Producer Euan Lloyd got together some of Britain’s most notorious boozers for this popular adventure film about a bunch of mercenaries who are hired to rescue a Moise Tshombe-like president from gaol in Africa. Led by Richard Burton, the over-the-hill soldiers of fortune include Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Hardy Kruger, and Ronald Fraser. (Where was Peter O’Toole?)
It’s a terrific story, with humour, excitement, some genuinely interesting characters (the script was by none other than Reginald Rose, of 12 Angry Men fame, who does a fine job) and good action sequences. If the handling by director Andrew (North Sea Hijack) McLaglen is occasionally a bit flabby, well that suits the wheezy cast. This is not the best mercenary film (that honour goes to the 1968 Rod Taylor classic Dark of the Sun) but it is still pretty good, and real life 1960s mercenary Mike Hoare acted as a technical adviser.
There's a terrible over the top syrupy performance by the kid who plays Richard Harris' child, but you know something? This subplot completely worked for me - the doting dad who just wants to be with his son, who can't understand why he has to go off and do work.
Other aspects were good too - Jack Watson's tough sergeant whose wife hates Burton (with good reason - this trope turned up in Dogs of War); the bromance between South African Kruger and the black leader.
Joan “Me Myself I” Armatrading performs the lovely theme song (for which she copped some political criticism, as the film was shot in South Africa and features sympathetic, super-skilled white mercenaries), and Stewart Granger has a nice supporting role as a villainous executive.
The DVD has some fantastic extras: an audio commentary with Lloyd, More and John Glen (a later director of James Bond films who worked on second unit) and a contemporary featurette on the making of the film (Richard Harris says he had trouble with all the marching, Roger Moore jokes it was because “they don’t march in the IRA, you see” then goes on to make a joke about Hardy Kruger goose-stepping).
There is also a documentary on the career of Lloyd, whose other films include The Sea Wolves, Wild Geese 2 and that big skeleton in Judy Davis’ closet, Who Dares Wins. (Someone in the documentary tries to argue Lloyd wasn’t really a right winger… er, don’t think so.)
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