Such a frustrating disappointment

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Good movie but grossly overrated

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

A trio of American World War II vets take a hunting trip in the rural Canadian woods where they find out the American caretaker of the place they are staying is a Vietnam deserter (David Huffman). Thanks to a lot of alcohol and the influence of the embittered, flag-waving leader of trio (Rod Steiger), what starts out as a mere "generation gap" political disagreement, quickly escalates into a violent, armed conflict.Rod Steiger is excellent as the vicious leader of the veterans whose blind patriotism and narrow-minded prejudices leave almost everyone in the cast dead by the end. His more weak-willed friends are only along for the ride at first, but they too are quickly caught up in the escalating violence. And adding no small amount of fuel to the fire is Robin Mattson, as the Huffman character's sexy girlfriend. Playing an only slightly more sympathetic variation on the malicious tease she played in her most famous film "Bonnie's Kids", her character takes her showers outdoors, even with all the drunken, dirty old men lingering about, and when she catches Steiger staring at her bra-less chest, she tauntingly lifts up her shirt to give him a better look at her yummy breasts. This is not to say she deserves what happens to her--the tragedy here is that all the characters are actually sympathetic to SOME extent, even if only Huffman approaches ever really being too likable.With several gun battles, a gang rape, a wilderness chase, and lots of explosions, this works pretty well as a violent action movie. But it is one of those dark, cynical 70's ones like "Deliverance", "Southern Comfort", or "Who'll Stop the Rain?" that show only the ultimate futility and stupidity of violence. Definitely recommended, especially to fans of Rod Steiger, Robin Mattson, and/or downbeat 70's-era action fare.

"Wolf Lake" is obscure 70's exploitation at its finest: raw & moody atmosphere, straightforward action and real manly actors in the roles of hard-headed chauvinist macho characters! Originality might not be this film's biggest trump, perhaps, but it's intense and unsettling from start to finish and brought to an even higher level by the phenomenal performance of Rod Steiger as the embittered War veteran with outmoded patriotic ideals. Charlie, along with three of his obedient and docile buddies, arrive at Wolf Lake for their annual weekend of duck hunting, poker gaming and whiskey boozing. Their usual contact person isn't there, but they meet with the young caretaker David and his sexy girlfriend Linda. They find out David is a fugitive Vietnam deserter, and this happens to be a very sensitive issue for Charlie, because he lost his son there. To him, all deserters are cowards who're to blame for the downfall of America. Charlie taunts and provokes David, but the posse really goes too far during a wild drinking party. And you know how that goes, once you cross a certain line …. there's no way back. "Wolf Lake" is obviously inspired by the 70's trends of (Vietnam) veterans going mental ("Open Season", "Rolling Thunder") and remote backwoods survival thrillers ("Deliverance", "Straw Dogs"). Writer/director Burt Kennedy may not be Sam Peckinpah or John Boorman, but he undeniably manages to keep his movie suspenseful and creepy. The isolated setting is very effective, for starters, and so are Ken Thorne's pounding score and the unnervingly slow pacing. Some political debate sequences are so intelligent and powerful that it's a real shame that the film remained so obscure and unavailable on DVD. The only really annoying thing about "Wolf Lake" is that the plot stupidly spoils itself the entire time by showing brief but revealing images of vital things happening later in the film. What the hell's the point of that?

Ex-commander Steiger and three of his army buddies go to Canada for a little duck hunting.Steiger,grieving for his son lost in the Vietnam War, gets ballistic when he finds out that Huffman,who's running the camp,is a deserter.A violent shootout occurs as Steiger and his friends go after Huffman and his girlfriend Mattson with tragic results."Wolf Lake" plays like an exciting mix of "Deliverance","Straw Dogs" and "Open Season".It's a tense and extremely well-acted survival thriller with some great scenes of violence.The shootout begins after the rape of Huffman's girlfriend.So if you are a fan of survival cinema you can't miss "Wolf Lake".It's a crying shame that such obscure Canadian movies are still unavailable on DVD.9 out of 10.

Melvin Simon tried to release this film as WOLF LAKE (with bad ending), but that version kept having flashback and flash forward scenes, and kind of made the film confusing. Later, re-edited and fixed in 1980 as HONOR GUARDS(with a good ending). The film has Steiger and his WW2 buddies going on a trip up in the cabin, which is run by a Vietnam draft dodger (Huffman, who was real life murdered by a 16 year old mugger in 1980, who got off real easy for murder) and his girlfriend (Matteson). Steiger's son was killed in Nam and blames it on Huffman. Violence and rape occurs in end in this suspenseful film. I don't know what ending Burt Kennedy, and even Steiger had wanted for the film. Steiger, who really gets into his character, gives one of the best performance of his career.