Before 9/11, the action genre often utilised scenery-chewing Middle Eastern terrorists for villains. The terrorists would always be evil cowards with no explanation of their motives beyond mad shouts of “praise Allah.” Subtlety was nonexistent and xenophobia ran rampant. Post 9/11, Islamic terrorism has become a touchy subject not fit for action films. Hollywood has allowed filmmakers with a more sensitive touch to take over – although often with no less a propagandistic and pro-American touch than their action-oriented ancestors. Watching the action films of yesteryear that casually toss terrorism into the cheesy, fist-pumping arena of tough guy cinema can be both a funny and uncomfortable experience, and Death Before Dishonor does not break the mould.

 

DEATH BEFORE DISHONOR
USA, 1987, Terry Leonard

Fred Dryer is Sergeant Burns – a patriotic, middle-aged bad ass. Burns is sent to the Middle East to “observe” some terrorist activities and assist the local enforcement. After chasing a few rampant terrorists around the block, he is told off by the American ambassador (Paul Winfield) and reminded that he is not to take any sort of action even in self-defense. But when a kingpin terrorist (Rockne Tarkington) – appropriately named Jihad – kidnaps Colonel Halloran (Brian Keith), a father figure to Burns, our hero simply can’t obey orders. Risking international furor and killing a lot of people along the way, Burns and a group of similarly minded idiots go on a Team America-like rampage to slaughter the terrorists and rescue Halloran.

Death Before Dishonor is the worst kind of trash. I love macho silliness, but when you place it in an army setting, the levels of obnoxiousness are cranked up to intolerable heights. Death Before Dishonor has no shame. It’s so damned patriotic that at times it borders on parody. The villains and local Middle Eastern civilians are all maddening stereotypes complete with purely evil intentions and fake moustaches. Sure, the film purports to show the villains’ reasons for terrorism with the addition of a journalist character (played by the super hot Joanna Pacula) who attempts to deliver a bit of exposition, but Sgt. Burns quickly pounds her into submission and helps her to see in red, white and blue. Speaking of the film’s protagonist… what an awful character. The film opens by presenting Sgt. Burns as a tough army instructor, but it’s not long before he’s hamming it up and downing beers with his underlings. In a really creepy scene, he has two new recruits chug beer from their helmets while he pins their new army badges into their flesh and has the other soldiers punch them further into their chests. What the fuck?! It doesn’t help that Fred Dryer is utterly devoid of personality and brings nothing to an already cruddy role.

While its ludicrous patriotism is hard to sit through (it’s also quite funny), Death Before Dishonor scores points for its action sequences. With what is obviously not a big budget, director Terry Leonard and crew manage to pull off some impressive scenes – of particular note is the excellent car-flipping finale. There are plenty of explosions, squibs and dummies flying through the air to ensure that Death Before Dishonor is never dull. There’s also some odd scenes of fairly brutal violence scattered amongst the silly action sequences. Between the stilted dialogue and cackling villains, we get a nasty torture scene where the terrorists drill through the aged Colonel’s hand. This was certainly an out of place moment, but it made for a strange – therefore more interesting – viewing experience.

Though I’ve hammered Death Before Dishonor for its moronic flag waving, it must be said that it’s a breezy and enjoyable ninety minutes. These sorts of films are fascinating pieces of cinema history. You can’t get away with this sort of propaganda these days. Instead, modern pieces of patriotism trick us into thinking they’re letting us make up our own minds. Perhaps that’s even worse than Death Before Dishonor.