Code Name: Wild Geese has Lewis Collins as a guy who leads a rag-tag group of mercenaries in Asia. USA DEA agent Ernest Borgnine contracts with Collins's crew to take out some heroin dealers in the Golden Triangle. The problem is, they get all the way out there, blow up the drugs, only to have a henchman blow up their helicopter. Not only that, but they discover another drug depot. Now they need to destroy the second one, survive, and get home. Oh, and there's also Klaus Kinski, he's never up to any good.
I had fun with this. It wasn't the greatest, the characters weren't well developed, especially the star, Lewis Collins, whom I thought they could've done more with. Also, despite having a consistent action quotient, it did get repetitive at times--how many times can you see guys being shot and falling from high up, or shimmying to death as they get sprayed with gunfire? On the other hand, Margheriti's model-work was fantastic, including a great car chase, a train explosion, and blowing up buildings that he rendered from the actual structures they were shooting--in fact, this was so well-done, it took Will telling me they were models for me to catch it. I also enjoyed Kinski, Borgnine, and Lee Van Cleef, who played the helicopter pilot. I think you could do a lot worse for a low-budget military jungle actioner.
When I did the pod, I talked about a kind of Chekhov's Gun theory I have with Klaus Kinski: if you have Kinski in your movie, he has to eventually be a baddie, and that's what happened here. It's not the Kinski on 10 that we love though. He's kind of subdued, wearing jumpsuits, chewing up scenery. Also, he's dubbed, I guess because his lines were in German in the original, and that tempers some of his punch as an actor. I think as a Kinski enthusiast, it was fun to see him here, but it wasn't the full-on Kinski we love.
I wasn't familiar with Lewis Collins before doing the Exploding Helicopter pod, but Will being from England, knew all about him. His show, The Professionals, didn't air here in the States, but I discovered in reading up on him on imdb, that he was up for the role of James Bond, I guess at the time Timothy Dalton got it. After seeing Lewis Collins in this, I think he would've made a great Bond--or at least an interesting one. I think Margheriti tried to tap into that here, combining a bit of international man of intrigue with grizzled war leader. Again, like a lot of the character development, it was uneven, so we never got a full sense of either.
Anytime we get an Oscar winner on the DTVC it's great. Usually it's Nicolas Cage or Cuba Gooding Jr., but Ernest Borgnine is another winner with a strong DTV CV. One of the things I liked best about this was seeing his scenes with Kinski. We know Kinski was very anti-Hollywood, and the Oscar is the greatest honor Hollywood can bestow on an actor, so I got the sense in watching him with Borgnine that he was like "Oscar huh? I'm not impressed." Borgnine for his credit was doing his thing, and even opposite Kinski there was a sense that he could care less and felt like he had nothing to prove. One thing I appreciate about both actors is they treat acting like a profession, and if the money is right, they'll take the job and do their work.
Finally, because I was a guest on the Exploding Helicopter podcast for this film, I feel it's necessary to discuss the exploding helicopter action. As I told Will, what impressed me here was how the exploding helicopter was integral to the plot. Usually the exploding helicopter is a quick and easy way to infuse action into a film, but beyond possibly killing off a baddie in the denouement, it doesn't have any impact one way or the other on how the story unfolds. When I think of movie tropes, the exploding helicopter is up there with damsels in distress and car chases as one of the most prevalent, but unlike those other two, for me it's the one that's tacked on the most, so to see it have that kind of impact on the characters was refreshing for me.
I found this on Prime, and thought it was a fun time. It's not the greatest, but not the worst way to spend 90 minutes. Thank you again to Will for having me on the Exploding Helicopter pod, and for everyone who hasn't checked out yet, definitely do.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087068
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