The clear-cut delineation between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” is plainly evident in Missing in Action, Chuck Norris’s 1984 action film, and is one of many similarly constructed Vietnam war films of the 1980’s. Norris’s film, directed by Joseph Zito, predates the similar Sylvester Stallone vehicle Rambo: First Blood Part II by a year, and inaugurates what Jeremy Devine calls the accommodation of the desire to win, the need to be entertained, and the cathartic notion of liberating American captives. Devine also claims that the 1981 release of the American hostages held for 444 days by Iranian fundamentalists increased the desire in the American public to seek revenge, and to view recent overseas debacles like the Vietnam war in new, victorious, light.
Chuck Norris
Enter Chuck Norris, the superhero. Not present in Missing in Action is the shamed, disillusioned veteran of The Boys in Company C (1978), or First Blood (1982), and neither do we see the terrified grunt simply struggling for survival against both insurmountable odds and the evil within present in later works such as Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Platoon (1986). In Norris’s Col. Braddock, the viewer is presented with a fearless soldier, a soldier with unwavering aim and unbreakable will. Victory is a foregone conclusion from the beginning, from even before the beginning, simply in the casting of Norris in the lead. His victory is assured by the established Norris character carried through such works as the previous Good Guys Wear Black (1978), and A Force of One (1981); the character’s name may change, but the viewer knows that, essentially, they are all the same. Norris, like Stallone and Schwarzeneggar, is possessed of an image of invincibility, an image which, before any screen credits even roll, practically assures the audience of his survival, separating him from the grunts around him. Even the poster for the film seems to make this promise, as Braddock, in the foreground, stands guard as MIA’s climb to the safety of an army helicopter, the power and authority of his phallic rifle an unspoken guarantee of potential violence. If nothing else, the poster posits one bold claim: Chuck Norris is a man, and you cross his path at your own risk.
American the Liberator
Yet, for all Missing in Action’s completely unrealistic execution and uncompromising representation of masculinity, there remains an interesting duality of loyalties in the film. It cannot be denied that America is presented as the liberator, attempting to tear down the veil of communism that blinds the people of Vietnam (the conveniently placed posters of Mao and Lenin being a nice touch), but the film does avoid unwavering loyalty to the American government. There is a sense that American officials are not doing all they can and should be doing to ensure the release of American soldiers in Vietnam, and, while Missing in Action does not delve as far into blatant bureaucratic corruption as Rambo: First Blood Part II does, it is made quite evident that the only cure is Braddock, the superman, the physical embodiment of potent masculinity.
Cartoonish Masculinity
By being made so cartoonishly manly and invincible, however, Braddock is rendered unbelievable. The level to which he is empowered is one of adolescent fantasy, of boys’ games. This notion is bolstered by the Spider-Man sequence on Braddock’s television near the film’s beginning. The children’s cartoon is not merely in the background, but is given fairly significant screen time as the program actually dominates the screen long enough for the viewer to get a sense of the plot, of the heroes and villains. Braddock is Spider-Man, the hero, shown swinging before an American flag, but is also the villain, the Shocker, breaking free from his cell and fighting against those who have imprisoned him. Braddock stops to consider the cartoon for a length of time before finally being spurred into action, before becoming the hero of adolescent masculinity and the scourge of bureaucratic red tape.
