations, the Vietnam War was a truly hideous thing to experience and therefore shouldn’t be treated like a Chuck Norris, Missing In Action movie.
While offering nothing particularly new or groundbreaking (except Reb Brown putting in a miraculously passable performance), Uncommon Valor proves to be uncommonly entertaining despite a lot of thunder being retroactively stolen by Rambo: First Blood Part II. It’s got enough big booms to incite spirited flag waving and enough disapproving dramatics to make its point, but despite its obvious vigour, this bunch isn’t quite the a-team.
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