Opposing Force

Nice action movie including thrills , chills , high body-count and spectacular fights . A team of air force soldiers (Tom Skerritt, Robert Wightman, John Considine, among others) , including a female (Lisa Eichhorn) for the first time, carry out a training assignment . Their mission is to avoid being captured by the 'enemy' . They parachute onto an island in the Philippines, only to find that the commandant will stop at nothing to try and break his trainees. The group parachutes onto a remote island, where their objective is to reach the safety zone before the "opposing force" captures them . Everything does not go as expected, and the training mission turns into the real thing. But things go wrong when the commandant (Anthony Zerbe) of an air force camp simulates prisoner-of-war conditions for realist training , but he goes too far , creating too real torture situations . He preys on the only female in the experiment , submitting her to strong humiliation.

A decent film with thrills , chills , violence , nudism , tortures and lots of action. Adventure and action movie shot in Philippines Islands with colorful cinematography by Michael Jones and thrilling musical score by Marc Donahue composed in the Eighties style by means of synthesizer . Concerning a group of military personnel who have signed up for the air force's elite Reconnassaince/Escape program resulting in fateful consequences when the commanding officer goes insane . In spite of its violence , and adding some wholly as well as corny moments , in this an acceptable yarn there are some impressive combats and rousing confrontations . Main cast are pretty well , such as Tom Skerritt, Lisa Eichhorn , along with secondaries as Anthony Zerbe who gives the best acting as ruthless , brutal villain commandant at the hell camp , Richard Roundtree , Robert Wightman, John Considine and George Cheung.

Directed with flair-play enough by Eric Karson , an expert on thrillers and action movies . His debut theatrical feature film was in 1980 with "The Octagon" stars Chuck Norris and Black Eagle (1988) with Jean Claude Van Damme and Sho Kosugi . Subsequently, he directed "Opposing Force (1986) " and "Angel Town" . Equally , he produced "Nemesis" and "Lionheart" with Van Damme in one of his best vehicles . Action addicts will give this one a passing grade , all others need not apply . If you're a Tom Skerritt fan , you'll appeal this movie , that's why it contains action enough and violence for enthusiastic of war movies.

This film, i think i've seen it twice, is actually a really entertaining movie. Your really feel the hatred for Commendant Becker, and the suffering of the in-training POW's.

Tom Skerritt is good as always, he must be one of the best low budget actors there is.

Well worth seeing.

They had the makings of a good movie here. A group of soldiers are taken out to a jungle camp for a rigorous P.O.W. survival course, but instead of a "controlled" experiment, they begin to suspect that the camp's commander has gone "over the edge" and is turning the experiment into a deadly reality. However, the premise is muddled by adding a female soldier to the mix, a choice which seems gimmicky and which throws off-balance the rest of the plot. (Ironically, the female angle is probably what "sold" the idea to the studio.) Some viewers may enjoy the male-bondage scenes but it's sad to read that the actor who plays Ripkin and is memorably shown tied bare-chested to a X-shaped cross committed suicide in 2001. Anthony Zerbe, America's answer to Frank Thring, is unimaginatively cast as the villain. And yes, the movie seriously weakens in the last 10 minutes.

The veteran Major Logan (Tom Skerritt), Lieutenant Casey (Lisa Eichhorn) and a group of selected Air Force pilots go to an isolated island for training for prisoner of war. The team jumps out of the plane using parachute and they are captured in the island and sent to a camp under the direction of Commander Becker (Anthony Zerbe) and Sergeant Stafford (Richard Roundtree). Each pilot is submitted to torture and humiliation in very realistic situation, but pilot Botts (Robert Wightman) is selected as a kind of example of humiliation to the other prisoners. Becker unsuccessfully tries to convince the tough Lieutenant Casey to give up the training since he is not prepared to have a woman but she does not accept the request. When Logan learns that Becker raped Casey during the night, he realizes that Becker is insane and the training has become reality. Now Logan, Casey and Botts have to fight to survive.

"Opposing Force", a.k.a. "Hellcamp", is a full of action film about a group of elite soldiers that discover that their training is for real since the commander is insane. In 1986, this storyline seemed to be impossible, but in the present days the news informs many cases of accidents in realistic military training. Who knows? My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Força Oposta" ("Opposing Force")

Zerbe scares the sh*t out of me again! Seriously, this guy plays menacing like few can. Not just a mindless hunter type of fear...his villains are cunning, his gaze unsettles and his smile sends shivers down your spine. This movie makes me cringe with his sadistic portrayal of Becker. A man who convinces himself that his actions toward the female prisoner are for her own good. He justifies everything he does to her and never seems to realize that he is doing these things because he wants to. That is frightening to watch.

Roundtree's character is disappointing. Too weak for a big man like him to play. He is, in essence, the Nazi, just following orders even though he knows they are wrong. By the time he wakes up to his cowardice, it is too late. But in the same vein as Zerbe's character, the tormentors have rationalized their actions, and as history shows us, this seems to be how these things play out. People under control, looking weak, held by people in authority who start abusing their power over them. I've seen the Iraq example given several times, or Gitmo. It is a fair comparison...so is the Nazi model.