Chasing "The Wild Geese"

Timeline:

1691
Following the end of the Willamite War (also known as the Jacobite War),  Irish soldiers who had supported Catholic King James against Protestant William of Orange were banished from Ireland, becoming mercenaries on the European continent and elsewhere. This exile was sometimes called the Flight of the Wild Geese, and there are reports that at leats one mercenary company referred to themselves as such.

1960s
British mercenary "Mad" Mike Hoare commands the mercenary unit 5 Commando ANC (Armée Nationale Congolaise) during the Congo crisis of that decade and adopts the wild goose as their insignia.

1970s
Rhodesian novelist Daniel Carney, inspired by tales of Hoare's African adventures and intrigued by rumours of a mysterious plane carrying a "dying African president" landing in his homeland, writes "The Thin White Line", but is unable to get it published.

1977 (i)
During a chance meeting with film producer Euan Lloyd, Carney sells the film rights to his novel,  on the condition it be published. Lloyd agrees, changing the name of both the film and novel to "The Wild Geese". He eventually casts Richard Burton, Sir Richard Harris, Sir Roger Moore and Hardy Kruger as his four principals and arranges filming to take place in South Africa. ("eventually", because Michael Caine and others would not work on the film as it was to be filmed in South Africa during apartheid.)

1977 (ii)
During production, expatriate British actor Ian Yule is hired in South Africa. In addition to having legitimate military experience with the Paras and SAS (!), Yule turns out to actually have been a mercenary in Africa. He arranges to introduce the filmmakers to his former employer, "Mad" Mike Hoare, who is brought onto the production crew as a technical consultant.

1978 (i)
Shortly prior to release, the American distributor of the film, Allied Artists, went bankrupt, leading to limited screenings across the U.S. Despite this, it does well enough overseas to become the 14th highest grossing movie of the year.

1978 (ii)
My father takes the family to the movies at the Odeon Twin Theatre on Jasper Avenue in Edmonton. My mother and sister go on to see Diana Ross and Michael Jackson in "The Wiz", while Dad takes me, at 11 years old, to see a war movie about mercenaries in Africa called "The Wild Geese". I enjoy myself tremendously, despite not really knowing what a mercenary was.

1980
Rhodesia, the final destination of The Wild Geese in the movie, ceases to exist, becoming Zimbabwe.

1981
"Mad" Mike Hoare is captured and imprisoned after attempting to lead a coup d'état in the Seychelles.

2018
It strikes me that Glory might really enjoy this film, so I made arrangements to screen it for her, myself and Audrey last night.

There really is no reason for me to be as fond of this movie as I am. In fact, there are a lot of reasons not to. There are only three women with speaking parts in the movie (with less than ten lines between them), the homosexual medical orderly is so stereotypical he wouldn't be out of place in a Carry On film, and the idea of a largely white group of mercenaries interfering in the politics of a black-ruled African nation is more than a bit distasteful. And it was made in South Africa during apartheid!

But:

Despite 2/3 of those women being wives or girlfriends to mercenary characters, they are in no way typical or simply cutouts; their parts are small without being trivial or incidental.

Arthur Witty, the orderly played by Kenneth Griffith, is treated with equality and respect by his comrades (and no small amount of teasing). He is the first gay character I can recall seeing in film (even though at 11, this entire notion may have eluded me in a similar fashion to mercenaries), and he's certainly the first with any positive portrayal.

The white foreigners interfering in an independent African nation is a bit trickier, and almost prevented actor Paul Chani from joining the cast. But the sub-plot of acceptance told between the South African mercenary Pieter Coetzee (Hardy Kruger) and President Limbani (Winston Ntshona) was inspirational to him, so he agreed to play Sgt. Jesse Blake.

Lt. Pieter Coetze: We whites have carried you people on our backs ever since we came to this country.
Julius Limbani: It's the other way around now, is it?
Lt. Pieter Coetze: Is it? You need me to save your miserable black life now, don't you?
Julius Limbani: I do. And then you may need me to save yours. We need each other, white man. And that's the way it should be. We've got the whole world using us now. Setting group against group, destroying Africa. Our new freedom is just a new label for their brand of slavery. And a final blood bath is coming. First between black and white, and then between black and black when you whites have left Africa for good.
Lt. Pieter Coetze: Man, we've built your countries, and now you're kicking us out or almost all of them! You're living on foreign aid, robbing your own people blind, crying about outside oppression while you kill each other in great big bleeding batches. Once you have something better to offer, then you can come talk to us in the white south.
Julius Limbani: We both have something better to offer. Listen to me, because the white south is next unless you learn.
Lt. Pieter Coetze: Oh, bullshit! We whites were born here. We're just as African as you are. And don't make a mistake, we're going to stay.
Julius Limbani: I'm glad to hear that. Then you better join us, and help us sort out our future.
Lt. Pieter Coetze: Join you?
Julius Limbani: We have to learn to care for each other, or there will be nothing left of our Africa but a burnt-out battlefield.
Lt. Pieter Coetze: You have a point there. But do you have an answer?
Julius Limbani: I have the will to look for one. We have to forgive you for the past, and you have to forgive us for the present. If we have no future together, white man, then we have no future. That's what I believe in, and that's what I'm willing to die for.
Lt. Pieter Coetze: You're beginning to sound good to me. Maybe we need you. Maybe you're just the man.

(Fun fact: four decades later, Paul Chani's most prominent role is T'Chaka, father of T'Challa, Marvel's Black Panther!)

It's actually astonishing that the South African Film Commission, still under and a part of apartheid, was so intent on casting so many black actors from South Africa. In fact, the film was in violation of the law by having the same quarters for black and white cast members, but they completed their filming undisturbed.

For a fairly bloody action movie that perhaps glorifies soldiers for hire, there are a surprising number of great messages about inclusion and equality to be found in The Wild Geese. Honestly though, the sly and wry humor that runs throughout the film is its greatest appeal to me. Burton's sarcastic Col. Faulkner, Harris' sophisticated Rafer Janders and Moore's charming but deadly Shawn Fynn make for some wonderful scenes with cracking dialogue. Moore, in fact, asked to have fewer lines in his scenes with the other two, for fear of being shown up.

Knowing that Burton and Harris were legendary hellraisers, it is astonishing to discover that they were both dry for the duration of filming. Moore, on the other hand was spotted on the front lawn of his apartment one morning, clad only in his underwear, and running a garden hose over his head after on particularly ambitious night.

More shocking still, however, is the knowledge that Moore and Burton were only a couple of years  apart in age during filming; Burton 51 and Moore celebrating his 50th birthday on-set. Burton's hard living had caught up to him by this point, and he was plagued by back pain during filming. 1n 1981, he was hospitalized for liver and kidney troubles, and it was discovered that his spinal column was encrusted in crystallized alcohol.

The Wild Geese really is one for the books: no contrived love story (although some scenes were filmed), no American actors (although Burt Lancaster had been approached and O.J. Simpson suggested by the American backers), and a complex, politically savvy story might have been enough to keep it from succeeding stateside even if the distributor hadn't folded.

Fans of action movies or good dialogue that deftly weave idealism and cynicism together, or those who enjoy atypical settings and characters would do well to check it out. Should you find yourself with a couple of hours to spare where there is decent wifi, I believe you can watch it in its entirety on YouTube.

Four decades later, I still remember my first experience with it, and I am happy to report that Glory enjoyed it too.