As I recall films from a long time ago, I try to find them either in the streaming universe or on old DVDs being sold on eBay. I recently located the television movie “The Challenge” from 1970 and it was hiding in plain sight on YouTube. It is the story of the United States and a small, unnamed Asian country battling over a space weapons system that fell into the ocean near the smaller country and they decide on a one-on-one fight to the death to decide who gets the prize. All-in-all, “The Challenge” highlights how superior in story-telling that even tee-vee movies were back in the day compared to the crap shoveled out today.
‘The Challenge’
(1970; 94 minutes; rated NR; directed by Alan Smithee and starring Darren McGavin, Broderick Crawford and Mako)
TWO MEN, ONE ISLAND … AND A WHOLE LOT MORE
Quite a message is delivered through the television movie “The Challenge” that was released in 1970 and it is yet another example of the fare then coming out of Hollywood or Burbank having more depth and intelligence than all that’s coming out today. It is a combat film that is anti-war at a time when the conflict in Vietnam was raging.
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With “The Challenge” you get what is essentially an anti-war film released on a major television network during the war in Vietnam. With the country divided about Vietnam and having major cities literally in flames the year before, it took some courage to bring this film to life. While not making either the U.S. or its unnamed adversary a “bad guy,” both are criticized by what happens in the last 15 minutes of the film.
Darren McGavin plays “Jacob ‘Jay’ Gallery,” who is a disgraced former soldier known for his ability against the enemy and who faced a court martial because he was out killing the enemy when his command was attacked and wiped out one night in Vietnam.
McGavin is called back to duty when a U.S. satellite weapons system falls into the Pacific Ocean near a small, unnamed country in Asia, which calls China in to help deal with the U.S. The two countries agree to send one man to an isolated island for one-on-one, fight-to-the-death combat to decide which country gets the prize.
It is war, but by two combatants and not involving entire armies. Given the context of the day it was released, it is a philosophical take on Vietnam in a way you wouldn’t expect from a tee-vee movie of the day, much less expecting being foisted upon the public by today’s producers of movies.
The action in “The Challenge” is very basic: combat between two soldiers with small arms on an island. It is what the two men do and their personal exchanges that drive the bulk of the film. I won’t spoil any of the details here, as you should see the film, enjoy the depth of the screenplay and judge for yourself.
“The Challenge” has several interesting turns that you see coming, but only at the last minute … unlike most films today where you know what’s gonna happen as you arrive at the theater or turn on your television.
Now, here’s my look at the top of this smallish cast …
A Primetime Emmy nominee (not for this one), Darren McGavin manages to bring some acting talent to a film that needs less acting than it has presented in storyline. He’s gruff; he’s disdainful of authority and its bureaucrats; and just the unconventional soldier that the military needs for the mission. I enjoyed McGavin’s work in both “The Night Stalker” vampire flick (click here to read my review) as well as its sequel “The Night Strangler” (click here to read my review). He is best recalled as the father in “A Christmas Story” (click here to read my review) and was in “Turk 182!” (click here to read my review). He performed in dozens of TV shows including “Mannix,” “Magnum P.I.” and “The Love Boat” (I especially like “The Love Boat” – click here to read my look at that kitschy show). McGavin earned his nomination for a two-parter on TV’s “Murphy Brown.” McGavin died at 83 in 2006.- An Oscar nominee, Mako plays “Yuro” and he’s the enemy’s entry into the combat. You don’t get to know Mako’s background as well as McGavin’s, but he manages to elevate his character above what could have been presented and accepted from another actor. Here is an excellent example of excellent casting of an excellent actor. Mako was also in the martial arts flicks “Sidekicks” with Chuck Norris (click here to read my review) and the little-remembered “Battle Creek Brawl” as Jackie Chan’s teacher (click here to read my review). I also liked Mako in Sam Peckinpah’s “The Killer Elite” with James Caan and Robert Duvall (click here to read my review) and was nominated for an Oscar for his outstanding turn as “Po-han” in “The Sand Pebbles” with Steve McQueen (his was one of eight nominations for that great film). A different generation will remember him as “The Wizard” and narrator of the iconic Schwarzenegger vehicle “Conan the Barbarian.” He died at 72 in 2006 of esophageal cancer.
- An Oscar and Golden Globe winner, TV legend Broderick Crawford plays “Gen. Lewis ‘Lou’ Meyers” and does an effective job as the steely commander who wants to use a military sledgehammer to kill an ant. Crawford is smooth in delivering his character on screen, but really doesn’t do much to elevate “Gen. Meyers.” He was revered in television for playing “Dan Matthews” in the crime drama “Highway Patrol” from 1955-1959. Oddly enough, he never won an Emmy or a Golden Globe for his work in television and he did dozens of episodes on top-rated shows (I liked him best when the officers in the “CHiPs” tee-vee show gave him a ticket in his cameo on that show – click here for my look at that series). He won his Oscar and Globe for “All the King’s Men” from 1949. Crawford died following a series of strokes at 74 in 1986.
