The Vietnam War has been documented in film for decades. Movies like Good Morning, Vietnam, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and various others have used the conflict as a backdrop. A lesser-known film that implements this conflict is 1984’s The Violent Breed, recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.
Known in Italy as Razza Violenta, the film kicks off as the conflict in Vietnam is ending. A platoon led by Cooper (Henry Silva) is assigned to rescue a group of captured children from the Vietcong. The mission, while successful, kills two of the platoon members and wounds Silva. The other survivors are Martin (Harrison Muller, the film’s knockoff Stallone stand-in) and Polo (Woody Strode), who declines a trip home and escapes into the country. Years pass. Martin and Cooper, now both ex-military, work together for the CIA. They get a special assignment: go back to Asia to find Polo, who has become a notorious drug lord operating out of Thailand after the war’s end.
The film is full of typical 1980s action fare: a slew of gunfights, sexy women (at one point a prostitute abandons her line of work to help Martin and Cooper on their mission, for…whatever reason), and nonstop violence. However, The Violent Breed is weighed down by bland performances, baffling character decisions, and an abrupt ending that offers no real resolution to anything that occurred before it. Strode and Silva do their best with the material, but there’s nothing new or noteworthy here. Action film junkies will relish this film, but nobody else will. There are many better war films to seek out.
This film would work in a classroom discussion about The Vietnam War or about the drug trade. It’s only suitable for ages 18 and above, so college classes may benefit the most from watching it. It may work for students studying American history or 20th-century history.
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