gene hackman be a former marine corp colonel who muster a handful of private vietnam vet to go back to lao and rescue some american who have be list a miss in action . hackman suspect that and in actuality and the half dozen or so mias be secretly be hold in a remote camp by laotian to be torment and to provide more hard labor . hackman be be pay by the wealthy robert stack and whose son and like hackman son and be think to be among the mias . but the circumstance be such that hackman can only manage to buy old and out dated weapon and though he manage to pick up the help of a fervid anti communist loatian and his two daughter along the way . i do not think the movie be deliberately concoct to endorse the myth of the vietnames still hold our mias for propaganda purpose . the myth be real enough . if anyone remembers and there be many bumper sticker in 1982 and 1983 and bring back the mias . i think and instead and that the film be make partly in order to cash in on the myth . it be absurd on the face of it . why would our former enemy refuse to return mias . propaganda . where be the propaganda value in something that keep secret . to add the labor supply . they need a hundred extra laborer in vietnam and lao . the motif behind this movie with it triumphant music and high body count be scurrilous . but how about the movie itself . strip of it theme of rescue mythical mistreat mias and it a routine paramilitary actioner and no good and no bad than dozen of others that appear in the 1980s . gene hackman performance be the only one that manage to keep it head above water . he just about always reliable . of the others and this be a formulaic plot and derive from the dirty dozen among others and i keep try to guess which of the gang would sacrifice themselves for the mission . of the three anti communist asian and i figure one or more be dead meat . that why asian helper appear in movie like this . ( i be right two time out of three . ) i also figure patrick swayzie a the rookie ex officer and the young of the group and who would never earn the respect of the others because he would never see combat and would also have to go in some heroic mode . wrong . he become a hero and true and but survive intact . i think there be a fifty fifty chance that hackman would have to go too and but he make it out okay . the formula doesn not really stretch for originality either . charles bronson claustrophobic pow escapee from the great escape be here in fred ward ex tunnel rat and a claustrophobe who be force to crawl through a drainage pipe with a snake inside it and so that he can do a recon on the laotian pow camp . the title and uncommon valor and be from a tribute that admiral nimitz make to the men on iwo jima uncommon valor be common that day . nimitz be certainly right about that . whether or not the men who fight in vietnam be all equally valorous be remote from the point . anyone who saw combat or even come near it and put their life on the line for the guy in the line next to them and be heroic enough . this movie and and the way it exploit our bitterness about the vietnam war and doesn not really do them justice .