User Reviews

***SPOILERS**** The film has the distinction of being the first movie made since Gulf War I that in fact takes place before it actually happened when the USA was on good terms with the Iraqi Saddam Hussein regime; Remember that famous video of US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield shaking hand with Saddem after having the US deliver him the very WMD, Weapons of Mass Destruction,that it accused him of having, which in fact he didn't, that started Guf War II in 2003! In here we have former US Special Forces man Doug Matthews, Michael Dudifoff, going to what was then at peace with the US Iraq to get his brother out of one of Saddam's prison who's being held against his will by the Saddam-lookalike Iraqi Gen. Ali Dallal, Steve Inwood.

It's been five years when Matthews slashed Dallal's face in trying to prevent him form wiping out a Kurdish Village in Northen Iraq. Now with Matthews' brother Ben, Tommy Hinkley, a diabetic switching planes at the Baghdad Airport Dallal has him arrested on trumped up charges in order to get at his brother Dugh for what he did to him. This sets up things for Doug to secretly travel to Iraq to rescue Ben and at the same time start up a relationship with Gen. Dallal's wife refugee worker Lila Haddin, Hanna Azoulay Hasfari. We soon learn that Lila only married Dallai to keep him from having Doug, whom she was in love with, killed if she didn't? That's some arrangement isn't it!

****SPOILERS*** Only worth watching for the action scenes where Doug ends up doing far more damage to the Iraqi Army then what the entire US coalition did to it back in both the first & second Gulf Wars. We even have Doug do what the US was unable to do in destroying Iraq's elusive WMD's at the end of the movie along with Gen Dallal, who got a really hot send off, who's evil plans to murder Dough only ended backfiring on him. As for Doug together with Ben Lila and her 4 year old son Ali Jr they had no trouble at all checking out of Iraq with the Iraqi military and secret police totally hapless to stop them.

During the Iran-Iraq War, U. S. Marine Colonel Doug Matthews (Michael Dudikoff) is training the Iraqi troops only to learn that America is an evil empire that often surrounds itself with even worse allies in the pursuit of blood for oil. Oh wait. I mean that he learns that some of the Iraqis, led by Ali Dallal (Steve Inwood), who are killing innocent people. He challenges Ali to a fight and loses.

Five years later, America's enemies have changed because "The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia." Iraq has invaded Kuwait and Doug's diabetic teacher brother Ben (Tommy Hinkley) is held hostage so that the Iraqi leader - you guessed it, Ali Dallal - can get one more shot at killing Doug.

Doug has some help, a Kurd named Tanzil (Uri Gavriel) and his ex-girlfriend, Lila (Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari) who is now married to Ali. Ah, what a tangled web!

This was the last film of director Ted Post, who everyone knows made Hang 'Em High, Magnum Force and Beneath the Planet of the Apes, but I celebrate his TV movies like Night Slaves, Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate and Five Desperate Women as well as his Chuck Norris movie Good Guys Wear Black, the somewhat giallo Nightkill and, most essentially, The Baby.

It was 1985 when Doug Matthews (Dudikoff) first crossed paths with the diabolical Dallal (Inwood) while he was in the military working for the U.S. embassy. Matthews was stationed in northern Iraq, and the two men had a life-changing altercation. Fast-forward five years later, and Matthews is safe back home in America...but Dallal's goons have kidnapped his brother Ben (Hinkley). Receiving no support from his own government, it's not long before Matthews goes rogue and travels back to Baghdad to rescue his beloved brother. He gets his Kurdish friend Tanzil (Gavriel) to help him, as well as an old acquaintance, a doctor named Lila (Azoulay-Hasfari), but it's going to be difficult to face the ruthless Dallal and his supporters. With the clock running out on the life of the diabetic Ben, Doug Matthews is going to have to shield himself from the onslaught of bullets...HUMAN shield himself! Yeah, that's the ticket...

The Human Shield was perfect for video stores in 1991 - it starts with Dudikoff riding an open-topped jeep in the desert with his awesome hair blowing freely in the breeze. Jeeps seem to be Dudikoff's vehicle of choice in this movie; he really uses them to maneuver around the machine gun fire and even rocket launchers aimed at him this time around. It's also perfect for video stores because before the movie starts, there are no trailers for other Cannon films, or any other movies, but there is an anti-drug PSA. You gotta love the 90's. It truly was a time when anti-drug PSA's were inescapable: you couldn't even watch Parker Lewis Can't Lose or any of your other favorite shows without crazed maniacs smashing fried eggs or children screaming "I learned it from watching youuuuuuuu!!!!!". You go pop in a VHS tape looking for some respite, and they're there too. No wonder no one does drugs anymore.

But back to the topic at hand, the movie is filled with innumerable mustachioed extras. At any given point while watching The Human Shield, there are an average of five men in the background, whether they be soldiers, baddies, or just plain townspeople, with thick black mustaches. It was either the height of fashion in the middle east, or maybe it was a "no mustache, no paycheck" financial matter. Regardless, it truly is a catalogue of distinctive facial hair on your screen.

If you enjoyed films such as Death Before Dishonor (1987) and Dudikoff's Chain of Command (1994), you'll surely also like The Human Shield, even if it does have some slow moments, as well as some awkward camera zooms. Those things shouldn't be enough to put you off. Dudikoff has to pretty much carry the movie on his shoulders, and while he is capable of doing that, another major name would have helped out the proceedings. Someone like Lee Majors the Second, Jay Roberts Jr. or Evan Lurie, to name but a few shining stars in the DTV firmament, could have helped Dudikoff bear his load. But the movie does include many of our favorite items: plenty of blow-ups and shooting, not one, but two screams of "Nooooooooo!!!!", and of course a baddie admonishing his underlings that there better be "No More Mistakes".

It was also somewhat refreshing that Dudikoff's brother was kidnapped. It's not usually an adult male that is the target of the hero's rescue mission. It's usually a woman, a young girl, or a young boy. So that was an interesting difference. Also we got to be privy to the Pentagon gym. There's even a title card on-screen that tells us we're in the Pentagon gym. Never before have our eyes gotten to witness where Dick Cheney does his squat thrusts and where Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) blasts his lats. Thank you Human Shield for this inside information.

The Human Shield is classic early-90's Dudikoff fare.