dglink In concept, "The Wild Geese" resembles many other action movies; "The Dirty Dozen" immediately comes to mind, despite obvious differences. Tough veteran with a murky background is hired to assemble and train a team that will carry out a dangerous assignment; the opening interview explains the mission; the team is recruited from among the vet's old friends; the team is trained under a tough drill sergeant; and the climactic raid unfolds.A late-career Richard Buron is fine as Colonel Faulkner, the mercenary with experience and myriad capable ex-confederates. Enter Stewart Granger as Sir Edward Matherson, a stuffy Brit with ambiguous motives; Matherson secretly brings Burton to England for a dangerous mission to rescue a kidnapped African president named Limbani, sensitively played by Winston Ntshone. Burton quickly enlists Roger Moore, on hiatus from his James Bond franchise; Richard Harris; and Hardy Kruger. An old buddy of Burton, Jack Watson, is the tough drill sergeant, who gets the aging group in shape. And they all badly need the exercise, because Burton enlists his team from among the retired, the underemployed, and malcontent, and most seem too mature for the mission; they are not exactly a dirty dozen, but more an arthritic thirty. Beyond the aging leads, the rest of the seasoned cast includes Barry Foster, Frank Finlay, Kenneth Griffith, Ronald Fraser, and Jeff Corey. As expected from the distinguished names, the acting throughout more than meets the demands of an action flick. The screenplay by Reginald Rose, which was based on a novel by Daniel Carney, is riddled with such stereotypes as the fey gay man, the noble African leader, and the racist white South African. The plot is often predictable, and clichés abound from hostile wives, who tolerate their adventure-seeking husbands, to the requisite "if something happens to me" speech to a sappy fade out. The superfluous clichés and gratuitous political exchanges between Ntshone and Kruger slow the film, and the running time is a bit long at 129 minutes. However, Andrew V. McLaglen directs professionally and manages to overcome the script's weaknesses to deliver a satisfying action movie.

Bene Cumb 1960-1970ies were probably the decades when great and heroic war films were made which are enjoyable today as well: all in color, with stunts and technology up-to-date, topics understood by younger generations as the activities take place in 20th century, i.e not so long ago. The Wild Geese has great actors like Burton, Harris and Moore, and there are several scenes found politically incorrect nowadays. The military hierarchy is present, but without redundant patriotism, and all soldiers know their own values and skills well.Landscape scenes are beautiful and genuine, as they were filmed on the spot in Africa, although followed by some criticism as South-Africa had apartheid regime then.Recommended to those fond of watching both the planning and fulfillment phase of a military operation. And there are not only bad guys / less known actors who get killed...

ma-cortes Thrilling/ straight action/adventure story about some mercenaries hired to spring an abducted African leader from well-secured prison and the incidents this triggers . A British multinational seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa as hires the much-wanted mercenary Colonel Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton miscast as chief of mercenaries) , as he travels to London invited by the British millionaire Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger) to rescue the African President Julius Limbani that had been kidnapped in a coup d'état by the dictator Colonel Mboya. Sir Edward has interest in the copper mines and intends to negotiate with Limbani. Col. Faulkner hires his friends Captain Rafer Janders (Richard Harris), a tough, two-fisted mercenary and Lieutenant Shawn Fynn (Roger Moore),an expert on planes . The trio selects their old friends and contacts other mercenaries (Ronald Fraser , Percy Herbert , Ken Gampu) to form the rescue team. They plan the whole operation and succeed in their mission .The commando is led by Colonel Faulkner , a sergeant named Sandy (Jack Watson) along with Lieutenent Pieter (Hardy Kruger).The adventure starts when the veteran band of mercenaries land deep inside the African country to rescue Limbani and destroy installations .This fast-paced film packs adventures, large-scale blow-up , plot-twists routine plot , and lots of action for the most part . It's a comfortable mix of action-packed , adventure, thriller and wartime genre . From the beginning to the end the suspense , non-stop action and intrigue is continued . Interesting screenplay by prestigious Reginald Rose who writes thought-provoking dialogs especially between Limbani and Pieter well performed by Hardy Kruger . Other chief excitements about the movie, will be in the intervention of famous British secondaries who realize professionally competent interpretations , some of them with no more than a line or two to say . Cinematography Jack Hildyard is quite nicely , capturing the atmosphere of everywhere . Special mention the impressive and breathtaking musical score by Roy Budd ; it's filled with lively and martial sounds fitting splendidly to action . Furthermore , enjoyable song on the opening under magnificent credit titles by Maurice Binder . The motion picture is well directed by Andrew V MacLagen son of the great actor Victor McLagen. He's a warlike expert , such as proved in several films (Return to Kwai,Wild Geese, Dirtdozen: the next mission,Sea wolves,Breakthrough). However , director McLagen proved had lost the touch that made ¨Devil's brigade¨, ¨Sea wolves¨ and specially ¨Wild Geese¨ such memorable films , as in his final career he filmed average movies . ¨Wild Geese¨ can be called great and received , deservedly, much acclaim when released. Certainly a good work done by one of Hollywood's more skill director, a real craftsman.It's followed by Wild Geese II (Peter Hunt with Scott Glenn, Edward Fox, Barbara Carrera ), an inferior sequel deals about a new group of the much-wanted mercenaries assigned by a rich television network (Robert Webber) to free famous arch-Nazi war criminal Rudolph Hess (Laurence Olivier); this following depended in their all star cast . And a trilogy exploitation directed by Anthony M Dawson( Margheriti) formed by ¨Code name : Wild Geese¨ ¨Commando Leopard(1985)¨ and ¨Der Commander(1988)¨ repeating similar actors, Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef , Klaus Kinski, and Manfred Lemann.

TheLittleSongbird I saw The Wild Geese as I do like Richard Harris and Roger Moore and while he is not a favourite Richard Burton has also given some good performances. The Wild Geese does have an interesting cast, and while they do all give good enough performances, Harris in particular(Stewart Granger I personally found rather bland), all have been better and all have been in much better movies.A major problem was my difficulty in connecting with the characters, some of them are not well developed much and it doesn't help that the script doesn't do much to make them more engrossing.To me, the most interesting character was the one played by Hardy Kruger. The story also didn't grab me, the last third was pretty exciting but the first part takes too long to set up and some of the middle does drag.The script does have some good lines and interplay when the political overtones don't set in that is. The film is to put it kindly a dog's dinner of politics- the liberalism for example is very woolly- and rhetoric and it is even more disappointing that the politics are dated.I am not saying that the director is not talented, it's just that like the pace the direction feels rather stodgy particularly in the middle. The drama has some poignancy but there are too many times where it all feels rather dull, while the action is well assorted but generally uncompelling.Are there any redeeming qualities? Yes. The most obvious one is the cast, the three leads look as though they are enjoying themselves, Hardy Kruger does alright as the film's most interesting character and it was nice to see British stalwarts such as Jack Watson, Ronald Fraser and Kenneth Griffith participating. The Wild Geese looks good, with nice cinematography and scenery, and the score at least gives the film some excitement.All in all, not a terrible film but although I feel I need to re-watch it I am afraid I didn't find it particularly good either despite the cast. 5/10 Bethany Cox