When it comes to well formulated plans of grizzled dudes going wildly awry, the story behind Wild Geese II manages to somehow match the rather fragile plans that unfolded on screen. For those of you unfamiliar with this rather disjointed series of man of a mission movies, the first film dealt with a cast full of legendary alcoholics as they played a bunch of leathery ex-soldiers as they take an off-the-books mission to free an African political prisoner from a cruel dictator. After spending a significant amount of time with these ruddy cheeked killers as they plot, train, recuit and embark on their foolhardy task, the inevitable speedbumps soon make everything go Pete Tong and people start dying despite the fact that the plan was set in stone.
Well, in a rather sad case of truth following fiction, Richard Burton was primed to reprise his role as booze guzzling point man, Allen Faulkner, in the sequel only for the legendary actor to succumb to hemorrhagic stroke mere days before filming – however, in an act of last second pivoting that would have made Faulker proud, the follow up continued on with a few changes here and there. However, if The Wild Geese taught us anything, it’s that even minor changes to an iron clad plan can cause disaster – was Wild Geese II destined to be one of them?
Alex Faulkner, the brother of Allen Faulkner, is called into a meeting with international network executives to discuss a daring plan – the removal and rescue of the only surviving Nazi leader in captivity, Rudolph Hess, in order to get him to dish the dirt on any remaining collaborators. Because Faulker isn’t fucking insane, he refuses, but because he is also absurdly British, he also suggests someone who could pull tbe job off in his stead: former Lebanese American soldier turned merc John Haddad, who takes time out from avoiding Palestinian hitmen to agree to the job.
Whizzing over to West Berlin to case the Spandau Prison where Hess is being held, Haddad soon finds out that the extremely complex job of busting Hess out with nobody noticing is actually going to be the simplest part of his plan as soon other interested parties start showing an interest for varying reasons. First there’s ex-Nazi Karl Stroebling who works for the Soviet Union who tries to threaten Haddad to turn Hess over to him if he’s successful, but alternatively, British Colonal Reed-Henry also desires Hitler’s former right hand man for similar, shadowy, political goals. With both men adding stipulations and complications to Haddad’s plan, ironically the first person he recruits is Faulkner who had turned the mission down in the first place – but with a team that contains a stunt driver, a Sergeant Major and a troublesome member of the IRA, soon the mission is a go.
Or, at least, it would be if both Stroebling and Reed-Henry didn’t keep making things awkward with planned double crosses and kidnappings to ensure they get what they want. But even with his audacious plan underway, what condition will Hess be in and will he be the font of all knowledge that this would-be rescuers need him to be?
Considering how little actual connective tissue there actually is between The Wild Geese and Wild Geese II, I’m actually amazed that the producers still maintained that it was imperative that the second film remained a sequel. I mean, if Burton hadn’t tragically passed, it would have been a no-brainer, obviously, but in the event of his death, there’s not one single character or actor who actually links the two films together and this new strike force isn’t even called the Wild Geese at any point either. OK, so James Fox was flown in to quickly take up Burton’s role as his brother, but not only is this the first real mention of a sibling, Faulkner isn’t even tbe main character of the film. That’s an honor given to a sullen looking Scott Glen who genuinely looks like his face would crack if he even attempted the smallest of smiles, but immediately this means we’re in some trouble as one of the things that kept the first film watchable was it’s rambunctious, game for anything cast. With Burton being flanked by the likes of Richard Harris and Roger Moore, what the film lacked in subtlety and realism, it more than made up for it with raw charisma and as fine an actor as Glen can be, ain’t nobody that can match that previous line up.
However, Edward Fox is more than willing to give it a shot, overacting wildly whether he’s being overbearingly cheerful about his sniper duties or chewing the scenery when his IRA teammate (played by Charlie from Casualty) spikes his drink with LSD and he proves to be the only one here who is even remotely having fun. Elsewhere we find Laurence Olivier play Hess and doing everything within his considerable powers to try and keep things within the realms of good taste seeing as the man in question was actually still alive when the film was released – although, aside from a poignant final speech at the end of the film it must have been a fairly easy paycheck seeing as he’s literally unconscious for the majority of his screen time. However, aside from some nicely sinister villains lurking on the side lines, the majority of this squad is utterly forgettable, especially when compared to the string of eccentric characters that regularly got cut down like wheat throughout the first film.
So as we aren’t particularly connected to the characters this time round, it’s down to director, Peter Hunt to keep us on the edge of our seats for all the subterfuge and spy stuff – however, despite being responsible for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, possibly one of the most spy centric Bonds ever made, Hunt delivers a rather flat, slightly confusing movie that ultimately fluffs its final message in a rather confusing manner. While the first movie laid on the futility of war by having the mission torpedoed from money men, this film sees various cast members be sacrificed to get Hess put only for him to refuse to give the interview for personal reasons. I assume it was an attempt to give the series yet another politically tragic ending thats supposed to make you frustrated with the ways of the world, but it’s delivered so unenthusiastically that not only do you wonder why the characters actually bothered in the first place, you’re not entirely sure why you did either.
There’s plenty of subterfuge in the final third that’s supposed to do that thing where you think that our leads haven’t managed to plan for something, but then it turns out that they’ve have a contingency plan all along – but the fact that so many people die along the way makes confused if any of Haddad’s plan is working at all and ifmt proves to be way more confounding rather than thrilling.
While points must be added for Wild Geese II managing to concoct a mission that just isn’t a retread of the first film, what we get instead makes you wish the series had just flown south for the winter.
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