In 1972, Lt. Steve Shepherd (William Katt) disappeared in the jungles of Vietnam.  He was listed as being MIA and he was mistakenly presumed dead.  Instead, he survived in the jungle and continued to fight his own war against the North Vietnamese.  Eventually, he “married” a Thai woman named Thi Hau (Rosalind Chao).  The North Vietnamese began to call him the “White Ghost.”

16 years later, Major Cross (Reb Brown) hears the legend of the White Ghost and arranges for a group of elite rangers to parachute into the jungle and retrieve Lt. Shepherd.  However, Thi Hau has been captured by the Vietnamese army and is being held at one of their torture camps.  Shepherd is determined to rescue her.  As well, one the rangers (Wayne Crawford) has a personal issue with Shepherd that goes back to their time in Vietnam.  He determined to get his revenge, no matter what the cost.

White Ghost came out at a time when films like Rambo: First Blood II and Missing In Action were bringing in the big bucks at the box office.  Like those movies, White Ghost gives audiences a chance to watch as the Vietnam War is refought, this time with America as the victor.  What sets White Ghost apart is that Shepherd not only has to destroy the Vietnamese prison camp but he also has to avoid his fellow Americans while doing it.  This is a violent movie with an astronomical body count.  The action is pretty much nonstop and, for once, not even the hero can escape without a scratch.  Director BJ Davis was a stuntman and, not surprisingly, he gets fantastic work from the film’s stunt team.  This film also owes a debt to Predator, with its jungle locations and its emphasis on booby traps.  Karl Johnson appears as one of the Rangers and he looks so much like Jesse Ventura that I actually checked to make sure that it wasn’t him.

At first, William Katt seemed miscast as Steve Shepherd and he seemed to be in surprisingly good shape for someone who has spent sixteen years living in the jungle.  By the end of the movie, though, Katt had won me over.  He looked convincing shooting a machine gun and throwing grenades and his scenes with Rosalind Chao had enough depth that you cared whether or not he was able to rescue her.  Reb Brown fans will probably be disappointed that he spends most of the movie behind a desk but, in the gloriously frenetic finale, he does finally get to do his trademark yelling.

White Ghost is an exciting slice of Namsploitation.  At one point, there was a sequel planned that would have featured Shepherd fighting crime in America but unfortunately, it never happened.