Two Richard's and a Roger.

Quite by chance I saw a movie clip with Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Richard Burton, so I sat down and watched:

The Wild Geese (1978).

A wealthy banker hires an unscrupulous mercenary, Colonel Faulkner (Burton) to put together a team in order to rescue Julius Limbani, the president of an unnamed African country. There has been a coup and Limbani is being held by the new dictator. Faulkner gets in touch with his old friends Captain Janders (Harris) and Lieutenant Fynn (Moore) and together they assemble a team of veterans who although highly experienced are a bit long in the tooth.

A simple synopsis, but to avoid spoilers I'll keep that short. The Wild Geese is a bit over two hours long, so I'm sure you can guess things don't go entirely smoothly for the mercenaries. We do spend a lot of time on the setup, the planning and the execution, but that only eats up half the run time.

I have no technical complaints, it is a very nicely put together film, although it has the typical over-powered grenades that fling bodies around like rag dolls. There is an odd part where they plan to hit the compound where Limbani is held at predawn, but the raid happens when the sun is high. My other and bigger complaint is the scene on the bridge. In a nutshell, the mercenaries are attacked while crossing a bridge and instead of getting off the bridge they just stand there, something experienced soldiers wouldn't do. Then as the team becomes separated as the bridge is out of order, they shout plans as where to meet up again, but there is no water! The river bed is completely dry and it would have taken them ten minutes tops to cross. Very silly and some frustratingly bad writing in an otherwise good movie.

It is the actors that are the biggest draw here. Burton, Harris and Moore in one movie is a real treat. Burton especially is showing his age, but he still has his old steel here, which goes a long way to sell the character. Moore, who was in the middle of his Bond career adds the charm and Harris the heart. A really good trio and apparently they all worked well together. Moore did request fewer lines when acting with the two others and explained the request with: "You don't seriously expect me to act against these guys?"

The rest of the actors are good, again no complaints although everyone else is overshadowed by the trio, even though a few are given quite a lot of screen time.

Still trying to avoid spoilers, I feel I should point out that this is not a fun movie. It is very grim at times even though the soundtrack is trying to sound upbeat with an almost comedic tone. Being a movie about mercenaries it is also pretty bloody, but it doesn't wallow in gore in any way. It is a kind of classy brutality if that makes sense.

Beyond what you see on screen it is also almost miraculous that they managed to keep both Harris and Burton sober during the shoot. Both were heavy, and I do mean heavy drinkers, but they stayed sober the entire time with the help of copious amounts of soda and jumping around. According to IMDB Harris told Burton: “"Whenever you feel like a drink, do like I do, jump up and down." For the rest of the production, both men were seen daily in all sorts of unlikely situations hopping like kangaroos”.

So, do I recommend this movie? Absolutely. The Wild Geese is one of those movies that is grim and violent, but it is also really good. It's not a feel good adventure but a lesson in how cold and brutal the world can be and why being a mercenary is not a fun job. The movie does telegraph some things that happen if you're paying attention, but it is done very well.

That 's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!