A group of mercenaries is hired to spring Rudolf Hess from Spandau Prison in Berlin.
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There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Richard Burton was to star in this sequel to the original Wild Geese, but he died before shooting started. Edward Fox was rushed in as his younger brother with a script change. The film was dedicated to Burton.Probably a much better film could have been dedicated to Burton, I think he would have liked some Shakespearean production dedicated to him. Not that the first Wild Geese would ever rank among the great films of all time, but it was nicely done story about the comradeship of the military fraternity.These guys headed by Fox and Scott Glenn aren't mercenaries, they're heist guys. And it's a who they're trying to heist not a what. The last prisoner in Spandau where all the surviving Nazis were contained, those who weren't hanged.Sir Laurence Olivier takes out his mitteleuropa Albert Basserman accent for the last time to play Rudolf Hess, former Deputy Fuehrer of the Third Reich who escaped the hangman at Nuremberg because of insanity and the fact he'd flown to the UK and was captured there. He sat out World War II in a British jail while the Holocaust was going on. Hard to prove complicity in it in that situation.Hess was a symbol to neo-Nazis everywhere, a last living reminder of Hitler's Germany. But the man himself was essentially a nobody. What he did do was attach himself early on to Adolph Hitler, served time in jail to him. As a faithful scribe he took down Hitler's prose in what later became Mein Kampf.When Hitler came to power, he gave Hess a nice high falutin' title of Deputy Fuehrer, a reward for services rendered. But Hess was never in the inner circle of things and gradually moved farther and farther out of Hitler's orbit as he consolidated power in Germany.So in 1941 poor Hess cooked up this whacko scheme to fly to the United Kingdom on his own to try and negotiate a separate peace. Of course when it was realized that he spoke for no one, the British clapped him jail. It was a sad pathetic attention getting gesture by a very mediocre man, shoved aside by those in power.The premise of this story is that Glenn and Fox are hired to spring Hess out of Spandau so he could tell what he knew about Hitler to the world. The plot gets needlessly complicated as the Russians, the Palestinians, and the IRA all get involved.Knowing what we know about Hess the question to all this is why bother?Even Laurence Olivier doing a part by rote is better than most players giving their all. The rest of the cast just goes through the motions as Olivier does. Not a great tribute film for Richard Burton.
The original Wild Geese was a cinematic classic. This was rather unfortunately named Wild Geese II - that was its first mistake. The original had an all star cast, part II had only a few. However, if you view this film without trying to make comparisons to the original, you end up with a thoroughly good romp through the very pretty city of Berlin. Scott Glen is excellent as the mercenary who has a price on his head, Edward Fox is also good though he has done better. The main plot is to get Hess out of Spandau prison. Everything appears to be going well. In a well executed plan all seems to go well until the end ..... watch and see !!!
I have just seen this film, and l thought it was quite good, not up to the original but the story line was good, the acting was good, in fact it was a good film with a fantastic idea.Olivier and Fox add to the cast with Olivier doing his best to convey a hard part...I have read in books that this film was a "bomb" and a lot of folk don`t like it, but why has every film got to have a message, why can't people just see a film for what is should be a bit of fun, l give this film 8/10
This is a highly underated film. For those of you who love Hard action films , this is perfect. Peter Hunt gives the procedings a no frills, lean and mean pace. He brilliantly captures the tough World the characters live in. I loved the first film, this isn't as good but is entertaining enough. It is very much like 'Who dares Wins' in its uncinical approach to fast and heavy violence. The characters are not nice people so there is little love loss between them. Scott Glenn plays the lead Emotionless and I believe this is done on purpose.