THE WILD GEESE

My only reason for watching this unenticing film was that it was featured on the ‘War Movie Theatre’ podcast.

At the time of its release (1985) its main selling point was the stellar cast.  Richard Burton!  Richard Harris!  Roger Moore!  Hardy Krüger!  Stewart Grainger!   Plus a tank load of character actors such as Frank Finlay, Barry Foster, Ronald Fraser, Kenneth Griffith, Patrick Allen, Jack Watson. 

But although I am very much in the target demographic for this sort of thing (white bloke in his '60s) I found this film a real slog, all 134 minutes (134!).

It’s loosely based on real events, about a group of mercenaries trying to rescue an imprisoned African leader.

The early scenes which set things up, by introducing us to the mercenaries and to Mr Merchant Banker (Grainger) who is financing the operation, are tedious and seem to go on for ever.

Things don’t improve much when we move on to some supposedly amusing scenes of the mercenaries going through rapid training, which they badly need since they are all the wrong side of forty. 

Eventually (at last!) the operation starts and it goes remarkably smoothly.  It does however include some disturbing scenes, the worst being when loads of black guards are sent to their death in their sleep with cyanide gas.  This would be grim stuff even without the racial element.

The film was controversial for being made in South Africa during apartheid.  Even without knowing this, the fact that the film depicts predominantly white guys killing black people makes for uncomfortable viewing. 

On the plus side the Hardy Krüger character, who starts off with distinctly racist attitudes, does develop a relationship of sorts with the African leader (Limbani) which causes him to modify his views. However this does feel shoehorned in just to deflect criticism.

Anyway, back to the operation and it’s no surprise when Mr Merchant Banker double crosses the mercenaries and leaves them to fend for themselves in hostile territory.  This does mean we get some action sequences as they come under attack.  Luckily they discover a disused airstrip and aircraft, which leads to an exciting sequence as they fight off hordes of militia whilst scrambling on to the plane.

Of course most of the mercenaries are killed in all of this.  More surprisingly Limbani, whose health when he is rescued is not great, also dies once they are airborne.  

So the entire mission has been for nothing. It’s a bit of a downer as an ending but to cheer us up we finish with Richard Burton dispensing some rough justice to Mr Merchant Banker back in London. 

It's hard to believe that the screenplay was written by Reginald Rose whose credits include ’Twelve Angry Men’.  And despite the fact that the cinematography is by Jack Hildyard, whose distinguished career includes an Oscar for ’Bridge on the River Kwai’, the film has the look of a cheap TV movie. The blame for this must largely fall on the shoulders of the director Andrew V McLaglen whose unremarkable career included a lot of TV work.

Richards Burton and Harris turn in decent performances but they aren’t given much to work with so frankly it’s a sad waste of their talents.

Roger Moore had the sense to realise they could easily act him off the screen so he asked for his lines in the film to be reduced. Sadly this didn’t go anywhere near far enough: he is badly miscast and virtually every time he says anything it took me out of the film. His first scene, in which he kills a playboy type by making him eat heroin, is so indescribably bad it almost made me switch off there and then.

Just not my cup of tea.

RATING: x Curb Your Enthusiasm