Review of Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) by Noah M — 09 Dec 2014

Easily my favorite Chuck Norris film, which was the basis for "Walker, Texas Ranger." "Code of Silence" is Chuck's best straight film, which plays standard 80s action flick, ALA Clint Eastwood or Charles Bronson, but this film does a terrifically fun job of bringing the sensibilities of the spaghetti western to a modern day Texas cops vs drug dealer crime flick.

Walter Hill and John Milius did the similar thing but even better with the underrated "Extreme Prejudice," although that film was more Sam Peckinpah than Sergio Leone. The film was directed by Steve Carver, who never really did anything else all that memorable outside of some 70s exploitation flicks for Roger Corman ("The Arena" and "Big Bad Mama") and written by a couple guys who never made anything else you've heard of besides some direct-to-video sequels to "Scanners," which most people probably never heard of, although John Milius reportedly did some uncredited script doctoring and is credited on the film as "spiritual advisor.

" Besides what I'm sur is major contributions by Milius (who also wrote "Extreme Prejudice"). I wonder if Milius had a hand in the scene where LQ Jones is cheating at cards since it definitely feels better written than a lot of the film, though LQ is also a pretty good writer and may have punched up his scenes.

And,the scene where Chuck is being buried alive in a pickup truck and takes a break to drink a beer also seemed like the type of corny but awesome touches Milius does so well. This film is also greatly helped by a strong supporting cast, led by David Carradine as the main villain, which gives an excuse for a great karate showdown between the star of "Kung-Fu" and the Force of One, Norris.

There's also former Bond Girl, Barbara Carrera, Peckinpah stock company members R.G. Armstrong & LQ Jones, and plenty of character actors like Leon Isaac Kennedy, Sharon Farrell, William Sanderson, Robert Beltran and Kane Hodder as an uncredited role as a goon.

The film is also immensely helped by a score from veteran spaghetti western composer Francesco De Masi. This film is borderline camp and Chuck Norris is still a terrible actor, but there are a lot of elements that I greatly enjoyed.

Go, Chuck!