''The Human Shield'' is a 1991 low-budget American

action film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

from

B-movie A B movie, or B film, is a type of cheap, low-budget commercial motion picture. Originally, during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood, this term specifically referred to films meant to be shown as the lesser-known second ...

film studio

Cannon Films The Cannon Group, Inc. was an American group of companies, including Cannon Films, which produced films from 1967 to 1994. The extensive group also owned, amongst others, a large international cinema chain and a video film company that investe ...

. It was directed by

Ted Post Theodore Ian Post (March 31, 1918 – August 20, 2013) was an American director of film and television. Highly prolific, Post directed numerous episodes of well-known television series including '' Rawhide'', ''Gunsmoke'', and ''The Twilight Zo ...

and written by

Mann Rubin Mann Rubin (December 11, 1927 – October 12, 2013) was an American film and television screenwriter, whose credits included '' The Best of Everything'' in 1959, '' Brainstorm'' in 1965, ''Warning Shot'' in 1967, '' The First Deadly Sin'' in 1980, ...

and stars

Michael Dudikoff Michael Joseph Stephen Dudikoff Jr., (; born October 8, 1954) is an American actor, model and martial artist. Born in New York City, his family later moved to Los Angeles. Dudikoff did different jobs to pay for his education, during this time he b ...

and Tommy Hinkley. It is about a former government agent who must save his diabetic brother from Iraqi abductors. The film is initially set during the

Iran–Iraq War The Iran–Iraq War, also known as the First Gulf War, was an armed conflict between Iran and Iraq that lasted from September 1980 to August 1988. Active hostilities began with the Iraqi invasion of Iran and lasted for nearly eight years, unti ...

. A colonel of the U.S. Marines has been hired to train the Iraqi troops, but he disagrees with the targeting of civilians by the

Iraqi Army The Iraqi Ground Forces (Arabic: القوات البرية العراقية), also referred to as the Iraqi Army (Arabic: الجيش العراقي), is the ground force component of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It was formerly known as the Royal Iraq ...

and he unsuccessfully attacks an Iraqi military leader. During the

Iraqi invasion of Kuwait The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, codenamed Project 17, began on 2 August 1990 and marked the beginning of the Gulf War. After defeating the State of Kuwait on 4 August 1990, Iraq went on to militarily occupy the country for the next seven months ...

, the colonel's brother is captured and held hostage in order to lure the insubordinate colonel into a trap.

Plot

In 1985, during the

, Colonel Doug Matthews (

), is a U.S. Marine hired to help train Iraqi troops to fight off the Iranians. He arrives somewhere in the northern part of Iraq only to discover that stormtroopers are killing people in the nearby village. Doug disagrees with this and attacks Dallai, the leader of the Iraqi troops, but loses. In 1990 (five years later), in August, at Baghdad Airport, the news reports that Iraq has invaded Kuwait and that all foreign nationals are to be evacuated. Ben Matthews ( Tommy Hinkley), Doug's diabetic brother, who is a teacher, is taken away from his wife and child by Iraqi guards for interrogation and is held hostage to lure Doug in to a trap.

Cast

as Colonel Doug Matthews * Tommy Hinkley as Ben Matthews *

Hanna Azoulay Hasfari Hanna Azoulay-Hasfari (; born June 29, 1960) is an State of Israel, Israeli Actor, actress, screenwriter, playwright, film director and a two-time winner of the Ophir Award. She is a women's rights Activism, activist, and has dedicated her career ...

as Lila Haddilh *

Steve Inwood Steve Tongalson Inwood (January 3, 1947 – May 15, 2025) was an American actor. Inwood appeared mainly in the early 1980s with roles in such films as ''Fame - The Path To Glory'', ''Prince of the City'' and ''Staying Alive''. After that, he fo ...

as Ali Dallal *

Uri Gavriel Uri Gavriel () is an Israeli theater, film and television actor. Winner of the Ophir Award and Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2005 as Best Actor in film ''What a Wonderful Place''. In 2018, he appeared as Philip the Apostle in Helen ...

as Tanzi * Avi Keidar as Sager * Gil Dagon as David * Michael Shillo as Joe Albalo * Roberto Pollack as Bashir * Irving Kaplan as Sid Cromwell * Gilat Ankori as Laura Matthews * Megan Lawson as Laura's Baby * Michael Eleazar as Iraqi Officer * Avi Cohen as Blackmarketeer * Gilya Stern as Stewardess

Reception

Emanuel Levy of

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

magazine called it " a lame, small-budget actioner that exploits its political context without delivering the expected thrills of the genre."

References

External links

* * 1991 films 1991 action films American action films Films set in 1985 Films set in 1990 Films set in Iraq Films set in Baghdad Films shot in Israel Films set in Washington, D.C. Films set in Jordan Films directed by Ted Post Golan-Globus films Gulf War films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films English-language action drama films Films about hostage taking Films about brothers Iran–Iraq War films Films about the United States Marine Corps {{1990s-action-film-stub