The Soldier

• Also released as Codename: The Soldier
• Written, Directed, and Produced by James Glickenhaus
• June 15, 1982 (US)

Russian terrorists steal a nuclear bomb and threaten to detonate it in a Saudi oil field if the Israelis do not leave the West Bank and Gaza unless an American anti-terrorist unit can stop them.

The Soldier is a Cold War action thriller that I was far too young to even know about let alone be allowed to see by my parents. Mercifully I’m an adult and can do what I want (so long as my fiancé allows it) and when I heard about this I decided to check it out late one Friday night. The 80s were a particular sweet spot in film for me and I felt I was almost guaranteed something good. Anywho…

It’s one of those 80s low budget thrillers that relies heavily on Red paranoia and the concept of a one man army being much more feared than the entire United States government as well as the military behind it. Some of them still work to this day even though you couldn’t do a similar film now. Others like not so much. Maybe it never worked.

Some elements of this are weirdly timely while others are firmly rooted in the 80s. Dirty bombs. Demands to leave the West Bank. Terrorism. The stuff we worry about now or is topical today. The twist? Here the Russians plan on engaging in a terrorist strike to contaminate the Saudi Arabian oil fields for the next 300 years with a nuclear detonation of some type for all that. Whether it’s a dirty bomb or an actual nuclear warhead I’m not 100% sure. I’m not sure if the people behind this movie had decided themselves. It waffles between the two in my perception. 

Out of all the characters in here I can only really tell you something about the character referred to as ‘The Soldier’ (Ken Wahl). Nobody knows who he is. He doesn’t even get a proper name. He and his team treat terrorist attacks to cripple the West as a fun adventure. And that is my sum total of knowledge because we get zero characterization.

Ken Wahl a few years after this would hit the high point of his acting career on the television series Wiseguy. It’s been decades since I’ve seen it, but I recall him being much better as an actor in that than he is here. He’s certainly a pretty face but he has all the talent and range of a marble statue. The Soldier is never happy or sad or angry or concerned. He just kind of is.

There is some stupidity in The Soldier. Such as when the hero breaks into an American consulate, takes a hostage, and then tells the people coming after him that he’s a legitimate agent and to check. Why would a legitimate agent need to get access to a phone in the dumbest way possible? It is not as if it has some direct line to his boss (Ron Harper). He just dials a number. Anywho…

The acting is bad. Characters of poorly defined. The pace of the film is slow. And the story itself staggers and lumbers around from Point A to Point B to Point C and so forth. The dialogue at times is atrocious. And the ending just feels so anti-climactic. Our action hero doesn’t engage in any big action to save the day. He basically says to the villain “Maybe I might do something. Maybe I might not.” And the Russians back down and the Saudi Arabian oil fields are left just fine.

Nothing feels as if it connects strongly to ending the threat. This is a series of action sequences that are entertaining, but when they get to the dialogue or what is needed to book end them or set them up because of poor performances it really brings everything down.

But perhaps the most egregious sin in this movie is the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. I have enjoyed other soundtracks by them I am aware of but not this one. It makes the film feel cheaper than it is. And it sounds like it belongs in a different movie altogether. It is closer to Risky Business than The Hunt for Red October. 

While filled with many tropes and clichés of the era that should make this fun, The Soldier never quite rises to guilty pleasure level. It doesn’t even rise to moderately entertaining. This is worth checking out as a curiosity of the era but not as an entertaining movie. Just skip.