Director: Andrew V. McLaglen
Screenplay: Reginald Rose
Starring: Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris, Hardy Krüger
Country: United Kingdom, Switzerland
Running Time: 134 minutes
Year: 1978
I’ve long held the idea that the first true action film of the modern era was Clint Eastwood’s Magnum Force in 1973. I’m discounting North By Northwest and Bond, I know, but Dirty Harry, devoid of any real plot, was just a right-wing dog whistle. It set no precedent for a sequel and yet we got one by just letting Clint scowl his way through a bunch of loosely connected set-pieces. A recipe for most of the 1980s was created: movie star plus stunts.
The Wild Geese upped the ante by pulling together a formidable cast of audience-baiting top-tier stars, long before The Avengers or Expendables would be lauded for doing so. Even the current Bond of the time was in the mix and, beyond the four leads, there’s a whole bunch of household names. A working title of Carry On Blow Shit Up was apparently not on the cards, but you get the idea.
Screen legends Richard Burton (Where Eagles Dare), Roger Moore (Live And Let Die) and Richard Harris (A Man Called Horse) 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 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.
Hardy Kruger (A Bridge Too Far) and Stewart Granger (King Solomon’s Mines) co-star in this explosive action classic produced by Euan Lloyd (The Final Option) and directed by Andrew V. McLaglen (The Devil’s Brigade) from a screenplay by 2x Oscar® nominee Reginald Rose (12 Angry Men) and featuring a soundtrack by Roy Budd (Get Carter), now scanned in 4K from the original camera negative with 9+ hours of new and archival Special Features.
Burton. Moore. Harris. Kruger. It says something about these guys that, even now, the prospect of The Wild Geese getting a UHD polish is so damn exciting. It’s a throwback to another era, when their lives off-screen were as crazy as on (The Hellraisers is a great read, by the way). Letting them loose in a desert shooting things remains fantastic fun.
On its original release, the dodgier aspects of the film befuddled critics. A loose plot, looser characters, derivative, questionable ethics, weirdly sentimental, workman-like direction, Roy Budd’s confused score; you can throw the book at it, but why would you want to? It’s a critic-proof mongrel of a film that dares you to challenge it. That is, with a mild disclaimer that, in a more enlightened 2025, the casual homophobia and potential racist overtones land about as well as one of the many grenades.
In truth, it was directed well by Western-stalwart Andrew V. McLaglen. Action scenes are frenetic, tense and utterly satisfying. Reginald Rose’s screenplay is efficient and remarkably balanced across the huge personalities. Based on Daniel Carney’s The Thin White Line which in turn was apparently based on a true story, where the film’s moralising likely came from. Primarily, legendary producer Euan Lloyd wanted a throwback to classics like Guns Of Navarone or Burton’s own Where Eagles Dare, which he got. As well as an astronomical bar bill, I would assume.
It opens like a Bond film with Joan Armatrading smashing out a ballad and you can almost smell the VHS. The nostalgia trip starts early. We open on a mildly drunk Richard Burton, humour as dry as his liver isn’t, and Roger Moore will pull up later in the same car as The Saint. Lloyd and McLaglen know their audience. And when you throw in Harris and Kruger, they work together so well, neatly cutting the script into slices they can all chew. The supporting cast, including Ronald Fraser and Jack Watson, are a delight. Watson’s scene-stealing bulldog of a Sergeant Major would scare the crap out of Full Metal Jacket’s R. Lee Ermey.
The chemistry and camaraderie is fabulous; Burton in particular is solidly gruff throughout, but when the stakes bite, he shows a delicate class. Richard Harris typically has a more romantic edge but you still buy him as a stone-cold mercenary. As for Roger Moore, I think he’s underrated as an actor. Here, he works really well with his more lauded peers. For all of them, a natural quality shines through the rougher edges of both character and film.
Classic movie star actors, curling their considerable intonation skills around dialogue which is not only hard-boiled but varnished, in between spitting blood and bullets. There’s your magic sauce. Despite some of the language blowing through a Best Before Date of some time ago, it still works. There’s been talk of a remake for some time, and Sandy (Jack Watson) would be glad to tell you where to stick it! I’m not sure the timing or cast will ever match the original.
VIDEO
This is a striking transfer. It has always been a rough looking film, so this is special. Colour and texture are bold and some moments positively gleam. That said, it isn’t perfect: a few pops and scratches but nothing distracting. Honestly, these scars and wrinkles are as welcome as the ones on the cast (collective age of 202 for the four leads). Although, UHD is especially unkind to Burton’s mahogany tan when they reach Africa; were they using sand in the make-up for added grit? That’s not an issue with colour timing though, because it’s a faithful and challenging image throughout.
EXTRA FEATURES
Mere days from the end of the year when most ‘best of’ lists have been published, Severin say, “hold our beer” and pull out all the stops. This is what physical media collectors are crying out for and they have done a phenomenal job, taking an under-appreciated 70s British action flick and treating it with the utmost respect. The presentation of the whole package is gorgeous. They know their audience as well as Euan Lloyd did.
The extras are conservative. A mix of archive stuff and interviews, but the original audio commentary with the peerless Roger Moore is fantastic. And there’s an excellent documentary included on Lloyd, one of British cinema’s most important and prolific producers. The limited edition also includes a soundtrack CD and a substantial making-of book.
This is the kind of set movie fans would relish buying as a gift. Parents and grandparents who are less likely to be keeping up with the boutique home video market, would get a kick out of seeing The Wild Geese presented like this.
3-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 *
- Archival Audio Commentary with Producer Euan Lloyd, Star Roger Moore, Second Unit Director John Glen and Filmmaker Jonathan Sothcott *
- Theatrical Trailer
DISC 2 (BD):
- NEW! Jesse, Take Point! – An Interview with Actor John Kani (Sgt. Jesse Blake)
- NEW! Wild Child – An Interview with Actor Paul Spurrier (Emile Janders)
- NEW! Wild Goose Chase – An Interview with 2nd Unit Director / Editor John Glen
- NEW! Flight of Fancy – An 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
