At first, I had to remind myself that I was watching a Cannon movie. After all, this studio were notorious for making some of the cheesiest, over the top action romps of the 1980s, and THE DELTA FORCE is nothing of the kind. Instead, it's a taut and suspenseful aeroplane hostage movie that has more in common with the likes of RAID ON ENTEBBE than INVASION USA.

THE DELTA FORCE stars a near unrecognisable Robert Forster (complete with brown contacts) as an Arab terrorist who holds a group of wealthy Jews hostage in a politically motivated act of terrorism. In a throwback to the disaster movies of the '70s, the hostages are played by an all-star cast including George Kennedy, Martin Balsam, Bo Svenson, Shelley Winters, Joey Bishop and Susan Strasberg. The stuff on the plane is fantastic, with the threat of violence hanging heavy in the air and lots of tense stand-offs.

Then things change completely for the film's second hour, where it becomes the kind of cheesy action romp that you expected from the outset. This second half is full of Chuck Norris and his team (including a grumpy Lee Marvin and a briefly-seen Steve James) shooting bad guys, blowing stuff up and rescuing people. It's the sort of action that contains motorbikes fitted with rocket launchers and all manner of similar nonsense. That's not to say it's not entertaining, but it is at odds with the serious first half of the film. Norris and Norris alone would return for the equally cheesy sequel.

During the failed Iranian hostage rescue, Captain Scott McCoy (Chuck Norris) disobeys order and goes back to pull a comrade from the wreckage. He quits in disgust. Five years later, two terrorists hijack an American plane leaving Athens forcing it to land in Beirut. Colonel Nick Alexander (Lee Marvin) leads Delta Force and McCoy is recalled on a mission to rescue the hostages. On the plane, the terrorists separate three Navy sailors and Jewish men from the rest of the passengers.

Other than Norris being heroic in Iran, the first half is mostly about the harrowing hijacking. It's uncomfortably scary and a little too real. It has a couple of effective turns. The rescues are a little too convenient considering the way the movie is set up in the first half. Any realism is gone. The story would probably work better if everybody stays on the plane and they never leave Beirut.

This movie should be seen for two reasons: it's one of the few action movies where the leading star does not "clean the table" all by him/herself. We see some teamwork, for a change. Sadly, Hollywood just can't stand that, for some reason, and so we will never see a movie such as this, everafter.

The second reason why it should be seen, is it describes quite accurately the horror that happened during the hijacking of the Trans World Airlines Flight 847 in June 1985. Jews divided by gentiles and torture and murder of a Navy diver, as well as the diversion to Beirout, Lebanon, are, sadly, all factual. I believe that it is important not to forget what terrorism is, important to whitewash history under a politically correct stream of demagogy.

Finally, I thought the pace of the movie was enjoyable, as well as seeing the terrorist's butt kicked.