Good Guys Wear Black

• Directed by Ted Post
• June 2, 1978

An ex-US Army commando who was part of a special unit must learn why his former comrades are being killed before those behind the plot get him.

I can buy Chuck Norris as a commando. I have a little trouble buying him as a teacher let alone a professor. At least when you present the idea to idea to me yet that’s weirdly the most plausible element of Good Guys Wear Black. At least that’s the one element that goes over the smoothest. There isn’t much plot here. Despite not much plot they squeeze every ounce of movie they possibly can out of what they had. Action is used appropriately and because they’re putting in a full throttle effort into this it holds you. It’s exciting enough and interesting enough that it deserves to be considered a Cult Classic.

Not that you need much of one. You’re watching this for action scenes and need just enough of a story to carry you to the end. It just needs to be done well enough that the viewer is entertained. And will be entertained.

It’s just the story of a guy who got screwed over who’s now trying to stop from getting screwed over because of the previous screw over. And I can’t help but notice the similarities between the story here and the later Commando. While there are differences, the core of the story is that the former members of a secret and super effective military unit are being killed by an unknown person with enough knowledge to find them.

Maj. John T. Booker (Chuck Norris) once he returns to civilian life is not only a race car driver but teaches at a college and has a girlfriend he keeps forgetting about who shows up in one scene and drives him to school. After that you would be forgiven for not remembering her because not only is she never named but is never mentioned after he gets to work. Makes it easier to be okay with him bedding the movie’s love actual interest.

After that he meets a senate investigator posing as a reporter named Margaret (Anne Archer) who tags along with Booker as he goes from surviving member to surviving member only to watch them die. He speaks to them out in the open where they could be easily killed because that makes sense. The character of Margaret really didn’t do much to help him that Booker couldn’t do himself. She’s just there to look pretty and show that he’s a manly man that can bed women.

Dana Andrews as Edgar Harolds gives probably the best performance in this whole movie. His character is a long-term state department employee who didn’t play the game right and has never risen to the heights that he wish he had. He’s also burdened by guilt over agreements that he’s made in order to obtain peace for an end of the Vietnam War. It’s rather great acting in a movie that doesn’t deserve it at all. I’m not saying this is a bad movie but if Andrews had given a performance like what he did here in any other movie he would’ve won some awards but not here. 

Chuck Norris for his part does well as a former soldier who is trying to put the past behind him and forget the middle finger given to him by his own government. There is actually some effort on his part to create a character and not just the manliest man in the movie. Maybe not a great performance but a better performance for him than some of his other movies.

And what is a movie like this without a pal in the right place? Booker gets help from his buddy Murray Saunders (Lloyd Haynes) who is needlessly mysterious and holding back key details which given the situation he probably should tell his pal. Maybe not in his office, but in some place that might not be monitored. What those details are seems to become largely unimportant by the time of the second death in this film. Why? Because his buddy is all in on the whole tracking down the villain thing.

James Franciscus is Senator Conrad Morgan and the main baddie of this all. He is a smart villain with all his bases covered. He is an ambitious individual who sold out Booker’s team for peace. Somehow Booker’s team was a linchpin for peace but that does not make too much sense. Not giving them that one team could’ve derailed the whole peace process? Why did the US not make more of these teams and wipe out the North Vietnamese communists? It sounds like they could have. Anywho… 

Because it embraces what it is and does not have delusions of grandeur, Good Guys Wear Black stands strong among many other action films. It is better written and better executed than it deserves to be. And the acting even among the weakest performers is generally better than what was obviously intended as a cheap cash grab deserved. Somehow they managed to stumble into making a good movie and solidifying Chuck Norris as an action icon.

Starring a man who doesn’t do push-ups but rather pushes the world down, Good Guys Wear Black is a treat for action fans and Chuck Norris fans. But I’m not sure how this will be viewed by the general moviegoer. If you know nothing of Norris or cannot appreciate the era skip. Otherwise enjoy!