What do you get when you combine corrupt cops, a silent Chuck Norris, a robot tank named the Prowler, and one of the most confusingly gritty films of the '80s? You get Code of Silence (1985) and you get this week's episode of Born to Watch. Our first (and possibly last) Chuck Norris movie, this Code Of Silence (1985) Review was one of our hardest yet.
Originally meant to be a deep dive into the snow-covered world of Fargo, the team made a bold mid-week pivot. Why? Although the Coen Brothers’ classic has its place in cinema history, it lacks denim, moustaches, or Chuck Norris delivering silent justice with a cold stare. This week’s episode is a celebration and interrogation of what many believe to be Chuck Norris's best actual movie: Code of Silence.
Hosting this round is Whitey, joined by the returning G-Man (fresh off a brief sabbatical) and everyone's favourite intern, Will the Work Experience Kid, who's finally found a film with more fists than subtext. Together, the trio dig into the film's layers (yes, there are some), highlights its absurdities (many), and wrestles with the biggest question of all: was Chuck actually acting in this?
Chuck Norris stars as Eddie Cusack, a no-nonsense Chicago cop caught in the middle of a brutal gang war and a police department riddled with corruption. When Cusack refuses to back up a dirty cop, he's iced out by his fellow officers and forced to take on the criminals, the corrupt cops, and a killer in a trench coat... completely solo. Well, almost solo. He does have The Prowler, a remote-controlled robot tank that can shoot gas grenades, blow up doors, and completely derail the realism of the film's final act.
In classic Born to Watch fashion, the boys break it down across all the key angles:
The Plot
Whitey leads the charge, recapping the film's surprisingly tight (yet sometimes baffling) storyline. The team debates Eddie Cusack's moral choices, questions whether Chuck understood his own lines, and marvels at the film's commitment to making stairwells more perilous than actual shootouts.
The Performances
G-Man lays out the argument that this is Chuck Norris's best performance, not just his best movie. With fewer lines and more brooding, Norris actually builds a character with a code. Will's take? He still prefers action over nuance but admits Chuck's stone-faced stare works better here than in Missing in Action or Delta Force.
Direction & Style
Andrew Davis gets some serious love this episode. Before The Fugitive made him a household name, Code of Silence showed he could stage gritty action, squeeze tension out of silence, and give Chuck an actual platform to do more than kick things. The cinematography gives Chicago a grimy, lived-in feel, and the pacing is tighter than expected until the Prowler shows up and explodes all sense of realism.
The Prowler
Will's favourite part of the episode, and the film, is the laughably amazing Prowler, a piece of proto-RoboCop tech that somehow exists in 1985 and gets deployed by one man for reasons no one can explain. Does it break the movie? Maybe. Do we love it anyway? Absolutely.
The Fashion
It wouldn't be Born to Watch without taking a closer look at the outfits. Norris's iconic turtleneck/sweater/denim combo gets a lot of airtime, as does the question of whether a moustache makes you more believable as a cop, or just more '80s.
And of course, no episode would be complete without:
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