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The Wild Geese1978
Screen legends Richard Burton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris star as a team of aging mercenaries hired by a wealthy industrialist for one final mission: Recruit and train a squad of desperate commandos, parachute into an unstable African nation, snatch its deposed President from a maximum security army prison, escape via the military-controlled airport and massacre anyone who gets in their way. Getting to the target will be murder. But when the group is double-crossed, getting out alive may be impossible. Hardy Kruger, Frank Finlay, Barry Foster and Stewart Granger co-star in this blood and guts action classic.
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What makes this film worth watching?
1 member likes this review
Lots of action and a slew of witty dialog and one liners. A great cast all around and a true ripping yarn.
top reviewer
Cast & Crew
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Starring
- Patrick Allen
- Richard Burton - Col. Allen Faulkner
- Frank Finlay
- Barry Foster
- Ronald Fraser
- Stewart Granger - Sir Edward Matherson
- Kenneth Griffith
- Richard Harris - Capt. Rafer Janders
- John Kani
- Hardy Krüger
- Rosalind Lloyd
- Roger Moore
- Winston Ntshona
- Jack Watson
- Ian Yule
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Member Reviews (5)
top reviewer
Lots of action and a slew of witty dialog and one liners. A great cast all around and a true ripping yarn.
1 member likes this review
Watched again as a fitting tribute to the director Andrew V. McLaglen who passed away today at the ripe old age of 94. This and NORTH SEA HIJACK remain my favourites of his oeuvre, but he's certainly never limited himself to action films starring Roger Moore, but did some very notable westerns and genre pieces as well as tons of TV work too.
As a child I remember seeing this on the silver screen, exactly where it was meant to be seen, with its African vistas, all out action and a cast of cinematic drinking legends. This made a huge impression and primed me for the action output of the eighties perfectly, most of which seemed to involve the output of the Cannon Group.
Watching it now takes me right back, I still love this film despite the dodgy politics, the lack of any believable accents (Roger Moore is actually playing an Irishman you know), the bonkers plot and the incredible amount of ham on display. It still looks great and hits all the right buttons.
If you want Geriaction, forget Stallone et al, it's all here over a quarter of a century earlier and it's a damned sight more fun too.
1 member likes this review
I don't think candor should have offered it.
As long as you take some historical and political things in context, this movie is a fun one. Thick with British humor and dialogue; solid photography and some retro action scenes that don't disappoint (in one instance, the good guys run in front of their own machine gun!). A now hidden classic.
I love it