The first time you saw The Wild Geese...

I remember the trailers for it and wanted to see it in the theater; but was unable. I saw it a couple of years later on cable. At that time, I was deeply into all things military and became overly enamored with mercenaries. I thought the film was exciting, while at least addressing some of the political problems in Africa, in terms of establishing independence from former colonial powers and finding a path to peace between Black and White.

When I was in college, I found the novel in a used book store and read it. It's a bit different, in that the equipment and background details are slightly different. Also, there was another officer character, some of whose plot is transferred to Roger Moore's character. Meanwhile, it is Raffer who is in trouble with the Mafia, not Sean. Otherwise, the plot plays out the same, with a slightly different ending.

While I was in college, I also saw the Dogs of War, which I thought ripped off the Wild Geese (particularly with Winston Ntshona playing a similar character), until I read the novel and realized it was the other way around .

During college, I tried, without much success to get ahold of more detailed accounts of mercenary soldiers, having figured out pretty early on that magazines, like Soldier of Fortune, and most "men's adventure" novels were complete BS. I didn't have much luck, until I was in the military. Then, I came across Mike Hoare's Congo Mercenary, about his time in the Congo, during the Simba Revolt, and one of Anthony Mockler's non-fiction works on the subject. Hoare's book seemed rather exciting, but painted a less than professional picture of the average mercenary soldier. He talked about having one experienced veteran for every 20-30 wannabes (or worse). Mockler gave a far more unbiased account of mercenaries, showing that most had little practical experience and most of their bios had been greatly embellished (particularly Hoare's). He covered people like Bob Denard, Jacques Schramme, Rolf Steiner, Taffy Williams, Callan (a pseudonym of a British mercenary in Angola) and some of Hoare's Congo people, like Jon Peters and Siegfried Muller. He also detailed Hoare's aborted coup attempt in the Seychelle Islands, which was launched not long after the movie was made (with the involvement of the South African government). I later came across another Mockler book, which had even more detailed info on modern mercenaries, including Frederick Forsyth's involvement in a planned coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea (which may have been a front to gain research or may have been legit, depending on who you believe). I also came across accounts of Operation Dragon Rouge and Dragon Noir, to rescue white hostages in Stanleyville, during the Simba revolt. Hoare described it in his books, but made it sound like his men pulled off the rescue, when it was Belgian paracommandos. In fact, the book, Save the Hostages, paints a rather poor picture of Hoare's forces. I also later found a very good account of Bob Denard's various forays in the Comoros Islands.

In the end, what emerges is a picture of mercenaries as pretty much being parasites, looking to make a fast buck, or thrill seekers with little military training. The few professionals generally operated in advisory roles, with small numbers of Europeans and far more indigenous personnel. They are looked down upon by the professional military as having poor training and ill-disciplined. This has pretty much been reinforced by modern mercenary "security companies," like Executive Outcomes and Blackwater.

I still think the film is exciting, with memorable characters, but I have to switch off my head, in regards the politics and the professionalism of the mercenaries. The political discussions between Limbani and Peter are very Euro-centric. I give it points for trying to offer a positive way forward, instead of just making a list of grievances back and forth; but, it does tend to simplify extremely complex issues. It still rates higher than Euan Lloyd's other films, with Final Option (aka Who dares Wins) being a particular conservative fantasy. I also cringe at Kenneth Griffith's camp stereotype portrayal of Whitey. He almost makes John Inman look butch.

In the end, the movie Dark of the Sun, with Rod Taylor (based on the Wilbur Smith novel) is a far more accurate look at mercenaries in Africa, though Blood Diamond is a decent modern look, based on Executive Outcomes involvement in the civil war in Sierra Leone.



"Fortunately, Ah keep mah feathers numbered for just such an emergency!"

i had not seen this film since i saw it in a local cinema for the first time when I was 18, back in 1978- the print that was shown then and there looked washed out, harshly lit, and the sound track sounded like it was under a pillow. much of the dialogue was inaudible, the sound was tinny and dull, it was the worst visual and audio presentation I had seen in a theatre up to that time. aside from that, it was a crackling action pic, with a graphic brutality I had not before seen in a movie outside of the godfather. despite not being able to clearly hear much of the dialogue, I could grok what was going on about the betrayal of the mercenaries, and hung on for dear life as they struggled to make it out of that hellhole. the DVD brought back all the good memories, but the [remastered] picture and sound quality [in surround, to boot!] washed away all the bad memories of that old movie theatre back in '78. a keeper!