Navigation

Codename: Wild Geese (1984)

Dir: Antonio Margheriti.

A group of mercenaries headed by Commander Wesley ('King Of Manly Cheese' Lewis Collins, whose hair is even more cheesy), and including an ex-con Helicopter pilot named China (Lee Van Cleef, looking old but still delivering the goods) along with hard boiled soldiers, the main one being Klein (Manfred Lehmann), are hired by the D.E.A. (represented by Ernest Borgnine), the U.S. State Department and various 'interested parties' (represented by Klaus Kinski dubbed over with a plumy English accent!) to destroy the Opium business in Thailand.

On the way they also meet up with a kindly Priest in a bombed out jungle church (veteran exploitation actor Luciano Pigozzi) as wrll as a female Journalist (a surprisingly un-annoying Mimsy Farmer, handling the 'girl' role well. Not easy in such an 'all boys together' movie), who had herself once been captured by the evil 'Drug Warlord' and doped up on Opium.

But all is not as it seems and plans don't go to...er...plan..........

 

What can we say? Well...
A great cast of has-beens and wannabes, of legends and also rans.
Massive explosions and fires.
Grime and sweat encrusted characters in great location settings.
Truly abysmal model/miniature work.
Obvious double-crosses.
Obvious 'oh oh, he's about to get shot' set-ups.
Dreadful dubbing and/or dialogue looping
And....more explosions.

After a slow start, things kick off nicely with lots of vehicles and buildings being blown up, people being hurled into the air and bodies riddled with bullets. War is Hell....but when the Italians do it, it's jolly good fun too!

The acting varies from the hammy to the stiff, with Collins's lacking the quick wit and tongue in cheek style that made him so enjoyable in TV's "The Professionals" (plus his delivery is hampered by him having to loop his own dialogue), Kinski still comies across as an effective slimeball despite the dub job (why make him English anyway?) and Van Cleef does his loveable, wise rogue routine to perfection.
Only Borgnine annoys with his 'backwards child' style of performance. This may have worked well in "Marty" and as Cabby in "Escape From New York", but here it's stupidly out of place for a D.E.A. agent. His 'Oh I'm sorry, I guess I just get confused' dialogue/delivery grating in the extreme.

The location filming is wonderfully effective, and everything is suitably hot, grimy and sweaty looking.
The action set pieces are enjoyable, with huge explosions that send out massive walls of flame, some good editing and a large body count.
The violence varies from the pretty bloody (some mildly splattery bullet hits in heads and bodies and a big splinter in a soldiers arm) to the sadly tame, with some choice chances to show the red stuff not taken up (like the bloodless hits on most of the characters, including white coated scientists who were ripe for bloody squibs).

The budget is obviously rather low and this is shown up in the "Thunderbirds" style of miniature work. Highlights (or lowlights) include a hysterical car chase as model cars speed up the side of a blocked tunnel, and the flame throwing helicopter finale.

Look out for some funny mistakes as well. During the fire fetish showdown watch the model helicopter get too close to the flames as it's landing struts catch fire, and watch out for a Thai soldier who wanders into a firefight (and into a hail of bullets) casually picking his nose!

And while you are looking out for things, also isten out for the truly cringe-worthy, cheese filled dialogue between Borgnine and Farmer as they watch a stoic Collins fly off....brings a tear to the eye.

Director Antonio Margheriti made three of these vaguely related action flicks, the other two being "Commando Leopard" and "The Commander".
All three starred Collins, the star of the highly successful (and most excellent) British TV series "The Professionals", in his ill-fated attempt to break into international movies after his starring role in the underrated UK 'SAS' film "Who Dares Wins".
All three also shared various other cast members playing different roles.
Kinski was also in "Commando Leopard", Lee Van Cleef was in "The Commander", Luciano Pigozzi was in "Commando Leopard" and Manfred Lehman was in all of them!

Sometimes plodding but generally this is a fun, loud, pumped up bit of 'boys with big toys' action that is packed with enough ham and cheese to make a very tasty, manly mouthful of a movie!