- A two-time Oscar nominee and Golden Globe winner and nominee, James Whitmore plays diplomat/bureaucrat “Overman” and is directing the operation on the personal orders of the president. Like Crawford, but Whitmore does a solid job, but, sadly, doesn’t manage to elevate his character into the realm of being memorable. Whitmore won his Globe and received one Oscar nomination for “Battleground” from 1949 and got the other nominations for 1975’s “Give ’em Hell, Harry!” I also enjoyed his performance in another 1970 flick: “Tora! Tora! Tora!” about the attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the U.S. into World War II (click here to read my review). He died of lung cancer at 87 in 2009.
- An Oscar nominee and two-time Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Sam Elliott plays “Bryant,” who is supposed to be backup to McGavin, but who also takes a prominent role in the film. Unfortunately, Elliott’s character isn’t given much of a chance to be elevated, but he does as good a job as could be expected. He was nominated for his Oscar for the 2018 reboot of “A Star is Born” and was nominated for Globes for the 1995 tee-vee mini-series “Buffalo Girls” and for playing the title role in the 1991 tee-vee movie “Conagher.” I liked Elliott in the original “Road House” with Patrick Swayze (click here to read my review) and he was “The Stranger” in the Coen Brothers’ cult classic “The Big Lebowski.”
- An Oscar and Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), Adolph Caesar has a small role as “Clarence Opano,” who was born on the island where the battle between the two men will be fought. He briefs McGavin about the terrain and other features of the island, which was cleared by the U.S. to make way for the battle. Caesar does a good job with his character, but not to the level that earned him his nominations. He was nominated for his spectacular performance in 1984’s “A Soldier’s Story.” His credits include work on two soap operas; episodes on TV shows such as “The Wild, Wild West” and “Tales from the Darkside;” and he also did narration. Sadly, Caesar died of a heart attack at 52 in 1984 just two-years after “A Soldier’s Story.”
In the end, both combatants are each betrayed by his own country, but, like I noted before, it’s better for you to see the film and experience what the story is telling to get the best effect. A few sentences here as a spoiler alert wouldn’t do any good for readers of this review and drawing your own conclusion about the film’s “message” is the most enjoyable.
“The Challenge” was a television movie broadcast by ABC in 1970 and, of course, therefore not ranked at the U.S. box office and that’s why I’ve listed its rating at the top of this review as “NR” – not rated. The No. 1 film of that year was the instant classic “Love Story” with Ali MacGraw and Ryan O’Neal at $106.3 million in ticket sales, according to the website The Numbers. Coming in at No. 2 was “Airport” with Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin at $100.4 million; “MASH” was No. 3 with $81.6 million; and “Patton” with George C. Scott in the title role was No. 4 with $62.5 million. BTW: “MASH’s” original title DID NOT have the asterisks. Those were added for creation of posters for theaters and they followed into the title of the legendary television series (just look at the opening credits of the original cut of the film).
Here are the two other films from 1970 that I’ve reviewed for my blog:
- “Kelly’s Heroes” (my favorite Clint war flick) – click here for my review
- “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (solid WWII film) – click here for my review
Assorted cast and film notes (via IMDb.com and Wiki):
- McGavin’s birth name was William Lyle Richardson; Elliott’s middle name is Pack; and Mako’s full name was Makoto Iwamatsu and he was born in Kobe, Japan.
- The director of “The Challenge” is listed in credits as “Alan Smithee,” but that is a pseudonym of George McCowan. Sorry, but I couldn’t find any explanation of why McCowan, who directed episodes of many top-rated tee-vee shows in his career from 1961 to 1990, chose the pseudonym. He might have just wanted to avoid controversy in the era of Vietnam. McCowan died of emphysema at 68 in 1995.
- Joseph Sargent was the original director, but left the production after a conflict with the producer during editing.
- McGavin’s character has side-by-side Madsen submachine guns as his weapon. One fires bird shot; the other fire conventional 9mm ammunition. Since a wound can quickly fester in the tropical wilderness, the bird shot gun was added (also, it makes it look even cooler) to maybe get a wound where a conventional slug would miss.
- “The Challenge” was the last film for Paul Lukas, who plays “Dr. Nagy.” Born in Budapest in 1895, he died at the age of 76 in 1971 of a heart attack in Morocco. Lukas’ birth name was spelled Pál Lukács.
- Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “The submarine used by Jacob Gallery (Darren McGavin) was an ex-World War II submarine.”
- Click here to read about the film as presented by Wiki (IMDb’s trivia page has only two entries and I’ve provided them in the notes above) …
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