“What terrifies me is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims?” – Norm Macdonald
Picture a movie whose values are so transgressive to modern studio politics that a famous white actor is cast as an Arab terrorist, and it doesn’t even merit an outcry.
Or imagine a situation where the bad guys are all Muslim terrorists, the good guys are American (or Israeli!), and there is more concern about ancient anti-Semitism than Islamic jihad giving the religion a bad rap.
It may not seem possible, but 1986’s “The Delta Force” wasn’t that long ago, even if the Chuck Norris film represents an entirely different entertainment epoch.
Today, none of the film’s concepts could get through the various censoring studio executives. Whatever awareness of the world that is aided by a movie on the subject would be lost.
The factory-farmed Left would remain clueless about thousands of years of anti-Semitism and the pogroms that fill Jewish history.
Sound familiar?
“The Delta Force’s” plot is not hard to imagine for anyone familiar with a Dick Flick: a plane from Athens to New York is hijacked by Muslim terrorists from Lebanon. The plan is part revenge, part hostage exchange to strike back at Imperialist Americans and their “Zionist” allies.
The film is guaranteed to veer into “America, F*** Yeah” mode by the time commandos arrive on the scene (it is a Chuck Norris flick, after all). The story’s emotional weight is carried by two elderly Jewish couples and direct allusions to the Holocaust.
After almost four decades, this is the element of the film that would be most viciously attacked for being either too flippant about such serious subject matter or dismissive of the thesis entirely (since Jews cannot be considered victims in the current DEI paradigm).
It’s also the best reason to re-watch it.
Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin kicked some a$$ in “Delta Force” which hit theatres today in 1986. It would be Norris’ last notably successful film at the box office. #80s #80smovies pic.twitter.com/ALfDmv347b
— LandOfThe80s (@landofthe80s) February 14, 2023
Given ticketing difficulties in Athens that waylay the third terrorist in a truly sympathetic moment for anyone who’s dealt with modern TSA, only two armed Muslims hijack a plane full of healthy adults. This lopsided cowardice by dozens of passengers is perhaps the first and softest allusion to the Holocaust, and when one of the Jews drops a ring decorated with Hebrew characters, the plot takes us right back to the early 1940s.
“Point out all the Jews” is a statement that has rung throughout history and usually at the moment during which a society’s neighborly morals cave in on themselves. When the Lebanese terrorists find the Hebrew ring, their first instinct is to divide the plane between “Zionist” Jews and everyone else.
When we see the concentration camp tattoo still emblazoned on the arm of one of the elderly Jews, the historical reminder is too stark to imagine these genocidal Muslims as the current victims of Israeli expansion.
As the passengers fail time and time again to realize their numbers and retake the cabin, one wonders how many modern Americans would recognize what is being asked when the “point out all the Jews” question inevitably arrives at the outset of civilizational breakdown.
What the plot takes for granted is what a modern moviegoer notices most. The politics of victimization have reversed themselves in the last 40 years.
In 2024, it would be incumbent on the studio to make sure the audience realizes the Arab terrorists are in no way motivated by Muslim faith, do not represent a cultural attitude of anti-Semitism and may be victims of Jews and/or Israel.
What certainly would not happen is a reminder that Israel is the safe haven for Americans in the Middle East.
Also verboten is the fact that Jews have been hunted, persecuted and chased out of various countries throughout history. Since they sustained a televised pogrom by Hamas on October 7, 2023, the Hollywood crowd appears more concerned with limiting the spread of “Islamophobia.”
The politics of victimhood in America change with current events, but not quickly.
Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin (his final movie role) in the action thriller film Delta Force, 1986.
Image courtesy of MGM/Cannon #ChuckNorris #LeeMarvin pic.twitter.com/0BkWl3URnL
— Edward the Movie Buff
(@midgetmoxie) February 21, 2023
Consequently, you will never see a modern remake of “The Delta Force,” no matter how allergic to original content the film industry becomes. Jews cannot be victims, Arabs cannot be oppressors, and if an Arab terrorist were to feel genocidal toward all Jews, they could not be humanized with genuine paternal affection (as happens here.)
The message the movie intends to send is either too real or too important to include in a mass-audience Chuck Norris action flick, which wouldn’t be such a loss if there were any other substitutes. Unfortunately, today’s kids aren’t sneaking into R-rated movies. They’re taking their political cues from China’s TikTok app.
Whatever is true about the world is not as important to understand as the way we’re all supposed to feel about it. Today, your identity determines your victim or oppressor status far more than one’s actions.
“The Delta Force” has no business trying to inform and entertain in such a world, but that only makes its discarded message all the more valuable. Action movies strive to ground their bombast in the real world, and anti-Semitism is too often ignored today.
“The Delta Force” is a rare snippet of insight for an industry that has long lost its voice.
George Denny is the author of “Wokelynd,” available now at Amazon.com.
The post Why Chuck Norris’ ‘Delta Force’ Is Modern Hollywood Blasphemy appeared first on Hollywood in Toto.
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