Good Guys Wear Black is a 1978 American martial arts action film starring Chuck Norris and directed by Ted Post.
Good Guys Wear Black distinguished itself from earlier martial arts films with its distinctly American setting, characters, themes, and politics, a formula which Norris continued with the similarly successful Force of One (1979).
[8] In 1973, United States Senator Conrad Morgan (James Franciscus), the chief delegate diplomat in negotiating the terms of the end of the Vietnam War, made a deal in Paris with Kuong Yen; a North Vietnamese negotiator.
The treaty was signed and the Black Tigers were sent into the Vietnam jungle to their unwitting demise, having incorrectly been told that they were on a mission to liberate American POWs.
However, the negotiators failed to account for one thing: the commandos' team leader was Major John T. Booker (Chuck Norris).
Five years after returning from Vietnam, Booker, now living in Los Angeles, is working as a political science professor at UCLA, and with a hobby of race-car driving.
Sitting in on one of his lectures is a bright female reporter named Margaret (Anne Archer) who has some very specific questions about the botched rescue mission.
Booker is suddenly thrown back into his past when Morgan's appointment as Secretary of State spurs Yen to blackmail his ex-negotiations buddy into making good on his unfinished deal: the extermination of the Black Tigers.
Bodoh ran Mar Vista Productions, who in a two-year period made Dirt, Acapulco Gold, Dogs and The Great Smokey Roadblock.
with Clint Eastwood's A Fistful of Dollars and Good Guys Wear Black with Dirty Harry.
"[9] Chuck Norris had a long dialogue scene with James Franciscus about the Vietnam War.
"[3] Norris later stated: The film was having trouble getting distribution, so the producers decided to distribute it themselves, renting theaters in individual cities around the country for a flat fee and pocketing the box-office receipts I traveled with them, opening from cities to hamlets, talking with folks and promoting the film any way I could.
Actually, it's a means of avoiding violent situations, and a form of defense if you have no choice and you're backed into a corner.
After opening on five screens in Denver on June 2, 1978, the movie would go on to gross $18 million at the US box office, due in part to a year-long publicity tour Norris did.
[19] Linda Gross of the Los Angeles Times called it "cynical, reasonably entertaining... the slick, efficient murders are less gory to watch than disturbing to contemplate.
", the film was given the rating of "C–", stating that "the serious-minded plot is poorly matched with the karate-chopping action sequences, and Norris' fancy footwork only occasionally takes fire.
I said, 'I'm not trying to be Dustin Hoffman; I just want to project a strong positive hero image on the screen.'