Themes: Out For Revenge, Lone Wolves, Political Corruption
Main Cast: Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, Lloyd Haynes, James Franciscus, Dana Andrews
Release Year: 1978
Country: US
Run Time: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Chuck Norris plays John T. Booker, a Vietnam vet who finds out that several of his army buddies lost their lives in a mission that was intended to fail. Seeking answers, Booker quits his school-teaching job and tracks down the surviving members of his unit. One by one, his old friends are being knocked off by sinister forces, orchestrated by a crooked, and legally untouchable, politician. Amidst a plethora of martial arts, gunfire and explosions, the film briefly pauses for a comic-relief scene involving over-aged bellboy Jim Backus. Good Guys Wear Black did so well at the box-office that it warranted a sequel, A Force of One (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jim Backus - Doorman; Joe Bennett - Lou Goldberg; Jerry Douglas - Joe Walker; Anthony Mannino - Gordie Jones; Soon-Teck Oh - Mjr. Mhin Van Thieu; Michael Payne - Mitch; Stack Pierce - Holly Washington; David Starwalt - Steagle; Virginia Wing - Mrs. Mhin Van Thieu; Don Pike - Hank; Warren Smith - Morgan's Chauffeur; James Bacon - Senator; Larry Casey - Mike Potter; Viola Harris - Airline Ticket Agent; Pat E. Johnson - C.I.A. Agent
Credit
Craig Safan - Conductor, Jean-Pierre Dorleac - Costume Designer, Ted Post - Director, Millie Moore - Editor, William Moore - Editor, Michael Leone - Executive Producer, Craig Safan - Composer (Music Score), Beala Neel - Production Designer, Allan F. Bodoh - Producer, Michael Leone - Producer, Bruce Cohn - Screenwriter, Mark Medoff - Screenwriter, Joseph Fraley - Screenwriter
Good Guys Wear Black is a 1977action film starring Chuck Norris. This was one of the first films to feature Norris as the star. He plays John T. Booker, a former Vietnam Green Beret and a member of a group known as the Black Tigers. He is drawn into a web when members of the group start getting killed. Booker then sets out to warn surviving members around the country. The killer turns out to be a former adversary from Vietnam (Soon-Tek Oh) who was silencing the surviving members of the group before their agent, a politician (James Franciscus), gets elected to office. Too late to save the last victim in Denver, Booker kills the assassin at the airport with a spectacular flying side kick through the windscreen as the car bears down on him. He goes on to Washington, D.C., and tries to stop the politician by taking the place of his driver. Just as he finishes telling the politician, "It's not that you deserve to die, but you don't deserve to live," Booker is struck from behind while driving. The limousine plunges into a river but Booker emerges as the only survivor.
