FILM REVIEW - The Wild Geese (1978)

 

 

I was prompted to watch this classic action movie by a magnificent podcast by the boys at "Fighting on Film". You can listen to the podcast HERE.  The podcast is not a film review as such, but is instead a fascinating look at the movie by a couple of military historians. They check the film out for the accuracy of the weapons shown and their capabilities [generally fairly accurate] as well as other hardware such as aircraft, trucks etc [not quite so] and includes some background on the production of the movie. 

I vaguely remembered the movie. I think I last saw it on TV with my dad about 20 years ago or more. Anyway, the podcast prompted me to try to find the movie on line. It is HERE if you want to watch it. Quality is not so good as a DVD, but it is cheaper. 

So the movie has a great cast. Not just the headline stars of Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Roger Moore and Hardy Kruger, but also a cameo role by Steward Granger at his slinkiest, sinister best. There are also a huge number of familiar faces from British cinema such as Jack Watson, Frank Finley, Ronald Fraser, Kenneth Griffith and many more. I would have said that the prodution values are pretty good. Lots of stunts, explosions, vehicle stunts and such like. Also they don't seem to have skimped on the sets and settings - most of it was shot on location in Africa or London.

The story is fairly straightforward. An enormously wealthy and equally crooked businessman [Grainger] hires a noted mercenary leader [Burton] to go to Africa to rescue from prison a highly respected former president of the fictional republic of Zembala - President Limbani [Winston Ntshona]. Ostensibly the motive is to put Limbani back in power and so resuce Zembala from the corrupt rule of dictator Ndofa. In fact Grainger wants to use Limbani as a threat to blackmail Ndofa into signing over lucrative mining rights. Burton recruits a team of British ex-military men, many of whom have a particular skill, to plan and carry out the prison break. At first all goes well, but then Ndofa signs over the mining rights. With no further need for Limbani, Grainger cancels the aircraft on its way to pick up Burton, Limbani and the team. Abandoned in the middle of Zembala with thousands of local troops closing in on them, the hapless mercenaries have to fight their way out - a process which takes up the rest of the movie. 

As I said, this is a great action film which stands up well to passing of time since it was made. There is an interesting little subplot of the relationship between Kruger's racist Boer mercenary and Limbani. Similarly the storyline focussing on how a man of action [Watson's character] can struggle with a quiet home life as old age creeps up on him is nicely handled. On the whole though, this is an undemanding action film. And very entertaining it is too.