In 1972, a group of American soldiers in South Vietnam carry one of their wounded to a helicopter landing zone for evacuation but are left behind as another helicopter carrying "Blaster", "Sailor" and Wilkes departs under fire.
A decade later, retired Marine Colonel Jason Rhodes is obsessed with finding his son Frank, an Army Lieutenant listed as "missing in action" since 1972. A ten year search of Southeast Asia has turned up several leads, convincing Rhodes that Frank is being kept in Laos as a prisoner of war.
After unsuccessfully petitioning the United States government for help, Colonel Rhodes brings together a disparate group of Vietnam War veterans, including men who served in Frank's platoon including demolitions expert Blaster; "tunnel rat" Wilkes who suffers from PTSD and a machine gunner called Sailor. They're joined by two helicopter pilot acquaintances of Rhodes, Distinguished Flying Cross recipient Johnson, and Charts. Former Force Recon Marine Kevin Scott joins the team and later turns out to be the son of a pilot who went missing in action in Vietnam.
With the financial backing of good friend and rich oilman McGregor, whose son also went missing while serving in Frank's platoon, the group trains near Galveston, Texas to mount rescue mission at a remote POW camp in Laos. The team flies to Southeast Asia to learn the CIA intercepted Rhodes in Bangkok, fearing an international crisis, and confiscated his weapons and equipment. Undeterred, the team pools the expense money given by McGregor and purchases replacement weapons and supplies from deposed drug baron Jiang, who joins the expedition with his two daughters Lai Fun and Mai Lin. The team is rearmed with World War II-era weapons and Charts forms an attachment to Lai Fun.
The group is attacked near the Laotian border by a border patrol unit and Mai Lin is killed. The team splits up for the final assault. Rhodes leads Charts, Sailor, Johnson and Lai Fun as the "air team" to a helicopter compound to secure escape transportation, while Jiang, Blaster, Scott, and Wilkes scout the prison camp as the "ground team." They discover four Americans among the prisoners, but can't verify Frank's whereabouts. Blaster sets demolition charges outside the camp under cover of darkness. Because Rhodes and the air team had difficulty finding the air base and don't arrive on time, Blaster blows his charges to prevent the prisoners from leaving the camp sacrificing his life in the process. A gunfight erupts and the prisoners are freed, among them McGregor's son, but Frank is not among them. Jiang is killed during the attack. When the surviving team and POWs withdraw to the helicopters, the guards attempt to deploy a rocket launcher but a mortally wounded Sailor pulls the pin on his grenade and jumps from a guard tower killing himself with the rocket crew. The helicopter escapes with Rhodes, Wilkes, Scott, Charts, Johnson, Lai Fun and all four liberated American POWs.
McGregor's son, recognizing Rhodes, tells him Frank died of illness soon after his capture despite attempts by the POWs to nurse him back to health. It is revealed that Frank was the soldier who stopped to carry a wounded McGregor during the platoon's evacuation to the helicopters in 1972. McGregor tells Rhodes that Frank "saved his life that day."
The group receives a well-attended and joyous welcome in the United States. Finally finding closure about Frank, Rhodes embraces his wife, Helen upon arrival.
The film began with a screenplay by actor Wings Hauser, who says he was inspired by the stories of a childhood friend, Gary Dickerson, who had been to Vietnam. "I saw that he had left something behind in Viet Nam and that triggered the whole thing," said Hauser. "And then, I became aware of the MIA and the POW situation and said: "Well, that will be the excuse to go back to Nam and get the POWs", but, what they're really going back for is their own clarity and their own integrity, right? And that's the story. That's the whole film."[2]
Hauser says it took 18 months to write the script[2] which he sold to Paramount. The film had at least five title changes, including Last River to Cross.[3]
John Milius became attached as producer. The script was rewritten by Joe Gayton. Hauser lost screenplay credit in arbitration however he received sole "Story by" credit. In 1989, Hauser said, without restrictions: "John Milius is a scumbag right-wing bastard and I can't wait for his day to die! That son of a bitch! The (other) guy who got the credit, he was a punk! I don't think he’s sold anything since and I have and he's a joke!"[2]
Paramount sent Gayton's script to director Ted Kotcheff late, in January 1983. The following month it came out that James Gritz, a former lieutenant colonel in the Green Berets (and the man that both the characters Rambo and Hannibal Smith are based on[according to whom?]), had led a secret mission into Laos the previous November to search for MIA American soldiers which ended when they were ambushed by Laotian soldiers. Kotcheff said "We assiduously avoided anything in our story similar to Gritz. Our research amazingly showed there were some 30 groups training for similar missions."[1]
Kotcheff said that Milius did write "two or three scenes" as well as making "a number of very creative suggestions" on the script. Among the scenes Milius wrote included one where Hackman gives a speech to the other soldiers about Vietnam being like a company that has gone bankrupt. "It was a wonderful speech", said Kotcheff, adding Milius "did write under pressure, but mainly he functioned as a producer."[4]
Milius said he wanted James Arness to play the lead role rather than Gene Hackman.[5]
Filming
Filming started June 6, 1983. The Laotian POW camp that forms the climax of the film was built on a private ranch in the Lumahai Valley on the island of Kauaʻi, Hawaii, and was filmed in early August, 1983. The opening scene depicting the Vietnam War was filmed a short distance away in a rice paddy, two miles (3.2km) from central Hanalei, Hawaii, and 200 yards (183 m) from the Kuhio Highway (Route 56). Additional parts of the film were shot in: Salt Lake City, Utah, Sun Valley, California, and Castaic, California (which served as the training camp).[6] The film was shot for "slightly less than" $11 million.[1]
The helicopters used in the film were purchased (as opposed to rented) and repainted, since the United States Department of Defense was unwilling to rent out the production military-spec Bell UH-1N Iroquois or Bell 206B Jet Ranger helicopters, due to the apparent "anti-government" nature of the film.[citation needed]
Milius hired a composer without Paramount's consent and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg overruled Milius.[7]
Marketing
Paramount had originally prepared an advertising campaign that was "factual and rather somber and centred on the plight of prisoners of war", according to one report.[1] However, after the marketing department saw the film they decided to create an entirely new campaign. The poster showed a moment invented for the campaign with a soldier (McGregor's son) being carried by another soldier (Sailor) with the copy line: "C'mon, buddy, we're going home." "We were looking to appeal to males on an emotional level", said Paramount's head of marketing, Gordon Weaver. "We were offering them an attainable fantasy. We'd all like to think that we can be heroes, that we would leave our jobs and families to do something really terrific for our friends."[1]
Reception
Box office
The film was a box-office hit, one of the top-earning films of 1983.[1] This was considered a surprise at the time because of the film's lack of stars and the fact it had to compete with Scarface and Sudden Impact. Gordon Weaver, Paramount's president of marketing, thought the film "was successful because of the emotional impact of the ending. The emotional ending really makes you feel terrific."[1]
Kotcheff said: "If we knew the secret of a film's success, we'd all be very wealthy. But I think it's partly the strong emotional tug of the father-son relationship."[1]
Critical response
Critical reception of the film was mixed, with a 60% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 10 critics.[8]
↑Tarantino, Quentin (11 April 2020). "Tarantino on Milius". The New Beverly Cinema. Archived from the original on 12 April 2020. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
↑D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1sted.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN9781423605874.
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