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The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese is a 1978 British war action film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger as a British mercenary unit in Sub-Saharan Africa. The screenplay by Reginald Rose was based on Daniel Carney's then-unpublished novel The Thin White Line. Carney's novel was subsequently published under the film's title to coincide with its release.
The film was the result of a long-held ambition of producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film in the vein of The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. The title is named after the Wild Goose flag and shoulder patch used by Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare's Five Commando, ANC, which in turn was inspired by the Flight of the Wild Geese. The novel and film was based upon rumours and speculation following the 1968 landing of a mysterious aeroplane in Rhodesia that was said to have been loaded with mercenaries and "an African president" believed to have been a dying Moïse Tshombe. Hoare was the film’s technical advisor, and real members of Five Commando appear in the film.
The film had a Royal premiere in London on July 6, 1978, and was released in the United Kingdom on September 17 by Rank Film Distributors. The Wild Geese received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial success. A sequel, Wild Geese II, was released in 1985.
Colonel Allen Faulkner, a former British Army officer turned mercenary, meets with merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson in London. Matherson proposes the rescue of Julius Limbani, the deposed leader of a southern African nation due for execution by General Ndofa. President Limbani is held in a remote prison in Zembala, guarded by a regiment of General Ndofa's troops known as the "Simbas".
Faulkner accepts and begins recruiting mercenaries from his network of friends and colleagues, starting with Captain Rafer Janders, a skilled tactician and single father. They work with Matherson to save former Irish Guards lieutenant and pilot-turned-smuggler Shawn Fynn from an American mafia boss. Faulkner recruits Sandy Young to act as sergeant-major, and Fynn brings in Pieter Coetzee, formerly of the South African Defence Force (SADF), who plans to buy a farm with his earnings.
The force of fifty mercenaries train in Swaziland under the harsh direction of Young. Faulkner promises to watch over Janders' only son Emile should he not survive.
Faulkner is forced to launch the mission with only a day's notice. The group parachute into Zembala by a HALO jump on Christmas Day. One group rescues the ailing Limbani from a heavily guarded prison while another seizes a small airfield to await extraction. Matherson, in London, cancels their flight unexpectedly, having secured copper mining assets from General Ndofa in exchange for President Limbani. Stranded deep in hostile territory, the mercenaries suffer many killed, including Coetzee, as they fight their way through bush country pursued by the Simbas.
The mercenaries make their way to Limbani's home village, hoping to start a rebellion, but find the people too ill-equipped to fight. An Irish missionary informs the group of a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft they can escape in. The mercenaries suffer heavy casualties holding the Simbas off in a climactic battle while Fynn starts the Dakota's engines. Janders is shot in the leg, preventing him from boarding the departing aeroplane and Faulkner kills him to spare him from capture and torture. The thirteen surviving mercenaries land at Kariba Airport in Rhodesia, but Limbani dies from a gunshot wound sustained during the escape.
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The Wild Geese
The Wild Geese is a 1978 British war action film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, and starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger as a British mercenary unit in Sub-Saharan Africa. The screenplay by Reginald Rose was based on Daniel Carney's then-unpublished novel The Thin White Line. Carney's novel was subsequently published under the film's title to coincide with its release.
The film was the result of a long-held ambition of producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film in the vein of The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare. The title is named after the Wild Goose flag and shoulder patch used by Michael "Mad Mike" Hoare's Five Commando, ANC, which in turn was inspired by the Flight of the Wild Geese. The novel and film was based upon rumours and speculation following the 1968 landing of a mysterious aeroplane in Rhodesia that was said to have been loaded with mercenaries and "an African president" believed to have been a dying Moïse Tshombe. Hoare was the film’s technical advisor, and real members of Five Commando appear in the film.
The film had a Royal premiere in London on July 6, 1978, and was released in the United Kingdom on September 17 by Rank Film Distributors. The Wild Geese received mixed reviews from critics, and was a commercial success. A sequel, Wild Geese II, was released in 1985.
Colonel Allen Faulkner, a former British Army officer turned mercenary, meets with merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson in London. Matherson proposes the rescue of Julius Limbani, the deposed leader of a southern African nation due for execution by General Ndofa. President Limbani is held in a remote prison in Zembala, guarded by a regiment of General Ndofa's troops known as the "Simbas".
Faulkner accepts and begins recruiting mercenaries from his network of friends and colleagues, starting with Captain Rafer Janders, a skilled tactician and single father. They work with Matherson to save former Irish Guards lieutenant and pilot-turned-smuggler Shawn Fynn from an American mafia boss. Faulkner recruits Sandy Young to act as sergeant-major, and Fynn brings in Pieter Coetzee, formerly of the South African Defence Force (SADF), who plans to buy a farm with his earnings.
The force of fifty mercenaries train in Swaziland under the harsh direction of Young. Faulkner promises to watch over Janders' only son Emile should he not survive.
Faulkner is forced to launch the mission with only a day's notice. The group parachute into Zembala by a HALO jump on Christmas Day. One group rescues the ailing Limbani from a heavily guarded prison while another seizes a small airfield to await extraction. Matherson, in London, cancels their flight unexpectedly, having secured copper mining assets from General Ndofa in exchange for President Limbani. Stranded deep in hostile territory, the mercenaries suffer many killed, including Coetzee, as they fight their way through bush country pursued by the Simbas.
The mercenaries make their way to Limbani's home village, hoping to start a rebellion, but find the people too ill-equipped to fight. An Irish missionary informs the group of a Douglas Dakota transport aircraft they can escape in. The mercenaries suffer heavy casualties holding the Simbas off in a climactic battle while Fynn starts the Dakota's engines. Janders is shot in the leg, preventing him from boarding the departing aeroplane and Faulkner kills him to spare him from capture and torture. The thirteen surviving mercenaries land at Kariba Airport in Rhodesia, but Limbani dies from a gunshot wound sustained during the escape.