Braddock: Missing in Action III | |
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Directed by | Aaron Norris |
Written by | James Bruner Chuck Norris |
Based on | Characters by Arthur Silver Larry Levinson & Steve Bing |
Produced by | Menahem Golan Yoram Globus |
Starring |
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Cinematography | João Fernandes |
Edited by | Michael J. Duthie |
Music by | Jay Chattaway |
Distributed by | Cannon Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 103 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $9 million |
Box office | $7,193,901 (U.S.A.) |
Braddock: Missing in Action III is a 1988 American action adventure film, and a sequel to Missing in Action , following the second film, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning , which was a prequel. [1] It is the third and final installment in the Missing in Action film series. The film stars Chuck Norris, who co-wrote the screenplay with James Bruner. The film was directed by Norris' brother, Aaron Norris.
Colonel James Braddock, Vietnam War veteran, had believed his Asian wife Lin Tan Cang to be dead since the war ended in 1975, but he hears from a missionary, Reverend Polanski, that Lin is not only alive, but that she and Braddock have a 12-year-old son named Van Tan Cang.
At first, Braddock does not believe it, but when cold-blooded CIA boss Littlejohn tells Braddock to disregard that information, that is when Braddock knows it is true. Braddock heads back into Vietnam through parachute deployment and with the help of an Australian C-47 pilot. After parachute descent, Braddock outruns Vietnamese Navy patrol boats with a jet-powered speedboat.
Reverend Polanski leads Braddock to Lin and Van. Attempting to flee the country, Braddock, Lin and Van are captured by the soldiers of the sadistic Vietnamese General Quoc. Quoc kills Lin on the spot, and has his soldiers take Braddock and Van to a compound to be tortured.
Later, Braddock overpowers his guards, frees Van, and heads for the mission that is run by Polanski. Quoc anticipates the move and takes all the mission children into captivity, along with Van and Polanski, and Braddock sets out to free them all from Quoc by going to his weapons cache that he had hidden a few days prior. He equips himself with a modified Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle with an underslung 6-shot rotary grenade launcher and attachments including a spring-loaded bayonet. He raids the camp killing the guards and loading up one of the trucks with all the children including his son, Van and the Reverend. Soon after escaping they are followed and attacked by a Vietnamese-captured US UH-1 Huey.
After they escape Braddock takes the children on foot and find a Vietnamese airstrip. Braddock silently takes out the guards and hijacks a C-47 Dakota plane. The plane is then attacked by Vietnamese guards causing fuel to leak out of the plane, eventually crashing just outside the Cambodian-Thailand border. Braddock then raids the border station where Thai and US troops are watching on the other side, cheering Braddock on. When Braddock kills all the opposing troops, more pour in. Braddock is injured by a grenade. When General Quoc then flies in on a Vietnamese Mil-24 Hind gunship thinking he has Braddock all to himself, two US helicopters on the side of the Thai border confront Quoc's gunship. Taunting each other to cross, Braddock and his son Van fire at Quoc's ship, hitting the pilot. The gunship crashes, killing Quoc. The US troops pour over the border and bridge and help the wounded Braddock and the children.
Norris had a long-term deal with Cannon Films. They were in financial trouble and wanted a new Missing in Action film. Norris says that he was not interested in doing a third film until his brother Aaron told him about the Amerasian children: "In Vietnam there are 15,000 Amerasian children who are trapped there, considered outcasts, living a strictly non-existent life. So I started reading up on the subject and got emotionally involved". [2]
Norris was particularly affected by a segment he saw on the ABC TV show 20/20: "An American soldier fell in love over there in Vietnam, but the Army wouldn't let him marry her. He went back and tried to get her over because he knew she was pregnant. Finally, she had the baby over there and died. So the next 14 years he spent trying to locate (the child) and get him out of the country. But finally he did it, and there were tears and everything then. It really hit you". [3] Norris wrote the script with James Bruner.
Filming was to start 1 December 1986 with Joseph Zito who directed the original film to direct, [4] but due to creative and personal differences with Chuck Norris, Zito left the production. In March, Jack Smight was attached to direct. [5] Eventually Aaron Norris wound up making his directorial debut on the film. Norris later said that Aaron saved Braddock after going through several other directors. [6] Aaron Norris would go on to direct six more films with his brother, as well as helping him run Walker, Texas Ranger .
On May 30, 1987, four military and police officers were killed in an AUH-76 helicopter of the Philippine Air Force accident during filming in the Philippines. [7] There would also be a fatal helicopter crash in a later Norris film, Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection .
