Back in the 1980s, Central America was the area of the world where it was thought that U.S. troops would most likely see combat action. Many thought the similarities with the terrain and foliage of Vietnam were omens of things to be. Thankfully, aside from some incursions into Panama and Grenada, the U.S. stayed out of the area for the most part.
In 1988’s Weekend War, a made-for-TV movie that was released to home video in 1992, a group of California National Guard engineers led by Capt. John Deason (Stephen Collins) is called into Honduras to build a runway for a training mission. However, before his men can finish the runway, they’re called away by Rudd (Scott Paulin), who works for the U.S. embassy. Rudd wants Deason’s men to rebuild a bridge that connects a small village to the local marketplace. Rudd says rebuilding the bridge is a bit of goodwill for the people of Honduras. Keeping them happy is his job. Deason is reluctant to divert his men to this new, seemingly insignificant, job. His commanding officer, Colonel Thompson (James Tolkan), insists that he take his men, do the job, and not ask any questions.
It turns out this bridge is more important than just being a simple market route. It’s the only connecting bridge between Honduras and Nicaragua in a 30 mile area. Therefore, it’s important to the Contras, the local drug lords, and the Sandinistas. Suddenly, it occurs to Deason that there’s something a little more important to the U.S. embassy than making the local villagers happy.
And, if this was a more ambitious production, we might find out what that reason is but this is a made-for-TV movie. As such, the movie quickly adopts a quickly predictable story arc that puts the National Guardsmen in the unenviable position of aiding the people who can destroy the villagers’ way of life. The majority of the movie’s hour and a half running time is spent showing the misadventures of two soldiers, Dulcy (Evan Mirand) and Wiley (Michael Beach), as they try their hand at picking up women at the local village bar or playing cards with a local kid they’ve befriended. The “war” in the title takes approximately 20 minutes to play out and it’s entirely composed of shadowy no-name enemies with really bad aim shooting at the bridge and anyone on it. Save for two really big explosions in the village, these guys can’t seem to hit the broadside of a barn. Capt. Deason’s “solution” to the whole situation is laughable at best.
I’m sure at some point in its trek from script to screen this was a decent movie. In its final form, it’s a rather shoddy piece of work: An action movie with almost no action and a few really obvious cues to its low-budget. (I especially like the modern-day emergency lighting in the church that was supposedly built-in the 1800s.)
You’ll probably run across this movie on cable before you’ll see it in the video store but, either way, the same course of action should be applied: Avoid at all costs.
1.0 out of 5.0 stars
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