At last! I was wondering when this film was going to be reviewed.
We have this in our archive on 16mm, believe it or not and the DVD has just been released locally.
I have a rather personal attachment to this film: my folks and I were on holiday in South Africa in 1977 at a mineral bath resort named Tchipise, which is in the north of South Africa. After staying there about three days, we found a note under our door asking us to come to the manager's office. It turned out all the residents had been given the same notice. The manager asked us to kindly pack up and leave as the place had been booked out for three months due to filming there but that we (all of us) would be refunded our money in full. So thanks to Messrs Moore, Kruger, Harris and Burton we were able to head further South and spend a welcome holiday with my mom's family.
Controversial that it was filmed here in South Africa? No, sir. It was a pioneering film. The producer Euan Lloyd had informed the SA government (no film commissions here back then) that there would be no apartheid on set, all races would live, eat, work and do everything together or no film. They agreed to this. This set the tone for all foreign films made here up until 1994.
Apartheid: So distanced was this film and its' makers from apartheid that the film was released to multiracial audiences uncut and for the first time ever, sounded the death knell for separate audiences in South Africa cinemas. So, this is a historic film in many ways.
The character of Pieter Coetzee as played by the great German actor Hardy Kruger is portrayed as an out and out racist, until he comes to realize that the man he is trying to save and that he is carrying around on his back, is worth saving and that he is a honourable man. He in fact dies saving this man that he had previously dismissed as being less than himself. In the book by Daniel Carney, Pieter is a Rhodesian (as I am) and in the film he is a South African.
An excerpt from my book
Riding The High Wind:
THE WILD GEESE* (1978) ANDREW V. McLAGLEN
Based on the novel of the same name by Rhodesian author Daniel Carney, this was a breakthrough production in many respects, i.e. it was the most expensive movie made to date, it was the very first non-segregated production made in South Africa and it was also the first film released locally to both black and white audiences at the same time.
Thus, despite the liberal usage of the so called ‘k’ word (courtesy actor Hardy Kruger’s character of Peter Coetzee), it was a pioneering film in many ways. A band of mercenaries is sent into Africa to rescue a Nelson Mandela-like leader from the clutches of his worst enemy and while they are about their business in the bush, behind the scenes machinations doom them and their efforts.
A first rate action thriller, written by Reginald Rose, with effective music by Roy Budd, editing by future ‘James Bond’ director John Glen and cinematography by Jack Hildyard, B.S.C. Starring Richard Burton, Richard Harris, Roger Moore, Hardy Kruger, Stewart Granger, Barry Foster, Ian Yule and Kenneth Griffith, plus a supporting cast of excellent South African players including John Kani, Winston Ntshona and Ken Gampu.