The initial half-hour develops a sharply observed contrast between the upright public postures and the crumpled private lives of POWs returning from Southeast Asia. Paul Schrader, the angry young scriptwriter, obviously has something to say about the lingering aftereffects of the Vietnam War, but he is not about to come right out and say it. Instead, he takes refuge in the teeth-gritting, muscle-flexing bravado of the conventional action movie. Director John Flynn does some good location shooting around the Tex-Mex border, although some of the scenery gets lost in the muddy color processing. And Linda Haynes, beautifully natural as the self-declared groupie' who attaches herself to William Devane's tortured war hero, is an unexpected bonus in this pigheadedly masculine movie. With Tommy Lee Jones, Dabney Coleman, Luke Askew, and James Best. (1977) — Duncan Shepherd