Review of Breaker! Breaker! (1977) by Patrick G — 06 Sep 2010

BREAKER! BREAKER! was Chuck's first outing as a leading man after playing a bad guy in two of Raymond Chow's productions, Bruce Lee's WAY OF THE DRAGON and SLAUGHTER IN SAN FRANCISCO. Norris plays the prototype for every character he would play subsequently in his career, this prototype being J.D., an upstanding master martial artist and beloved figure in the trucking community (hence the title). His dirt-bike loving little brother goes on his first run as a trucker and get picked on by the evil, corrupt rednecks in a small hamlet called New Texas. Of course, Chuck (I mean, J.D.) goes looking for him, and ends up destroying the entire town trying to find him.

This movie has a story you've seen many, many times, but for some reason, it never gets old to me. It's the outsider gets stuck in an evil town plot, an evil town that he can't leave for one reason or another, and has to battle the forces within the town, while finding refuge with the one good person around (who also happens to be a female he can shack up with). But since this person is Chuck Norris, we can't really worry about him, although he depends on the village idiot stereotype to get him out of a few scrapes. BREAKER! BREAKER! is a bit like a SMOKEY & THE BANDIT style rednecksploitation flick with a Hong Kong action twist, it has a climax action scene that's so silly it elevates the film, as well as a final showdown filmed with such pretension it brings it right back down. It was nice to see a Chuck Norris movie where Chuck actually seems like he's there on the screen and not there just to fade in and kick some butt before blending into back into the background. One could do much worse looking for some cheap exploitation thrills.