Uncommon Valor

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Uncommon Valor, made in 1983 and starring Gene Hackman, Randall "Tex" Cobb, Robert Stack (yes that Robert Stack), Reb Brown (yes that Reb Brown), and a post-The Outsiders, pre-Dirty Dancing Patrick Swayze.

It is The Eighties, and Col. Jason Rhodes (Hackman), a Korean war veteran, is haunted by the loss of his son, Frank, who has been Missing In Action since 1972. After a particularly disturbing nightmare, he decided to take action. He petitions the government and all of his military contacts to no avail, eventually being forceably retired for being a nuisance. What's a Papa Wolf to do? Team up with the father of another MIA, now an oil magnate (Stack) for finances and recruit your son's former squadmates, drill them into a precise military unit with the help of a young Marine Kevin Scott (Swayze), and send them back to the war they've been trying to escape for the last 10 years.

The second half of the film chronicles their arrival in Thailand, scuffles with the CIA (who don't want an armed incursion setting off the delicate political situation), and run-ins with corrupt soldiers, arms dealers, and the final assault on the POW camp in Laos.

Far better than it sounds, mostly due to the interactions between the characters, excellent performances (with some exceptions), and realistic handling of PTSD. Surprisingly, came out before Rambo: First Blood, Part II, which dealt with the same issue.

Tropes used in Uncommon Valor include:


  • Ace Pilot: Johnson and Charts, though Charts fits the hotshot role better.
  • Action Girl: Lai Fun, and to a lesser extent, her sister.
  • Badass: The whole crew, but Sailor and Wilkes specifically..
  • Berserk Button: Go on. Tell Sailor he's got no respect for himself.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Rhodes's son died of illness several years before in the very camp they found. He was too late to save his son, but found Macgregor's son and three others for whom the war is now over.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: SAILOR.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: inverted, as it's the veteran Sailor who calls out the much younger Scott. Scott is confident and leaps at the chance to show off his Kung Fu, but it doesn't go well for him.
  • Casanova Wannabe Charts hits on anything that moves. He even tries to sneak up and, erm, snuggle with Action Girl Lai Fun. It doesn't go well.
  • Chainsaw Good: Sailor manages to find a CHAINSAW on their practice run through the mock-up village. He even takes out a cardboard cut-out guard with it.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Sailor's Grenade
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Sailor again, of the drug-addled variety, at least when we first meet him. He pulls himself together once it's explained why Rhodes is doing this, but only to a given value of together.
    • "Man, I'm so far beyond that shit, man... I can pull energy from the AIR. I can talk to polar bears, I converse with paramecium, man, I FUCKED NUCLEAR WASTE."
  • Cool Old Guy / Badass Grandpa: Xiang, the drug dealer who supplied the mission, and then came along to man the recoilless rifle and be awesome.
    • Rhodes himself qualifies, both as a capable leader, and as an anti-personnel sniper.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Charts
  • Description Porn: Wilkes explains how to shiv someone quietly:
    • "You come in low under his line of sight. You leap... taking him down, placing your hand over his nose, pulling his face away from you. At the base of his skull, to the right of the spine, into what the Chinese call the Wind Gate. You insert, scramble the brains. What you have is instant rag doll."
  • Desolation Shot: The team travel through the remains of a village whose every inhabitant was killed by mustard gas.
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Scott tries to be this early in the veteran's re-training. It doesn't work, as the men see him as The Neidermeyer, when the situation is actually that his father was a pilot shot down in Vietnam, and this is Kevin's way of coming to terms with his loss.
  • Heroic BSOD: One of these lead to Wilkes' claustrophobia and disconnection from life.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Blaster, Sailor.
    • Rhodes' son Frank was captured after stopping to retreive Macgregor's son and carrying the injured man to the helicopter.
  • Hero Stole My Bike: "Wilkes, we need transportation." "Buy it, or borrow it?" "Steal the fucker!"
  • The Korean War / The Vietnam War: Rhodes and Macgregor are veterans of the former, and the rest of the team are veterans of the latter.
  • Mad Bomber: Blaster. Oh my. At one point he even starts cackling insanely when it seems he'll surpass his record of a break or "series of planned explosions".
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: Putting a hat and a poncho over Randall "Tex" Cobb doesn't disguise that it's Randall "Tex" Cobb travelling through Laos.
  • Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner: Sailor gets three in a row:
    • "Now, asshole. RIGHT! NOW!"
    • "Boy... you just bought the whole can of WHOOP-ASS!" *cue Foe-Tossing Charge*
    • *after being thrown** Boy, usin' that Oriental martial bullshit on me is gonna get REAL expensive." *cue stomping*
  • Putting the Band Back Together: Rhodes' recruitment of the scattered veterans. Subverted slightly in that they initally all turn him down bar Blaster and Sailor (who they had to dig out of prison), but all show up when the plane is ready to leave.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Blaster, while a Mad Bomber in war, was a slacker in peacetime who never cared about anything, and spent his time racing BM Xs and goofing around. When the bombs on the bridge failed to detonate, he sacrificed himself to make sure his part of the plan went through.
    • Sailor, who got to the helicopter that left Frank behind, and had to be physically restrained from going back for Frank, got to buy time for Rhodes to get back to the helicopter with a POW, thus bookending the film.
  • Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right: Rhodes is told by every member of the military he talks to that he should give up. He, at one point, declared that'd he'd go in there with a pocketknife if he had to.
    • Macgregor, even in his noncombatant role, is told that there were serious threats against his company if he went through with the mission, such as IRS audits. His response? "Fuck you."
  • Security Blanket: Sailor's grenade. "Well, Sailor figures if life gets too shitty, he'd just pull the pin, and see what's next."
    • played completely serious with one of the POWs: when Sailor breaks down the door to take him home, the POW, who's so weak he can barely lift his head to speak, refuses to leave because he can't leave "The garden". Sailor expediates matters by reassuring him "Don't worry. We'll take the garden with us."
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: All of the main characters to some extent, but Wilkes is the best example of the trope, burnt out to the point where he spent days staring at the walls, making disturbing industrial art, and can't sleep through the night indoors. Admittedly, he was a tunnel rat and what made him this way? Brr.
  • What Are You in For?: When Rhodes goes to find Sailor, he's in prison. Well, IN prison, but not under arrest: he "blow-torched a local kingpin biker" so the local cops are holding him in Witness Protection for his own good.
  • Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: played straight with the claustrophobic former tunnel rat Wilkes being forced by circumstance to explore a drain into the POW camp.
  • Wretched Hive: The Blue Parrot bar, complete with slimy maitre d, patrons firing guns into the ceiling to the music, the menus being lists of weaponry, and the basement being a huge warehouse of guns.
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