Don't get me wrong - I loved this film as a kid and it's still alot of fun (despite its grimmer aspects) but the thing I found MOST unbelievable is the idea of a bunch of middle aged men staging a commando raid, then tramping through the African bush while fighting off hordes of enemies. I give Burton credit just for being able to film this thing (considering the condition of his liver)
shareKeep in mind that they were men who were trained to be killing machines, very fit, etc. However, there is that question of their age.
*** SPOILERS BELOW ***
They didn't run much except for some of the training, some of the battle (to run into a protective position to fire on the rampaging hordes) and at the end when they were running after the plane. They also had the trucks to take them some of the way.
They spent most of the other time sneaking around quietly or walking.
The whole idea about the movie, is that they all are veterans from the world war who can't settle to ordinary life.
And for expericend soldiers like Faulkner and Finn, it will be their last mission, so thats the reason why there are so many old people.
There still seemed a fair number of younger guys in the unit too.
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Not quite. From Hoare's own books, most of the merc's didn't have that much experience. More than a few were adventure seekers. The valued ones were guys like Siefried Mueller (sp?) and John Peters, with real miltary experience (German Army and South African SAS), but they were rare. Some of the 6 Commnado were ex-legionnaires. Most of the WW2 vets were there during the Katanga cessession, not the Simba war. Even in Nigeria, there were only a few real veterans. That's not to say some didn't pick things up quickly, but far more were wannabe's.
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