This one sets up the plot rather easily with some US Intelligence commanders watching TV footage of a Arab tyrant (Robert Forster) as he rallies against the "Mad Cowboy in the White House":
Intelligence Commander #1: "We need to get that bastard."
Intelligence Commander #2: "How?"
Intelligence Commander #1: "I don't care."
That is all the set up you get, but what can you expect from a film where the villain is never given a name and merely billed as "The Dictator"? So they turn to Colby (George Kennedy), who gets his Counterforce team - who even have outfits with their own logo on them - on the job to protect Kassar (Louis Jourdan), the democratically elected President of this fictitious country. Counterforce consists of leader Harris (Jorge Rivero, billed as George Rivero), muscle Ballard (Isaac Hayes), zen karate guy Nash (Andrew Stevens) and rookie Sutherland (Kevin Bernhardt). Gee, can you guess which member of the team will be killed in action?
This is basically a low-rent DELTA FORCE knockoff, but it is not without its charms. The film is basically just two extended action scenes (protecting Kassar and saving his kidnapped wife and son) but it moves pretty fast and is exciting enough. The principals are all fine but Kennedy and Forster - who is obviously supposed to look like Gaddafi - get little screen time. The best character is a master of disguise hit-man played by a dubbed Hugo Stiglitz. I laughed when he disrobed in the elevator and was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt underneath his suit. The film ends with The Dictator getting away and sets up a COUNTERFORCE II, but that never happened for whatever reason. I like to think it was because Andrew Stevens discovered the softcore thriller genre and the filmmakers just felt it wouldn't be the same with a new team.
Intelligence Commander #1: "We need to get that bastard."
Intelligence Commander #2: "How?"
Intelligence Commander #1: "I don't care."
That is all the set up you get, but what can you expect from a film where the villain is never given a name and merely billed as "The Dictator"? So they turn to Colby (George Kennedy), who gets his Counterforce team - who even have outfits with their own logo on them - on the job to protect Kassar (Louis Jourdan), the democratically elected President of this fictitious country. Counterforce consists of leader Harris (Jorge Rivero, billed as George Rivero), muscle Ballard (Isaac Hayes), zen karate guy Nash (Andrew Stevens) and rookie Sutherland (Kevin Bernhardt). Gee, can you guess which member of the team will be killed in action?
This is basically a low-rent DELTA FORCE knockoff, but it is not without its charms. The film is basically just two extended action scenes (protecting Kassar and saving his kidnapped wife and son) but it moves pretty fast and is exciting enough. The principals are all fine but Kennedy and Forster - who is obviously supposed to look like Gaddafi - get little screen time. The best character is a master of disguise hit-man played by a dubbed Hugo Stiglitz. I laughed when he disrobed in the elevator and was wearing an Iron Maiden shirt underneath his suit. The film ends with The Dictator getting away and sets up a COUNTERFORCE II, but that never happened for whatever reason. I like to think it was because Andrew Stevens discovered the softcore thriller genre and the filmmakers just felt it wouldn't be the same with a new team.