Opposing Force — Opposing Force(Blu Ray)
Directed by action expert Eric Karson (The Octagon, Black Eagle and Lionheart), Opposing Force aka Hell Camp is a 1986 action movie starring Lisa Eichorn (Cutter’s Way, Yanks and The Vanishing), Tom Skerritt (Alien, Top Gun and Contact), Anthony Zerbe (The Omega Man, Cool Hand Luke and License to Kill) and the legend that is Richard Roundtree (Shaft, Q: The Winged Serpent and Speed Racer).
Opposing Force tells the story of a group of elite soldiers including Casey (Eichorn), the first woman to undertake the ultimate military training mission. The mission is simple, they must parachute onto a remote island and reach their goal before being captured. If they happen to get caught, they will experience conditions similar to those they would in the event that they were captured and taken to a POW camp to be tortured.
Unsurprisingly, the group are all caught and taken to the POW camp, where under the charge of Commander Becker (Zerbe) and Sergeant Stafford (Roundtree), they are tortured and humiliated. They use a variety of methods of torture including waterboarding, isolation, beatings and starvation to try and break our heroes, none of whom crack, much to the chagrin of Zerbe, who has by this point lost all sense of control and is now getting some kind of sick and perverted pleasure from his attempts to break the group, even brutally raping Casey before she and Major Logan (Skerritt) decide it’s time to fight back.
What you expect to be a typical 80s action movie turns into something far more exploitative and sleazy, with scenes of torture, violence and nudity. Zerbe is excellent as Becker, the camp commander who has lost the plot. He’s spent far too long in the jungle, and he knows it. Eventually, his misogynistic attitude gets the better of him, and he goes far beyond what the military deems acceptable while trying to break Casey. Skerritt is also very good as our all-American good guy hero, Major Logan, however, it is Eichart who steals the plaudits here with her performance as Casey. Richard Roundtree on the other hands feels a little underused and never really gets to do what he does best when he is on screen.
Overall, Opposing Force is a fairly solid exploitative action movie, which features some good performances, decent direction, and an average plot, however, it is quite brutal and may only appeal to those with a strong stomach for such matters. This great new Blu-ray from Ronin Flix features a new HD mastered print, an audio commentary from director, Eric Karson, as well as the movie’s alternative ending. I quite enjoyed Opposing Force but appreciate that it’s probably not for everyone. If you like your action movies to be of the more exploitative kind, then this one is most definitely for you.