Saturday, November 10, 2012

The Challenge (1970)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by George McCowan (as Alan Smithee)
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Fox Movie Channel)

Darren McGavin is cigar chomping mercenary-for-hire picked to represent the US in a "surrogate" war with a small Asian country. At stake is a downed satellite with technology that could put nuclear warheads in space. The plot is familiar: McGavin is chosen, trained and finally sent to an uninhabited island where the "war" takes place with character actor Mako. They search for fresh water and lay booby traps, but neither is killed after five days. The Army steps in and sends help, which is against the rules, so the two combatants solve things their own way. McGavin is miscast as the macho military type, and it suffers from a small TV movie budget, but there are some interesting ideas floating around.

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