SnoopyStyle Merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson hires colonel Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton) to lead soldiers of fortune to rescue Julius Limbani, imprisoned leader of an African country. Faulkner hires various people including pilot Shawn Fynn (Roger Moore) and Rafer Janders (Richard Harris) in a cloak and dagger operation in London. They successfully rescue Limbani but their extraction takes off without them. Matherson has made a new deal with the new leader of the country.It's a bit slow at the start. The rounding up of the men and the training isn't very exciting or interesting. It builds the characters but that could be done better. There is an argument of the inherent racism in the movie. It has some valid points but the mercenaries aren't all white. There are some black 'good guys'. I won't defend the filming taking place in South Africa. I just don't think that any racism in the movie is that out of the ordinary for that era. The politics of Apatheid probably accentuated any problems. This is rip-roaring mercenary fun when it works.

Dark Jedi Yesterday we sat down to watch another oldie that I had seen when I was younger quite some years ago. I remember this movie being quite high on my list of movies that I appreciated as a kid so when I saw it coming it on Blu-ray I had to get it. It is still a decent film but I remembered it as better.The story is a fairly old a frequently reused one. Band of mercenary gets a mission by some person or entity of debatable reputation. Said person or entity double-crosses them, usually in a way which leaves them stranded and with a very short life expectancy. One or more of the mercenaries did not have his or hers imminent demise written into the script and thus ruins the plans, and usually the life, of one or more persons on the double-crossing side. Nothing wrong with a trusted and tried story as long as it is well done.In 1978 when this film was made I guess the actions scenes were considered fairly good. Today they are rather mediocre though. The mercenaries that are supposed to be experts are behaving in a fairly amateurish manner. The bridge attack scene is especially annoying in that these people just sit there waiting for the plane to make pass after pass instead of getting their behinds under cover. In a later scene Richard Harris is seen shooting at the bad guys together with a bunch of his fellow mercenaries but his gun is pointing in a 30 degree angle upwards. He might have hit some real geese but sure as hell not any of the bad guys.As so many films from the 70's it also tries to make a political statement but that particular part is just boringly old today. A South African running around and calling the guy they are supposed to rescue for "kaffer" all the time because he is black is at best a historical curiosity, and a fairly boring one at that, today. Naturally a 5 minute, equally boring, speech from the black guy turns the South African guy. Boring and silly.That is not to say that the movie is a bad one. It is still worth watching. The first parts of the movie, when the main characters are introduced, is quite enjoyable. I especially liked the bad attitude of Col. Faulkner. I have always liked Richard Burton as an actor and he doesn't disappoint in this movie. Roger Moore is of course always Roger Moore. Whether or not you like him is another story. Also, even though it is not up to today's standards there are plenty of watchable action in the later parts of the movie.So I did enjoy my oldie movie evening but the movie was not as good as I remembered. But then it is maybe not surprising when you re-watch a move that you first saw as a kid.

Bolly_Boba_Booboo I stopped watching at the part with the headmistress. This is the worse film imaginable. Pretentious, boring, simply awful. I would have sent the Director to the Gulag just for the 30 minutes I was unfortunate enough to see. It is astonishing that this film has received so many positive votes. I watched the film with a roomful of film buffs and everybody was hurling abuse at the television after just 15 minutes! I had to switch the film off as I was afraid someone would throw it out of the window. Preminger obviously really liked the poet that this film is an ode to, but unfortunately it doesn't change how I feel about it. He is no Tarkovsky!

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