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...