This was in development for a few years - Don Siegel was going to do it, then Michael Cimino, then Norman Jewison. So it went through a lot of permutations.
Some of this is fine. It's stylishly shot by Jack Cardiff. The Belize locations impress. I don't buy American mercenaries in Africa but quite liked Tom Berenger's work as a slightly unhinged one.It is a decent cast.
Christopher Walken is all wrong as Cat Shannon, who was so vivid in the book. The character really should have been European and if they wanted to make American they should've gone with someone who was a believable soldier.
The piece has been distorted into a star vehicle. So we don't have anything about Sir James Marsden coming across the platinum and getting him secret, or using henchmen to organise the coup. I mean I know that could've been minimised but it would've been a great support star-ry role for an elder actor
Zangaro is different here - in the book it had hardly any Europeans here it's full of them, the officials speak English, there's a documentary crew. There's Colin Blakely as a world weary documentary filmmaker and a black woman who shows him around and offers up all this information about the country.
For whatever reasons the writers cut out exciting subplots - like a mercenary trying to kill Shannon, or Marsden having henchmen, or Shannon sleeping with Marsden's daughter, or the Russians finding out about the platinum deposit, or there being a KGB agent at the base, or the Russians sending a tanker to the country. Shannon is made dumber - instead of the book where he's super smart, tracking the mystery person who hires him to do a job, seducing the head man's daughter, arranging a massive double cross, doing a lot of research - here he's dumb, whining about being asked to go to Africa, not knowing anything, having to ask a lot of questions in Africa (I know exposition has to be conveyed but couldn't there be a cleverer way of showing him doing it?)
Instead there's dumb subplot about Walken wanting to get back with Jobeth Williams who's got an alcoholic dad or something (this feels like an impro'd Actors Studio exercise) and another dumb one about an African who shows Walken around and he likes her then gasp he finds out she's sleeping with the dictator. I mean, my golly.
This film was produced by smart people who made dumb decisions.
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