The Challenge

Bomb-carrying satellite from the US which crash-lands somewhere in the Pacific, starting a surrogate war between North America and China. Each country picks one soldier in an island death fight; the US government chooses game hunter Darren McGavin to take on China's pick, played by Mako. Juvenile war-games from writer Marc Norman--and perfect fare for budding G. I. Joes--though there was apparently trouble behind the scenes: the direction is credited to the nonexistent "Allen Smithee" (TV veteran George McCowan reportedly did the honors).

I saw this movie when it first came out and have also been trying to find a copy. This is an excellent movie with a great interaction between Mr. McGavin and Mako. The movie seemed to make some bold statements for the time (l970) when it was produced. I definitely look forward to seeing this again. I wonder if anyone knows whether this is still being shown around in re-runs. I highly recommend this movie and feel this might have drawn a type of cult following much the way 'Tribes' did when it was first released about the same time period. I feel that this was an excellent anti war allegory which left the viewer sensing the moral to the story.

I too, saw this movie when it first aired on ABC television as their Movie of the Week. The cast is very strong with some outstanding character actors taking what could have been a very hoaky movie and execute the story with believability. Mako and Darrin McGavin have an interesting relationship and interact well as they try to kill each other. Neither care much for their governments but, fight to win in spite of that. This movie has been highly under rated. I too, would like to see this movie get released, either back out on to syndication or DVD. A good Cold War movie. It's fun to see movies where actors are just starting out, Sam Elliot is the case in point here. He plays the Army's choice (and the ace up the sleeve) for the Champion. He is the by the book professional soldier who follows orders against McGavin as the unorthodox mercenary who is preferred by the State Department. Brodrick Crawford is the General who would rather not play this game and James Whitmore is the political suit who has to make the whole game work.

I saw this movie when it originally aired in 1970, and I loved it. I also remember the trailers from the week before that centered around the weapon Gallery used (a double barreled sub-machine gun),really cool ! The idea that two countries would decide to settle their differences and avoid all out war by choosing their toughest soldier to fight it out on a deserted island was great. Sadly, both sides plot to stack the deck and keep an ace up their sleeve, a starkly realistic twist. I've been trying to get a tape of this movie for twenty years, and will gladly pay a reasonable finders fee for a copy.

I have been looking for this film for 25 years. It was on the old ABC Movie of the week several times and I have not seen it since. Everyone that I have ever mentioned this movie to just goes Duh I don't know, or they try and tell me it's a Lee Marvin movie (wrong flick).