Norris thought that it was the best film he ever made prior to its release. [8]
Norris said that Missing in Action and Missing in Action 2: The Beginning put Cannon on the New York Stock Exchange, as Cannon Films was in the state of bankruptcy. [9]
The movie debuted at No. 5 at the box office with $2,210,401 in the opening weekend. [10] It was the least financially successful film in the Missing in Action film series.
Norris said he was "frustrated", with the job Cannon Films did with marketing the film: "I was ready to break my contract because it was the best of the series. We had a big meeting, and I told them that if they didn't do a better job marketing my films in the U.S., I was going to take them to court because my career is on the line". [11]
Walter Goodman of The New York Times wrote: "Wearing a worried expression beneath a week's worth of beard, Braddock knocks off what remains of the Vietnamese Army, already pretty well decimated by their earlier encounters ... As that general remarks before he meets the fate of all of Braddock's adversaries, 'This has gone on long enough'". [12] Variety said: "Chuck Norris manages to pull off a strangely timely and involving story about getting a bunch of Amerasian kids out of Vietnam within the confines of his usual 1-man army action meller parameters. Not to say this is emotional stuff, just up a notch from past chapters that have managed to attract mostly a redneck following at the b.o." [13] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and wrote: "It's a passable action film, though like most of Norris' vehicles, it's an almost completely colorless one". [14] Leonard Klady of the Los Angeles Times called the film "a by-the-numbers filmed atrocity. One can just imagine a game caller saying: 'Under the 'I', 17 Amerasian children tortured; under the 'N', 49 Vietnamese soldiers blown to kingdom come'. It all adds up to the movie game of J-I-N-G-O, which ought to be a felony". [15] Hal Hinson of The Washington Post wrote: "We could say this is mind-bogglingly insulting, lowest-common-denominator-style filmmaking, that it's gratuitously racist and violent and just plain dumb, but then wouldn't that be stating the obvious? But what response would be fitting and adequate and not be obvious? Keening? Shrieking? A full-fledged, spread-eagle tantrum?" [16]
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris is an American martial artist and actor. He is a black belt in Tang Soo Do, Brazilian jiu jitsu and judo. After serving in the United States Air Force, Norris won many martial arts championships and later founded his own discipline, Chun Kuk Do. Shortly after, in Hollywood, Norris trained celebrities in martial arts. Norris went on to appear in a minor role in the spy film The Wrecking Crew (1968). Friend and fellow martial artist Bruce Lee invited him to play one of the main villains in The Way of the Dragon (1972). While Norris continued acting, friend and student Steve McQueen suggested he take it seriously. Norris took the starring role in the action film Breaker! Breaker! (1977), which turned a profit. His second lead, Good Guys Wear Black (1978), became a hit, and he soon became a popular action film star.
An Amerasian may refer to a person born in East or Southeast Asia to an East Asian or Southeast Asian mother and a U.S. military father. Other terms used include War babies or G.I. babies.
The Vietnam Fatherland Front is an umbrella group of mass movements in Vietnam aligned with the Communist Party of Vietnam forming the Vietnamese government. It was founded in February 1977 by the merger of the Vietnam Fatherland Front of North Vietnam and two Viet Cong groups, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam and the Alliance of National, Democratic, and Peace Forces. It is an amalgamation of many smaller groups, including the Communist Party itself. Other groups that participated in the establishment of the Front were the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneer Organization. It also included the Democratic Party of Vietnam and Socialist Party of Vietnam, until they disbanded in 1988. It also incorporates some officially sanctioned religious groups.
Spoken and written Vietnamese today uses the Latin script-based Vietnamese alphabet to represent native Vietnamese words, Vietnamese words which are of Chinese origin, and other foreign loanwords. Historically, Vietnamese literature was written by scholars using a combination of Chinese characters (Hán) and original Vietnamese characters (Nôm). From 111 BC up to the 20th century, Vietnamese literature was written in Văn ngôn using chữ Hán, and then also Nôm from the 13th century to 20th century.
Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport is an international airport serving Ho Chi Minh City, the most populous city in Vietnam. The airport is located in the Tân Bình district within the Ho Chi Minh City metropolitan area.
Braddock may refer to:
Invasion U.S.A. is a 1985 American action film produced by Cannon Films, and starring Chuck Norris. It was directed by Joseph Zito. It involves the star fighting off a force of Soviet/Cuban-led guerrillas.
