Chuck Norris is interviewed in San Francisco during the promotional tour for the movie “The Delta Force” in 1986. Norris passed away in March at age 86.
Steve Ringman/S.F. Chronicle
In 1979, my parents, both foreign correspondents, took me to movie night at the new U.S. Embassy in Beijing. The film was “Breaker! Breaker!” about California truckers, starring Chuck Norris.
I was 6 and so loved “Breaker! Breaker!” — the trucker humor, Norris’ hand-to-hand combat — that I declared it the best movie ever made. Today, I still hold to that verdict.
Mine is not a mainstream view. When Norris died last month at age 86, obituaries focused on his world karate championships and his roles in TV’s “Walker, Texas Ranger” and the “Delta Force” movies. When “Breaker! Breaker!” did come up, writers noted its terrible reviews. “A shoddy amalgam” with “wooden direction,” declared the 1977 New York Times review.
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After Norris’ death, I revisited its 85 minutes of low-budget genius — and marveled at how “Breaker! Breaker!” feels more urgent with every viewing.
“Breaker! Breaker!” — made in just 11 days — piggybacked on the 1970s citizens band radio craze. The title is CB user shorthand to announce you’re “breaking into” radio conversations.
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But “Breaker! Breaker!” still has relevant things to say about California, local government and fighting corruption. To that last point, it’s a bright and brilliant Golden State rebuttal to that old, fatalistic East Coast lie — repeated from Tammany Hall to the Trump White House — that you can’t fight city hall.
The story begins with local Judge Joshua Trimmings (character actor George Murdock) announcing the formation of a new municipality somewhere off Highway 120 in the Central Valley.
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“The state of California — in spite of its obstructions, red tape and pig-headedness — has granted us a city charter!” he announces.
But Texas City doesn’t draw much business. Soon, Judge Trimmings is drinking heavily every morning — presumably because he started a city in late 1970s California, just as Proposition 13 stripped local governments of their taxing authority.
So, Texas City does what struggling governments often do — abuse its power to produce revenue. The judge has two brutal police officers set up a speed trap, beat up drivers who resist, collect fines and impound cars on behalf of the city’s junkyard.
In the movie, Norris plays the trucker John David “J.D.” Daws. With his long blond hair, Southern California (Torrance) suntan and huge smile, he lights up the screen. He’s headed to Texas City on a rescue mission: his brother, Billy, has been caught in Trimmings’ dragnet.
When J.D. arrives at the town diner, a waitress takes away the first menu he grabs. “Prices are higher for out-of-towners,” she says. When J.D. wants to call for help, another local tells him the pay phone is out of order.
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Signage for the 1977 movie “Breaker! Breaker!” starring Chuck Norris. The movie says relevant things about California, local government and fighting corruption
LMPC via Getty Images
“This town is out of order,” J.D. sneers.
Finally, J.D. makes his way to City Hall for perhaps the best local public meeting scene in cinema history. After listening quietly during reports on the town’s illegal junkyard and moonshine operations, he demands to know his brother’s whereabouts. When he doesn’t get answers, he refuses to leave.
Texas City officials and citizens attack J.D., who fights them off with martial arts skills few truckers possess. Municipal staffs worldwide, take note: Civic engagement surges when you let the people exchange flying kicks.
J.D. escapes City Hall — but then he makes his first big mistake. He attempts to rescue his brother all by himself, foolishly violating the wisdom of the German philosopher Jurgen Habermas, who, incidentally, died the same week as Norris at age 96. Democratic resistance, as Habermas used to say, requires citizens to come together to forge a public sphere and a political will.
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J.D. gets locked up in the Texas City jail for his efforts. Fortunately, Arlene, a Texas City woman whose heart J.D. has won (they connect romantically under a California oak), alerts truckers throughout the state on a CB radio that their colleague needs help.
Thus begins the film’s unforgettable third act, a perfect expression of John Locke’s philosophical foundation for the right to revolution in the late 17th century.
Locke believed revolt is the right of the people, and wrote, “Whosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law … may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another.”
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At the city limits, the trucks that have responded to Arlene’s SOS call split up, with each driving into, then demolishing, a different building. With their help, J.D. escapes from jail, frees his brother, and, after a bit of meditation (democracy requires reflection), slays a corrupt police officer with a roundhouse kick.
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In the movie’s final frames, we see that the entire town is on fire. With this ending, “Breaker! Breaker!” and Norris reminded us that no government has an inalienable right to exist. And that when the system becomes thoroughly corrupt, we have every right to join together and burn it all down.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.