This summer, Cinema Runner is embarking on a rock ’em, sock ’em, and blow ’em away adventure with one of film’s greatest action heroes: CHUCK NORRIS! Join us as we revisit the Karate Kommando’s cinematic works, with the occasional television project thrown in for fun! From Memorial Day to Labor Day, it’s time for a badass SUMMER OF NORRIS!
After a bit role in a Dean Martin picture and two villainous turns in foreign martial arts offerings. Chuck Norris finally launched onto the silver screen as a hero in 1977’s Breaker! Breaker!. Playing trucker John David “J.D.” Dawes, Norris instantly established himself exactly as we have known him since: the perfect hero with an unstoppable sense of justice. His trademark persona is already on full display here, including all of the the Middle American swagger and the laid back skill comes with it. That’s honestly rather impressive.
The plot of Breaker! Breaker! sees the beacon of trucker machismo that is J.D. setting out to find his missing brother. A fellow trucker, Billy Dawes has disappeared after his first solo haul, having run afoul of the corrupt town of Texas City, California. The locals there, under the direction of the dastardly Judge Joshua Trimmings (George Murdock) have erected a township whose economy runs solely on speedtrap fines, hijacked shipments, and chopshopped automobile parts.
Naturally J.D. isn’t having any of these illegal backwater shenanigans as he roundhouses his way through loads of rednecks and corrupt city officials. Being Chuck Norris, he also woos and beds a local widow, who happens to be one of the only residents that isn’t pleased as punch about the city’s ugly economic lifelines. Add in a back-up convoy of truckers that literally help him destroy Texas City at the end and you’ve got yourself a pretty raucous time at the movies.
This film arrived right in the middle of the trucker/C.B. radio craze of the mid-to-late ’70s, hitting theaters after the television series “Movin’ On” (1974-1976) and the Jan-Michael Vincent vehicle White Line Fever (1975) and before the likes of Smokey and the Bandit (released the very same month in ’77) and Sam Peckinpah’s Convoy (1978). It also hit right towards the end of the 1970s hicksploitation trend, making it a perfect combination of subgenres for Norris to launch his leading man career. Box office information from that era is generally hard to come by, but I’d be surprised if this film wasn’t at least a minor success.
Even beyond just its place in history, there’s a lot of interesting things going on here. The film opens with Judge Trimmings giving a big speech about how wonderful it is that their town has been legitimized by the California government with a proper city charter and how they won’t have to feel like outsiders anymore. While it’s immediately clear that Trimmings is a somewhat sinister blowhard, the nature of his speech paints the citizens as a band of mistreated outsiders, only for the film to turn around and line them up to be kicked in the face by our hero. It’s an odd dichotomy, to say the least.
There’s plenty to enjoy here if you are a fan of trucker or hicksploitation cinema. In addition to the requisite C.B. chatter throughout, we are treated to an assortment of colorful road cohorts, from J.D.’s pal Burton (Jack Nance) and an interestingly clad fellow who J.D. arm wrestles early on. That should please the Over the Top fans out there. We also have a bumbling police force and corrupt city officials, most of whom are inept drunks that fail at every given turn.
As for Norris himself, gone are the gratuitous shots of chest, shoulder, and back hair. Gone too is the mustache he sported in Yellow Faced Tiger and would don again in his later, more well-known works. Breaker! Breaker! returns the actor to his shaven look in The Way of the Dragon, minus the darker hair color. Chuck is more clean cut here, which makes sense, given that J.D. is a pure of heart hero that only wants fun and peacefulness out of life, resorting to violence only when needed.
Then we have J.D.’s van. You would think that a film centered around noble truckers and the wrongs that they face out on the open road would have the most striking vehicle within it be an 18-wheeler. You would be wrong. No, my friends, the most memorable set of wheels in Breaker! Breaker! is J.D.’s van. Why? Well, pictures speak louder than words…
See what I mean? Absolutely unforgettable. It’s like the shitkicker version of a nerdy burnout’s wizard van. No matter whether you find the artwork upon it cool, baffling, annoying, or all of the above, you just cannot look away. You just have to sit there and take it all in. What makes it even better is that almost no character in the film seems phased by it. They just take America: The Van in stride as they go on about their business!
Breaker! Breaker! is not without its flaws, of course. Outside of Norris, Murdock, and the briefly utilized Nance, not much of the cast leaves an impression. A lot of that has to do with the writing, but a great many of them looking alike in terms of costuming and hairstyle doesn’t help. There’s also the simple fact that none of J.D.’s adversaries are a true much for him. The only times he gets in a tight spot during a fight is when they get him in a rush. One on one, no one is a match for Chuck Norris here. Bust out memes and jokes all you want, but that doesn’t make for a dynamic action film. Still, it’s a quirky and entertaining enough actioner to make it worth your while if you are a fan of Norris or the subgenres on display here. Just don’t go in expecting an unseen classic.
Chucks Given: 3 out of 5
Our Next Norris Opus: Good Guys Wear Black (1978)
Previously On…
The Way of the Dragon/Yellow Faced Tiger | Breaker! Breaker!
