Old proverb says “friend in need is friend indeed”. Title character of Let’s Get Harry, 1986 action film directed by Stuart Rosenberg (and credited to “Alan Smithee”), has such friends. Harry Burck Jr. (played by Mark Harmon) is American civil engineer working on dam project in Colombia. When the site is visited by US ambassador Douglas (played by Bruce Gray), it becomes the target of armed men led by drug lord Carlos Ochobar (played by Guillermo Ríos) who has both men captive. His plan is to exchange them for his associates held in US prison, but US government has official policy of not negotiating with terrorists. That doesn’t sit well with Harry’s younger brother Corey (played by Michael Schoeffling) who talks his friends Bob Pachowski (played by Thomas F. Wilson), Kurt Klein (played by Rick Rossovich) and Spence (played by Glen Frey) into travelling to Colombia in order to try set Harry free. They hire experienced mercenary Norman Shrike (played by Robert Duvall) to train them, while local car dealer and adrenaline junkie Jack (played by Gary Busey) agrees to finance operation if he takes part in it himself. The group flies to Colombia, but soon afterwards it becomes apparent that both Colombian and US government don’t want it there, so Corey and his friends must use all of their ingenuity and skills in order to survive and possibly carry out their mission.
When the film is credited to “Alan Smithee”, it is usually a very bad sign, because it is a pseudonym used by film makers who want to publicly disown their work. Robert Duvall, a serious and respected actor who had actually attended mercenary conventions and training camps in order to prepare for the role, also publicly distanced from the film. Yet, Let’s Get Harry isn’t as bad as you might think. The basic premise, evolved from the script originally devised by legendary film maker Sam Fuller, was quite in line with social, cultural and political developments of Reagan’s America, which celebrated jingoism and simple violent solution to complex problems, even when practised by private individuals instead of government. Appeal to American patriotism is enhanced by portraying Harry and his friends as natives of small industrial town which adhered to traditional communal values. Let’s Get Harry was also supposed to benefit from the shift from Soviets to Latin American drug dealers as the America’s most dangerous enemy, which began with War on Drugs in late 1980s. Script by Charles Robert Carner allows some potentially subversive observations on the subjects by having character of Spence portrayed as functional cocaine addict.
This detail could have been used as source of satire and black comedy, but such potential was not used by Rosenberg who delivered utterly generic and forgettable action film. The premise of inexperienced plumbers thrown in jungle half a world away and having to fight more numerous and heavily armed opponents is not exactly credible, unlike in similarly-themed Uncommon Valor, which actually bothered to have well-trained and experienced veterans conduct rescue mission. The acting, except in the case of delightfully manic Gary Busey, isn’t anything to write home about, and the character of local contact Veronica, played by Elpidia Carrillo, is introduced only to fill female quota in this film. The final showdown, which, like in many 1980s action films, takes place at night, is somewhat satisfying to the genre fans with relatively large body count and some pyrotechnics, but is ultimately compromised with cliches that make fate of certain characters quite predictable. Let’s Get Harry, due to bad publicity, predictably failed at the box office and later sank into obscurity. Although not as embarrassing as its reputation might suggest, it is not to be recommended to the audience other than viewers nostalgic towards 1980s.
RATING: 4/10 (++)
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