Where to watch P.O.W. the Escape
3 Stars
US Airborne colonel James Cooper accepts a daredevil mission to liberate just before the impending end of the Vietnamese war some POW’s which the Vietcong refuses to exchange, from a camp that officially doesn’t even exist. he alone survives the blowing up up his team’s extraction helicopter and is captured himself. The Vietcong camp commander, captain Vinh, collected a small fortune in gold looted from POWs and wants to buy a new life in the US, so he offers Cooper freedom for help, but is turned down. Just before a convoy arrives to deport the prisoners to Hanoi, Cooper accepts if all Americans may come with them. An adventurous chase follows, fighting each-other as well as Vietcong, not to mention selfish rogue Sparks’s tendency to mess everything up. Near the border, Cooper insists to come to the rescue of a trapped US unit’s survivors.
A year after the massive success of Rambo and, to a lesser extent, Missing in Action, P.O.W. the Escape debuted in theaters. The Cannon Film Group commissioned this Vietnam tale, which has a more compelling story than those previously mentioned titles. P.O.W. The Escape is more of an adventure tale than a ‘prison camp’ movie; the Vietnam War isn’t even crucial; this story could have just as easily been set during WWII, and it wouldn’t change anything other than the setting. The remarkable thing about the movie is the ‘epic’ scope of its screenplay, which includes an escape, a complicated nemesis, and an in-fight amongst the U.S. soldiers, and still manages to incorporate an homage to the Battle of Hamberger Hill into its compact 90-minute run time.
David Carradine, who’s often adrift (presumably on hash) in these B-movies, is excellent in P.O.W. the Escape. His portrayal of the unwavering Colonel harkens back to the days of the stoic leading man, commanding his men and the audience’s attention, and he delivers. It’s always a pleasure to see Steve James in anything, and he is solid as the second in command. P.O.W. the Escape exceeded my admittedly low expectations to become my favorite David Carradine movie of the 1980s.
Directed by: Gideon Amir
Written by: Jeremy Lipp, James Bruner, Malcolm Barbour
Starring: David Carradine, Charles Grant, Mako