Episode 146: Uncommon Valor

Exploding Helicopter

“Most human problems can be solved with an appropriate charge of high explosive”
During the 1980s, it seemed as if Hollywood sent every one of its action stars on unsanctioned missions to Vietnam to rescue American POWs. But before Chuck Norris and Sylvester Stallone got in on the MIA rescuing act, it was the more unlikely figure of Gene Hackman who first went in to get ‘our boys’ back. So, on this show, we’re looking at the film that kicked off an entire sub-genre of the Eighties Namsploitation movie boom, UNCOMMON VALOR (1983).
We’re joined by Todd Liebenow from the Forgotten Filmcast to discuss Nam movie tropes, the film’s wildly eclectic cast, and whether America got to win this time.
Show notes
Director: Ted Kotcheff
Cast: Gene Hackan, Patrick Swayze, Randall ‘Tex’ Cobb, Fred Ward, Reb Brown, Robert Stack, Tim Thomerson, Harold Sylvester
Plot: Ten years after his son went M.I.A. in Vietnam, U.S. Marine retired Colonel Jason Rhodes assembles a private rescue team to find Americans held in P.O.W. camps in Laos.
Episode 146.
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