The best way to create a compelling story is to find a topic that is capable of generating the requisite amount of dramatic tension, suspense and the potential for action. One of the most fertile grounds is war. This is one of the oldest and most documented activities in the human record. It is fundamentally state sanctioned carnage with activities that taken out of the context of warfare would be murder. There is an inherent diversity in how war movies can play out from the overly romanticized stories of lovers torn apart by a conflict far beyond their scope to the machinations of global powers sacrificing human lives like so many chess pawns. A specific subset of the venerable war film is the prisoner of war account. Movies like ‘The Great Escape’ and ‘Stalag 17’ depict the systemic dehumanization afflicted upon the combatants captured by the enemy. No matter what formal accords and treaties may be enacted by the nations of the world Prisoners are often abused, degraded and tortured both psychologically and physically. Many countries including our own have attempted to prepare the solider for such abuse by intense, formal training to help prepare them for the arduous ordeal of becoming a P.O.W. this type of preparation has to be realistic or else it is worthless which leads to the inevitable consequences inherent when such circumstances get out of control. This premise is so powerful that it was made into episodes of both the classic and revised Sci-Fi anthology series, ‘The Outer Limits’. It also happens to be the foundation of the flick considered here, ‘Opposing Force’. Albeit it is not a great movie, the previously mentioned TV episodes readily outshine it, but it does make for an interesting psychological drama that if nothing else serves as a popcorn flick when the guys are over and the game is delayed by rain. One positive aspect of the film is it was made before the whole torture porn infatuation dominated horror flicks. Otherwise the same basic elements used here would have been twisted into something worse than a film that falls short of its potential, one that is little more than the mindless infliction of pain, humiliation and degradation. This movie may have its share of faults but it retained its integrity.

US Air Force Lieutenant Casey (Lisa Eichhorn) is accustomed to having to work twice as hard for half the respect. As a woman in a combat ready unit she has fought her own peers and superiors every step of her stellar career. She has been chosen to participate in an exercise requiring the services of an elite group of solders. It is not unusual that Casey is the only woman in the group but what they are expected to endure takes a decidedly unorthodox twist. It Begins as a routine escape-and-evasion course where she and the others test subjects are parachuted into an isolated island location. There they will be hunted by solders playing the role of enemy combatants. Ostensibly the objective is to evade capture and make it to a designated safe location. During the jump her teammate, Major Logan (Tom Skerritt) is injured but still manages to reach the safe zone. Instead of the end of s grueling training mission it turns out to be just the beginning of a nightmare. She is placed in a hard labor work camp were the psychically demanding toil is only the smallest part of what she is subjected to. In control are two men, Beckett (Anthony Zerbe) and Stafford (Richard Roundtree) who makes Tomás de Torquemada seem like a kindergarten teacher. The pair of accomplished sadist subject Casey to every debasing form of degradation and humiliation possible. She is left alone to somehow muster the intestinal fortitude to survive. While the film is brutal in depicting the mistreatment heaped upon this woman the modern climate would have marketed this as a militaristic variation of ‘Saw’. Fortunately cinema had not plunged to that nadir back in 1986 so the torture is not as explicit as a filmmaker would make it today. There is a body count that piles up but most of that is in the final act were the intensity is ramped up considerably. There is also some nudity but it is properly handled within the context of the story and certainly neither gratuitous nor sensual.

Admittedly Tom Skerritt has put in better performances than he hands in here but Roundtree and Zerbe are deliciously evil in their roles. They both are versatile and accomplished actors who are definitely well within their comfort zones here. Director Eric Karson is building a career on an eclectic selection of themes but in this film he has found a good, solid stride. The pacing is established early and maintained throughout the film. He gives sufficient time for the audience becomes emotionally invested in Carey before plunging us into her plight. In a movie such as this it is vital to fully engage the audience prior to heaping on the torture. This is another way this film excels over the torture flicks so common in the Cineplex. There more time is spent glorifying the torturer. The victims are not only dehumanized within the story but for the audience as well. In this movie the filmmaker is careful to remind the Audience that Carey is a real woman. To this end Lisa Eichhorn was an excellent choice for the role, she is attractive but not in the typical over the top Hollywood style. This greatly assists the audience when it comes to believing her portrayal and empathize with the as she endures the brutal treatment. It is more than you might think at first and well worth it.