P.O.W. The Escape (1986)

Interesting facts

P.O.W. The Escape is a 1986 American war film directed by Gideon Amir and starring David Carradine, Charles Grant, Mako and Steve James. It is a loose re-imagining of the plot of Vera Cruz, transposing it from the Second Franco-Mexican War to the Vietnam War. In the story, a group of captive U.S. soldiers forge a pact with the commander of their North Vietnamese camp to help him defect to the West with his personal treasure, but the lure of quick gain soon tests their fragile alliance.

Production

With Rambo: First Blood Part II keeping the Vietnam P.O.W. question at the forefront of cinematic trends, Cannon Films greenlit a new film on the subject, under the working title Behind Enemy Lines. The premise of escorting a VIP and his secret treasure through a conflict zone was inspired by the 1954 western Vera Cruz. Israeli Gideon Amir made his main unit directorial debut with this film.

Photography started on July 8, 1985, and it was reported complete by the trade press on September 12. Filming coincided with monsoon season, which was a conscious decision to give it a more intense look, but it did not suffer any major delay as a result. The region of Pagsanjan, Laguna, served as a major backdrop.

The veteran actor, having worked many times in the Philippines, was very selective about his food, contrary to most of his colleagues. He and co-star Charles Floyd, who followed his advice as the two had become fast friends, were among the few to not get sick. Actor Phil Brock worked through a hepatitis. Greg Walker had been hired as Carradine's stunt double, but he had to be sent home early after catching dysentery.

While Golan was pleased with the dailies sent to him during production, once the film was assembled, he felt that Carradine's character was too ambivalent towards the war, and demanded that some of his dialogue be excised to emphasize his heroism.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.