EDGE OF HONOR teeters on the edge of credibility. What could have been a taut and dynamic adventure about desperate wilderness survival, in the tradition of John Boorman's gripping DELIVERANCE, is squandered in a shootfest of myopic story marksmanship.
A title card relates that loggers and fisherman in the vast forests of Washington's Olympic Peninsula have fallen on hard times. However, proximate to major shipping lanes, it is an ideal location for drugs and weapons smuggling. On cue, one gang of arms smugglers is brutally ambushed by another
for possession of a shipment. One man escapes. Ritchie (Don Swayze) is ordered to hunt down the survivor. There is indeed no honor among thieves.
A lost trio of Boy Scouts come upon an abandoned shack and, breaking in, discover crates of shoulder-fired missiles and munitions. Led by the mischievous Butler (Corey Feldman), the three steal part of the shipment as evidence, but are unable to carry it very far. Meanwhile, the ambush leader, an
aptly named hick gangster, Bo Dubs (Ken Jenkins), meets the buyer of the high-tech arms in Seattle. Dubs arrogantly proclaims himself the master of the deal; the transfer of hardware and cash will be done on his terms. His client believes otherwise. He introduces his valet, Blade (Christopher
Neame), who displays his forte with a wrist-fired knife driven into the throat of Dubs's second. The Englishman aptly eulogizes with Macbeth, Act II, Scene I. Duly chastened, Dubs phones Ritchie and orders him and a pal to transport the shipment for pick-up.
At the looted weapons shack, the errand men find a map left by the boys on which their encampment is clearly marked. At first the troop leader is adamant in denial, and then he is dead. So are several campers, shot down before the men realize that in their frenzy they have murdered mere children.
Meanwhile, the mettlesome trio have been out attempting to relocate the stolen crate but, upon hearing the distant shots, fall into a panic. They are now the prey. At dawn and throughout the day, Ritchie and his cohorts are on the hunt. The man who accompanied Ritchie to the camp is caught alone
by the boys and killed. The men cannot snare their elusive but terrified quarry, who bravely disarm another yokel. Unfortunately, the kids must traverse a clearing in the forest; no trees, no cover. Halfway across they are fired upon but (by the grace of the movie gods) only one boy is wounded in
the hail of bullets. Shot in the leg, at first crippled, he is soon running miraculously. The kids find a road-block of the authority-figure cops, guardians of society. They, of course, are in league with the villains, but dissuaded from capturing the boys by automatic rifle fire. The savior in
ninja black later turns out to be Alex (Meredith Salenger), whose brother and mother were killed by Ritchie.
At her house, Alex displays the arsenal--M-16, crossbow and pistols--she has somehow acquired and learned to use. Butler exhorts his compatriots to take an "aggressive, tactical stance" and go on the offensive. Next morning, a platoon of men frontally approach the house where the youngsters are
sleeping. One man fires, and then all, eliminating the surprise. All but two of the kids make an escape that would have been precluded had men who could shoot straight surrounded the house before they flushed their quarry. Later, the men let the older boy go, holding the younger one hostage. That
night the boys break into a Forest Service maintenance building, and with the gear, overnight they feverishly construct an ambush. When the men come at dawn the boys unleash an ingenious series of medieval block and tackle, tree-top, inertial and explosive devices that wreak the appropriate havoc
and revenge. Dubs is left to crawl along the muddy logging road babbling about going to Mexico and these "damned trees."
How far is the action from a friendly town? Why didn't one of the older boys run directly for help? Who taught Alex how to shoot an M-16? Where did she obtain her weapons? Where did these young men learn such elaborate woodsman weaponry, the Boy Scouts? Why did grown men ever think they could
conspire to murder children and escape the law? Where is the law? Such questions must be answered if intelligent observers are to feel their time has been well spent. The awe-inspiring forest never becomes a character in this duel. Too bad the "damned trees" can't build houses and chairs from such
movies. (Violence, profanity.) leave a comment