White Ghost

In this movie like many other Vietnam war films, Vietnam army is shown as weaker that US army. But everybody know that US lost this war. Vietnam officer tells this to Thi "We fought them and won". But in movie, Vietnamese soldiers can't shoot an American standing exposing his body in a short distance. Entire Vietnamese squad could not kill one American. Can any special force commando expose his body and destroy an entire army camp? This is an insult to Vietnam army who crashed the US forces very cleverly in Vietnam war. An army as shown in this film can be defeated by any person who can operate a gun. No special force training is needed. Apart from this weaknesses, it gives good hand to hand fight scenes. What is the purpose of Lt Steve's stay in the jungle? Was he on an undercover mission and later the connection with US army or CIA was lost? Major Cross states something about such operation and Steve says to a mercenary about his commanding officer is holding a woman and child. What is Thi? Is she working for US? Or did Steve stay in Vietnam to live with Thi? Walker and his bald sidekick are the most villains who kills the members of their platoon too. Movie would be more realistic if the war scenes were presented not making Steve a bulletproof superman. The love of Thi to Steve is very emotionally presented. Rosalind's acting as a woman bearing any pain to protect her man is appreciable.

When you think about an ex-American soldier from the Vietnam war raging havoc in that country in the 1980s a la "Rambo", it is very unlikely that the first actor someone would picture in the role would be William Katt. Yet here he is in one of the biggest miscasting decisions I've seen in a movie for a long time. Seeing him act like Rambo does occasionally bring in some amusement, but that's about all the entertainment value "White Ghost" has. Although shot in Zimbabwe(!), the jungle locations are badly chosen, making the movie look like it was shot in the wilds of Florida. These locations and the actors are almost entirely shot with the cheap technique of having everything close to the camera. The action sequences are routine at best, and the story and characters we have seen in dozens of other movies before. If you come across a dusty copy in a thrift store, it's best to leave it alone and move to something else.

William Katt (channeling Stallone's John Rambo) plays the title character, and his blonde permed mullet is a must see to believe. Sadly after the opening scenes of him going topless showing off his physique with his mullet in full flight, he doesn't keep the locks for much longer. Known as the white ghost by the Vietnamese, as he appears and disappears collecting the souls (their dog tags) of dead American soldiers. The American intelligence gets wind of it, and believe it could MIA soldier behind enemy lines for over 15 years and organises a rescue mission. Wayne Crawford shows up as the hired mercenary, and really chews up the scenery. However everything turns awry when we learn there's history between Katt and Crawford's characters. Reb Brown gets a minor role as the officer who organised the mission, but still manages to flexs his muscles, and becomes trigger happy in the film's dying stages.

No real surprises here; in the mould of 'First Blood Part 2' & the 'Missing in Action' films... this is a streamlined, gung-ho b-action joint done in a fast clip. Plenty of bloody carnage, and brutality as it doesn't shy away from its jungle booby traps, torture, massacres and explosions. I do find Katt an odd choice though, especially since they had Brown at their disposal. Maybe they loved his work in the horror-comedy 'House', where he did play a Vietnam Vet, or simply it was the hair? But anyway the more I think, it sort of believable In appearance because Katt's character been there for that long. Not being captured though is another story.

Although the worrying start will have you saying "What the?", this Vietnam yarn (nothing more) quickly redeems itself, and becomes an involving film, where ex vet Katt, below par, is still in Vietnam, where he's so often shacks up with girlfriend Chao. It's now 1987, and an elite team of mercenaries, are ordered by the Pentagon to find and eliminate Katt, where a few complications, arise. The Commander of this squad really has a hard on for Katt, who wouldn't mind seeing his arch enemy squeal before he dies. He's reasons mirror that in the same scenario of back story, done in Heated Vengeance. One of the Commander's squad (Hewitt) who's very much against it, sides with Katt, where our wrong cast lead must take on the elite force and Charlie who come out like ants. They have kidnapped Chao, and for Katt, his work is definitely cut out for him, where it becomes quite of a heavy mission itself. White Ghost has some gutsy moments, among explosions, close calls, and a little love making. The near mine trip scene is tense. It's start has Katt, just roaming through Vietnam, with the ever present Charlie about, his long curly hair, just gleamimg in the daylight, although he's just stepped off the make up truck, though I wouldn't really joke about that. He doesn't say much, but is just sheer wrong for the part, who like me, will have you thinking that, all the way through. That's just the vibe, you'll get. But Katt went pretty much out of action, after The Greatest American Hero, so he pretty much needed the work, discounting Baby and House. On the whole WG isn't a bad Nam' actioner at all, with good plotting, but too an admirable lead up/finale, when an old Vet buddy, goes into save him. The one major fallback here, sadly is Katt. By the way, White Ghost is a term for a Vet who disappeared off the radar, believed to be dead, or not, where in Katt's case, he's pretty much alive.

Although I haven't seen every Vietnam war-movie in the world yet, this does rank a bit above average, based on pure entertainment-value alone.

I was fortunate enough to find this non-classic movie on a fairly cheap Scandinavian DVD-release, and immediately had to buy it (based on other good experiences with movies starring William Katt, Wayne Crawford and Reb Brown), and when I finally decided to see it - after three years of sitting on the shelf - I wasn't disappointed one bit.

The story is somewhat as follows: When the American soldiers went home from Viet Nam (that's how they spell it) in 1969, not everyone got out in time. The highly skilled soldier Steve Shepard aka "White Ghost" (William Katt) has lived out in the jungle for 15 years, and has even made a nice tree-house for himself and his Asian girlfriend Thi (Rosalind Chao), who is pregnant with his child. After all this time, the Americans discover that he's still out there, and decide to send out a team of mercenaries to finally rescue him and learn what he knows from his stay in the jungle for all those years - he had gathered a large amount of dead American soldier's dog-tags, and now their families will finally know what happened to their missing relatives.

But something goes wrong, and the commanding officer Major Cross (Reb Brown) unfortunately sends off a team led by a grudge-holding scumbag, Captain Walker (Wayne Crawford), who doesn't intend to get Shepard back alive. Now it is up to Cross to get him out of there himself, and up to Shepard to both keep himself and his girlfriend alive, not only from the evil gang of mercenaries, but also from the equally evil Vietnamese soldiers who are right on their tails.

Now, this movie is really fantastic, it keeps your interest from the very first frame, and has enough interesting ideas and scenes to never let up. The violence isn't as extreme like the other reviewers suggested, but sufficient to keep both action- and gore-hounds satisfied. Lots of shooting, explosions, and even a car-chase in the jungle is always nice!

Bonus: One of the bad guys look eerily like Jesse Ventura (as he did in "Predator"), pretty sure his name's Karl Johnson, but not 100% certain. Also, there were many cool boobie-traps in the jungle, just like in "First Blood".

Recommended only for those who either enjoy all sorts of Vietnam war-movies, or just for those who like extreme action-scenes.. which, actually becomes quite humorous, especially when watching it with friends.