The Republic of Vietnam Navy (RVNN; Vietnamese: Hải quân Việt Nam Cộng hòa - HQVNCH; was the naval branch of the South Vietnamese military, the official armed forces of the former Republic of Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. The early fleet consisted of boats from France; after 1955, and the transfer of the armed forces to Vietnamese control, the fleet was supplied from the United States. With American assistance, in 1972 the VNN became the largest Southeast Asian navy and, by some estimates, the fourth largest navy in the world, just behind the Soviet Union, the United States and the People's Republic of China, with 42,000 personnel, 672 amphibious ships and craft, 20 mine warfare vessels, 450 patrol craft, 56 service craft, and 242 junks. Other sources state that VNN was the ninth largest navy in the world. The Republic of Vietnam Navy was responsible for the protection of the country's national waters, islands, and interests of its maritime economy, as well as for the co-ordination of maritime police, customs service and the maritime border defence force.
Missing in Action is a 1984 American action film directed by Joseph Zito and starring Chuck Norris. It is set in the context of the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Colonel Braddock, who escaped a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp ten years earlier, returns to Vietnam to find American soldiers listed as missing in action during the Vietnam War. The film was followed by a prequel, Missing in Action 2: The Beginning (1985), and a sequel, Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988). The first two Missing in Action installments had been filmed back-to-back with the intent to have the first film involve the POW years of Braddock be the first film. However, it was determined that the commercial prospects were stronger with the film directed by Zito involving the POW rescue. As such, Hool's film was turned into Missing in Action 2 and labeled as a prequel that detailed events before those in Missing in Action.
The Vietnamese term bụi đời refers to vagrants in the city or, trẻ bụi đời to street children or juvenile gangs. From 1989, following a song in the musical Miss Saigon, "Bui-Doi" came to popularity in Western lingo, referring to Amerasian children left behind in Vietnam after the Vietnam War.
The American Homecoming Act or Amerasian Homecoming Act, was an Act of Congress giving preferential immigration status to children in Vietnam born of U.S. fathers. The American Homecoming Act was written in 1987, passed in 1988, and implemented in 1989. The act increased Vietnamese Amerasian immigration to the U.S. because it allowed applicants to establish a mixed race identity by appearance alone. Additionally, the American Homecoming Act allowed the Amerasian children and their immediate relatives to receive refugee benefits. About 23,000 Amerasians and 67,000 of their relatives entered the United States under this act. While the American Homecoming Act was the most successful program in moving Vietnamese Amerasian children to the United States, the act was not the first attempt by the U.S. government. Additionally the act experienced flaws and controversies over the refugees it did and did not include since the act only allowed Vietnamese Amerasian children, as opposed to other South East Asian nations in which the United States also had forces in the war.
Platoon Leader is a 1988 war film set in the Vietnam War and directed by Aaron Norris ; it stars Michael Dudikoff and Michael DeLorenzo and was filmed in South Africa. It is loosely based on James R. McDonough's memoir of the same name.
Missing in Action 2: The Beginning is a 1985 American action adventure film, and a prequel to Missing in Action, both of which star Chuck Norris. It was directed by Lance Hool, and written by Steve Bing, Larry Levinson and Arthur Silver. It is the second installment in the Missing in Action film series.
Delta Force 2: The Colombian Connection is a 1990 American action film, and a sequel to the 1986 Chuck Norris film The Delta Force, also starring Norris as Major Scott McCoy. It is the second installment in The Delta Force film series. In this film, McCoy, now a colonel, leads his Delta team into the fictional South American country of San Carlos to rescue hostages and stop the flow of cocaine into the United States.
Aaron Dee Norris is an American stunt performer, director, occasional actor, and film and television producer. He is the younger brother of action film star Chuck Norris.
Good Guys Wear Black is a 1978 American martial arts action film starring Chuck Norris and directed by Ted Post. This was the second film to feature Norris as the star, following Breaker! Breaker! (1977). However, this is the one that Norris considers his "breakthrough".
Roland Edward Harrah was an American film and television child actor, actor, songwriter, musician, singer, and artist.
Admiral Chung Tấn Cang was a commander of the Republic of Vietnam Navy between 1963 and 1965.
Hồ Tấn Quyền, was a senior navy officer of the Republic of Vietnam Navy with the rank of Navy Colonel. He came from the first class at the Naval Officers School, which was taken over by the Government of Vietnam and established from the French Naval facility transferred to the Vietnamese Navy located in a province in the Central Coast of Vietnam. He was the third Commander of the Navy from August 1959 until his assassination on November 1, 1963.