Sick Product of a Sick System

People are voting emotionally.

I wanted to but couldn't!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

When you think Michael Caine and Sidney Portier, you think of Comedy and Drama. Actually you get that here. Both of them do well in this chase movie. Based upon Peter Driscoll's only novel, this film has a brisk pace leaping from a court room into a cross country chase. Prunella Gee who would later be in Sean Connery's last Bond film (Never Say Never Again) is one of the 2 women who get attention along with actress Persis Khambetta (Star Trek, The Motion Picture).While Gee gets the co-star role, Peris gets a steamy scene with Portier. The film, while fictional, is sort of about apartheid in South Africa. The struggles of that country with it's racist policy is well drawn in this film. While the film is not perfect, anyone watching it should realize that this was what was happening in South Africa when the film was made.This film is not a classic, but is a pretty solid film to watch for entertainment. Sidney and Caine play off each other well.

Minor almost obscure flick with good and effective thrilling moments, "The Wilby Conspiracy" works like an updated version of "The Defiant Ones" happening in South Africa during the apartheid regime. But this time the political prisoner played by Sidney Poitier isn't chained to a white man, he's bound to a engineer (Michael Caine) who'll help you to escape to another African country to meet the leader of his resistance group. However, both of them are being followed by the police after a misunderstanding when of Poitier's release from prison. The plot, like most of its kind, involves the unlikely friendship between them and their small fights and complications. While this isn't so groundbreaking and emphatic as Stanley Kramer's classic, there's plenty of detachable qualities about its presentation of South African's apartheid, the way the authorities worked (in a very revolting way), and the political issues although simplistic introduced are quite relevant, never getting in the way of the action which is the main focus in here (the escape, the diamonds plan, etc.) with some humored sequences. It staggers a bit but overall gets off with dignity and with plenty of great moments (the ending was excellent and quite poignant for what was happening at the time, no big Hollywoodian delusions). Poitier and Caine have good chemistry and are very notable but it's Nicol Williamson (as the chief of police) and Saeed Jaffrey (as the Hindu dentist responsible for getting members of the apartheid resistance out of the country) who steal the show, and there's even a very young Rutger Hauer on a pivotal role towards the conclusion. Ralph Nelson commands a good movie combining political themes with adventure. It's a little unfortunate that at the time of its release this wasn't so well-known, could've been used as a social denounce and things could've been changed earlier in South Africa. A more politically charged piece would do more justice to the cause but this one accomplishes a good deal. 8/10

I would really have liked to have given The Wilby Conspiracy a higher rating than I did. But unfortunately a really huge and ridiculous error was made in telling the tale.Due to political pressure brought to bear from various world human rights activists, black nationalist Sidney Poitier is freed by the apartheid South African government. On the way to celebrate, Poitier, his lawyer Prunella Gee and her boyfriend Michael Caine get into a mêlée with South African police and after assaulting a pair of them have to flee.But it turns out the government in freeing Poitier in the first place has a whole other agenda. Poitier also has something else in mind, to get a stash of diamonds hidden years ago in a robbery to aid the African National Congress. During the course of fleeing Poitier seeks the aid of an Indian dentist played by Saeed Jeffrey and his assistant Persis Khambatta. While Poitier is hidden away in a modern day priest-hole he takes Khambatta in there with him and while the South African Security are even outside within a few feet of him, Poitier and Khambatta are doing the horizontal mambo. Now granted Poitier had been in prison for 10 years and he was understandably ready to go, still I found it a bit much. The steamy sex scene definitely sold a lot movie tickets, but it was awkwardly planted into the story.Acting honors in this film go to Nicol Williamson as the South African Security Police Chief Horne. He is a chillingly evil man, resolute in defense of the apartheid society and a bigoted product of that same society. Williamson is living proof of what Martin Luther King said about racism being as toxic to the perpetrator as to the victim.The Wilby in the Wilby Conspiracy is a Nelson Mandela like figure who is in exile in neighboring Botswana. He only enters the film at the very end and in a surprising way. The Wilby Conspiracy other than that tacked on sex scene done for box office dollars is a great portrait of the last days of the apartheid society of South Africa. It should be seen for Nicol Williamson's portrayal alone.

I wish they extend the time period by another 5 to 10 minutes on the love scene that occur between Sidney Poitier and Persis Khambatta with more intimate lovemaking action. They did that with Kevin Costner in the movies Dances with Wolves and Bull Durham and Eric Roberts and Pamela Gidley in the movie Freefall. They also did that in the TV show NYPD where David Caruso made love with his cop girlfriend. I think they should have made the love scene in the attic instead of the closet. The attic look like it had a lot more room and enough space to place a small boxspring and bed mattress and some bed sheets so the characters could make more intense, detailed love scenes. It seems to me that there should be a firm rule that films like the Wilby Conspiracy should be at the minimum 2 hours long whether it is shown at the theater, on VHS, DVD or CD.