A 1970’s action favourite returns
There seems to have been a couple of great ‘men on a mission’ movie each decade. The Sixties had The Guns of Navarone and the equally terrific Where Eagles Dare. For the 1970’s it was probably The Wild Geese helmed by the late Andrew v McClaglen, something of a journeyman director and produced by Euan Lloyd, described as ‘the gentleman producer who made just thirteen films over 26 years and they assembled a great cast.
What was the story of The Wild Geese?
With a screenplay by two-time Oscar® nominee Reginald Rose (12 Angry Men) the film saw screen legends Richard Burton (Where Eagles Dare), Roger Moore (Live and Let Die) and Richard Harris (A Man Called Horse), starring as a team of ageing 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 prison, escape via the military-controlled airport and massacre anyone who gets in their way. Reaching the target will be murder, but getting out alive may be impossible.
That enviable cast…
The Wild Geese was the first film that Burton made after the catastrophic and laughable debacle of The Exorcist II so the offer of a boys own adventure for a big pay day had its appeal. Harris, like Burton had an enviable career but by now he was appearing in cash grab appearances in films like Jaws rip off ‘Orca’ before he accepted The Wild Geese. And the fact that the pair of them loved a drink or two……or three…… or four….. in fact as much as they could lay their hands on must have been a lure also, Rounding out the trio was a mid Bond era Roger Moore fresh off the huge critical and commercial success of The Spy who Loved me. Added to this was a cast of well known faces that included Hardy Kruger (A Bridge Too Far) and Stewart Granger (King Solomon’s Mines) along with Frank Finlay, Kenneth Griffith, Barry Foster (terrific in Hitchcock’s penultimate film, ‘Frenzy’ , Ronald Fraser ( this time playing a ruthless and loyal soldier rather than his usual crusty upper class gent) and Patrick Allen ( the voice of X Factor ). Added to this was an anonymous and unending platoon of interchangeable soldiers lining up to be machine gunned or blown up and often both.
What to expect….
Though it takes about an hour to really get going when the action starts its almost relentless. If you recall schoolboys playing ‘war’ in the playground clutching sticks and shouting ‘ a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a’ at each other you get the drift because despite having a real life military advisor who’d seen action on covert missions himself, the cast look like they’re regressing to their school days but with prop guns rather than sticks. And yet that’s all part of the appeal here seeing old school stars clearly having the time of their lives and being paid for it.
Hmmmmm…..
The film’s not without its issues – the overt racism, overlong running time and compared to modern films, its dated action scenes. And yet it has an old school charm that appealed to audiences and was enough of a success to warrant a sequel albeit without the original cast – Burton had died the year before, Moore was now a particularly arthritic Bond in his last film in the franchise and Harris characters was never going to return after his fate in the original film.
Now released as an ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION UHD / BD / CD BOX SET there’s an immense amount of bonus features here that includes:
DISC LIMITED EDITION (UHD / BD / CD):
- EXCLUSIVE: FIFTY MEN IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW: A 316pp Full-Colour Hardbound Book on the Making of THE WILD GEESE by Tony Earnshaw
- EXCLUSIVE: CD Original Soundtrack of THE WILD GEESE by Roy Budd
- EXCLUSIVE: 6 x Original UK Lobby Card Reproductions
DISC 1 (UHD):
- NEW! Audio Commentary with action film experts, Mike Leeder and Arne Venema *
- NEW! Audio Commentary with assembly editor John Grover and Film Academic and South African Historian Calum Waddell *
- Archival Audio Commentary with producer Euan Lloyd, star Roger Moore, second unit director John Glen, Moderated by filmmaker Jonathan Sothcott *
- Theatrical Trailer *
(* Also Included on Blu-ray)
DISC 2 (Blu-ray):
- NEW! Jesse, Take Point! – Interview with actor John Kani (Sgt. Jesse Blake)
- NEW! Wild Child – Interview with actor Paul Spurrier (Emile Janders)
- NEW! Wild Goose Chase – Interview with 2nd unit director / editor John Glen
- NEW! Flight of Fancy – Interview with sound editor Colin Miller
- The Wild Geese Director – Interview with director Andrew V. McLaglen
- The Mercenary – Interview with military advisor Mike Hoare
- The Last of the Gentleman Producers – Documentary on producer Euan Lloyd featuring Euan Lloyd, Roger Moore, Joan Armatrading, Ingrid Pitt & more
- The Flight of the Wild Geese – Vintage Featurette
- THE WILD GEESE Royal Charity Premiere Newsreel
DISC 3 (CD):
- THE WILD GEESE Original Soundtrack
That the director, producer and most of the cast have long since shuffled off to the great repertory theatre in the sky means that many of the lesser known faces contribute but John Glen , who went on to direct five Bond films, is good value and several of the archive features provide some eyebrow raising moments – the newsreel for the premiere that keeps referring to the evening being a fundraiser for The Spastics Society is a reminder of how much we have moved one in our use of language.
The film’s success saw director McClaglen go on to helm several similar action films with the under rated North Sea Hijack (again with Moore) as well as The Sea Wolves , both made in the same year but The Wild Geese is a bit of 70’s style action with old school stars and if ever a film was made for a rainy Sunday afternoon, this is it.
related feature : Roger Moore – Obituary
related feature : Machine gunning dinosaurs – Jeremy Piven talks ‘Primitive War’ !
Here’s the Wild Geese trailer…..
The Wild Geese – ULTIMATE COLLECTOR’S EDITION is released on 15th December 2025
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