White Ghost

A very mediocre attempt to mimic Rambo and Missing in action. It fails on all counts. Poor acting, weak premise and a totally unacceptable interpretation of how an elite team of special forces soldier would act in the field. They are shown to be undisciplined and sloppy-very insulting. I love action movies and they don't have to be masterpieces, but this is a real yawner. Only saving grace, I downloaded it for free.

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.

Actor/Producer Wayne Crawford plays a grouchy commando common enough to have a line that finishes with "Cap in your ass!" And with WHITE GHOST there's a lesson on how to use William Katt's BIG WEDNESDAY co-star, Reb Brown (who had resembled a skinny and large version of each other), the right and wrong way - starting with what not to do...

The mission to "rescue" and/or "recover" Katt's titular rogue from the Vietnam jungle, where he's existed, obscured behind a phantom legacy since the unpopular war's closure almost twenty years earlier, is headed by Reb Brown, portraying a very serious, seemingly passive major, addressing a round table of grimacing politicians wanting nothing to do with the near-historic error of Vietnam...

From the conference room to his office, Brown's Maj. Cross delivers lines in a listless CAPTAIN AMERICA delivery. But have patience: there is a reason to smile when, upon hearing the news that Wayne Crawford's group of bully commandoes had screwed up the mission, Brown asks for a plane - by the film's gun-blasting finale, he makes like an awesome STRIKE COMMANDO freed from a CAGE with the kind of screaming UNCOMMON VALOR only he would wield. And in-between the talky intro and the action-packed finale, there's a lot going on in WHITE GHOST, and, at the same time, not much at all.

Those mercenaries... led by Crawford, whose swarthy countenance makes a more believable villain than he was an affable hero in JAKE SPEED... basically trudge around what seems like a giant circle of tree-brush, seeming to get absolutely nowhere. The men include a young moral compass played by ENDLESS LOVE actor Martin Hewitt, who eventually winds up befriending the title character after realizing who the good and bad guys are...

Katt's title yet extremely buried and subtle Steve Shepard teaches the kid a thing or two about preparing guns and bombs for an upcoming attack while providing his own backstory, which includes the usual "we burned villages with innocent women and children," a tragic real life element that's extremely overused in Vietnam flicks...

Before this is an unintentionally hilarious moment showing the mercenaries first scene "in-country" - without having witnessed their arrival, there they are, trudging along, back in 'Nam as if in a nature center during summer vacation, and one guy says: "It smells the same," as another shouts back, "Maybe you're the one who smells!" This is paraphrased, but much of their dialogue's practically as awkward and banal...

As is the casting of the curly blond haired GREATEST AMERICAN HERO as the WHITE GHOST instead of a brawny, more befitting Chuck Norris type or hell, even Reb Brown would have fit much better in the brazen lead - which would have made it way more accessible to cult movie fans with a bloodlust for steely heroes wielding tons of ultra-violence - which does eventually occur, especially in the Extended-Version Blu Ray...

Although, being a genuinely capable actor, the CARRIE prom king tries his very best, and is no stranger to playing Vietnam vets - Katt leaves and returns from the war in BIG WEDNESDAY (and HOUSE) - but as this legendary "human wraith," a passive-till-pushed survivalist (with girlfriend Rosalind Chao) who one of the mercenaries describes as "Not human," he's out of his element, particularly with the curly, vanilla-colored hair (inches short of a mullet) that bounces to each step as if shampooed daily...

But once all the characters reach the high-octane pinnacle, WHITE GHOST, with little time left, goes wonderfully overboard, and Katt won't go down without a teeth-grinding fight, especially since Wayne Crawford's Captain Walker strives to take him back dead, not alive (still bitter about being "ratted-out" for burning that village)...

And, though dime-a-dozen in the "Missing in Action" style sub-genre, this obscure curio moves decently enough so what fails as a war-related vehicle winds up a semi-decent action flick.

My review was written in December 1988 after watching the movie on TWE video cassette.

"White Ghost" is a competently made war film looking at the legacy of the Vietnam War from a fable-like viewpoint of the legendary titular U. S. soldier still over there avenging his comrades 15 years later.

William Katt assumes the Tarzan-type central role, sending a signal back to Washington (in vintage code) while fighting on solo (with spooky white kabuki makeup) in what is now a Vietnam/Cambodia border war. Major Cross (burly Reb Brown) sends in Wayne Crawford and a band of mercenaries to find Katt; wrinkle is that Crawford and Katt previously were at odds when serving together as Green Berets.

Film succeeds in capturing the morbid spirit attending the unresolved conflict, culminating in a Pyrrhic victory here as Katt hands over scores of collected dog tags to Brown in the finale.

Pic was lensed on Zimbabwe locations, ably doubling for Southeast Asia, and has good action footage directed by B. J. Davis, a graduate from the stunt director ranks. Film originally was planned for release by American Distribution Group, but that firm merged with Spectrafilm and pic ended up direct-to-video via TWE.

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.