FEATURE FRIDAY, JANUARY 20th EDITION

    Inauguration Day, like Christmas, has come and gone. It's time for men and women of goodwill to spend a relaxing weekend curled up in front of a warm fireplace together, catching a good movie. Besides, those not of goodwill are making the streets unsafe,  in tolerant Liberal urban areas.

     So while the Leftist protesters are busy getting dragged off to jail tonight, we can enjoy a fun feature film---incidentally starred in by a Trump supporter---from 1978, titled Good Guys Wear Black; starring the legendary Chuck Norris.

     Good Guys Wear Black is a fitting choice. Filmed shortly after Watergate and the Vietnam War, it's the original 'Drain the Swamp' film. (No spoilers, but it even ends in a swamp). This is actually one of Norris' best films. There's plenty of Norris-type action involved, but the storyline is very well-developed. In many ways, it somewhat echoes back to some of the suspense-thrillers of the 1950s.

     Norris plays Major John T. Booker, commander of the Black Tigers, a special-ops unit in Vietnam. At the end of the war, his CIA officer and the US ambassador arrange for a mission to liberate American POWs from camp. The mission goes wrong, and Booker escapes with only a half-dozen survivors of his team.

     A few years later, Booker is back in civilian life when he is approached by a mysterious and beautiful reporter, Margaret (played by Anne Archer), who knows all about the botched mission although it was classified top-secret. Booker contacts his old CIA boss Murray Saunders (played by Lloyd Haines) who discovers that details of the mission have been officially scrubbed from the records; and that he, Booker, and the rest of the team are on a covert hit-list. Two have already been murdered; and this somehow coincides with the Senate hearings on the ambassador---who ordered the mission---being appointed Secretary of State. Booker and Margaret must race against the clock to save the remaining veterans and get to the ambassador before these unknown forces carry out their unknown designs. They soon find a web of political intrigue connected with the failed mission.

     But who was behind it and why? The answer may surprise you.

     Like John Wayne in the WW2 generation, Chuck Norris became something of a cultural icon representing American values to the Vietnam and post-Vietnam era generations. Though not his first film, Good Guys Wear Black was the feature that really elevated Norris to that status. The underlying message of the film counters the postmodernist maxim that the personal is political and emphasizes that 'good guys' stand for right against wrong regardless of political consequences. There's even a scene in the film where Booker and a politician have a fairly profound debate (with no fisticuffs) about political expediency vs. moral choice. Filmed as it was during another politically-charged era, Good Guys Wear Black comes across as a very relevant story.

     Sit back with some popcorn and a significant other tonight and ignore the Anarchists while watching an American hero cleaning house on the enemies of freedom. What could be a better way to spend the weekend?

     Good Guys Wear Black is probably best obtained on DVD, though occasionally available on the free sites.