I love movies about government cover-ups and conspiracy theories so this atmospheric political thriller appealed to me immensely.  The film tells the story of a brave young army captain called Jack Poynt (superbly played by former GH star Antonio Sabato Jnr) and his quest to bring to light the gruesome acts of a sadistic officer in Cambodia during the early 1970s.  The officer in question is called Max Camden (played by Fred Ward) and he is now National Security Advisor.

During a visit to the location of a former medical camp (“Camp Blue”) in south-east Asia, Captain Poynt inadvertently stumbles upon something which shocks him to the core.  The item in question is a journal, kept by a soldier who served under Camden at the camp.   The diary tells the story of a hideously brutal regime and of the genocidal murder of innocent natives on the orders of none other than Max Camden.  As Jack returns to the United States and reads the contents of the journal, he learns of the horrors which those who served under Camden were forced to endure and how anyone who challenged him would immediately face certain death. One of his victims was a young female officer who was brutally shot in the head for daring to speak her mind.  From then on, Jack has only two missions in life - to publicise the book and to ensure Camden is brought to justice for his crimes.   

His army years now behind him, Max Camden does not welcome Jack Poynt’s digging up of his past life and when he learns of the existence of the journal he instructs those close to him to “shut Jack down”.  As the film progresses, we learn that the powerful and high-placed Camden is possessed of a deep=rooted hatred of Asians and that he sees nothing wrong with what he did at Camp Blue. To him, Asians were nothing more than “insects” and he felt he had some God-given right to exterminate them. 

Captured by Camden’s men and facing torture, Jack narrowly escapes with the aid of a kick-boxing female Chinese government agent who knows of the existence of the journal.  She wants to get her hands on the diary but Jack earns her trust and they become lovers.  She arranges for him to be smuggled into a building where, eventually, he gets the chance to go one-on-one with Camden.  In this final, dramatic, roof-top confrontation we learn that the young female officer shot in the head by Camden for daring to challenge his cruel orders was none other than Jack’s mother.  Camden accuses Jack of waging a war against him for personal reasons but Jack lets him know that there’s a great deal more to his crusade than that - he wants to see Camden punished for his hideous crimes against humanity.  Jack got his wish, although possibly not in the manner that he had originally envisaged, for Camden, locked in a heated battle of words with Jack, stepped on an incendiary device and before Jack’s eyes suffered the same terrible death as he inflicted on many of his victims.

So where does Sean fit into this gripping story?  He plays a prominently-featured character called “Jay”, Camden’s right-hand man.  Unfortunately for Jay, he earns his boss’s displeasure on more than one occasion and when he allows Jack to slip through his fingers once too often he is reminded by Camden that his unquestioning loyalty is required - or else.  Full credit to Sean for his brilliant portrayal of this duty-obsessed character who was perhaps a little more tightly entangled in Camden’s perilous web of hatred and deceit than he would have liked. 

All in all, “The Chaos Factor” is a very fine film, and certainly one which warrants repeat viewing.  This leads me nicely on to the only grumble I have about it - why was it a TV movie?  With it’s haunting, memorable score, exemplary cast and compelling storyline, it was considerably more superior than some of the stuff I’ve recently seen on the big screen!

Designs, images and writing (C) “Sean Kanan - A Unique and Very Special Actor” 2000.