Code Name: Wild Geese (1984) New World/Action RT: 101 minutes Rated R (strong violence, language, drugs) Director: Antonio Margheriti (as “Anthony M. Dawson”) Screenplay: Michael Lester Music: Jan Nemec and Eloy Cinematography: Peter Baumgartner Release date: September 1986 (US) Cast: Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Mimsy Farmer, Klaus Kinski, Manfred Lehmann, Thomas Danneberg, Frank Glaubrecht, Wolfgang Pampel, Bruce Baron, Hartmut Neugebauer, Rene Abadeza, Luciano Pigozzi. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Let’s be clear, Code Name: Wild Geese is NOT a sequel to The Wild Geese nor is it associated with it in any way. The only thing the two movies have in common is that they’re both about mercenaries. The similarities end there.
You could say that Code Name: Wild Geese is an international project. It’s a German-Italian production. It was filmed in Hong Kong and the Philippines. It features American and British actors. They went global with this one. It took about two years for it to reach the US where it played briefly in theaters. It opened at a limited number of theaters, none of them near me. I had to wait until it came out on video about seven months later. I tried to watch it one Saturday night and couldn’t even finish it. It was horrible. If I was a normal person, I’d probably say something like “I can’t believe I wasted my time and money.” Because I’m Movie Guy 24/7, I CAN believe it.
Of course, that was before I developed a taste for junky European exploitation movies. Once I did, I gave Code Name: Wild Geese another chance and made it all the way through. I even liked it. That’s not to say it’s a good movie. It’s still bad. It looks and sounds cheap. It’s incompetently made, badly acted, poorly dubbed and written in the most simplistic manner possible. The plot is convoluted. The action scenes are clumsily executed. I have every reason to give this movie a one-star rating, but I’m not going to. When you take Code Name: Wild Geese for what it is, it’s actually rather enjoyable. It’s a totally different set of standards.
The cast of Code Name: Wild Geese is mighty impressive. It has Lewis Collins (The Final Option), Lee Van Cleef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Ernest Borgnine (The Poseidon Adventure), Klaus Kinski (The Soldier) and Mimsy Farmer (Autopsy). Three bad asses, a frightening villain type and a hottie; it’s a B-movie lover’s dream flick. The plot has DEA agent Fletcher (Borgnine) employing the services of merc leader Captain Wesley (Collins) and his team- Klein (Lehmann), Stone (Glaubrecht), Arbib (Danneberg) and Kowalski (Baron)- to destroy an opium factory in the Golden Triangle. With their regular chopper pilot out of commission, their handlers Brenner (Neugebauer) and Charlton (Kinski) bring in a new guy, a convict named China (Van Cleef) who’s promised an early release from prison if he takes part in the operation.
Of course, nothing goes exactly as planned once they raid and destroy the facility. Not only is their chopper blown up, they’re stuck with an American journalist (Farmer), a heroin addict who never explains why she’s locked in a prison cell on the premises with several locals. Then they learn of the existence of a second factory. This means trekking through the jungle to destroy it as well. Along the way, they blow up the train that carries the opium. All the while, they’re being hunted by Cong soldiers.
Director Antonio Margheriti (Yor, the Hunter from the Future), working under his American pseudonym Anthony M. Dawson, has a thing for Sergio Leone (the Man with No Name trilogy) judging by his frequent use of tight close-ups of the characters’ eyes. That was my main take-away from this viewing of Code Name: Wild Geese, an actioner with every genre cliché you can imagine- e.g. gun battles, explosions, guards falling from towers, more explosions, an enemy army with no regard for civilians’ lives, still more explosions and the surprise revelation of a villain. Check the main cast list again; it’s exactly who you think it is. There’s also a car chase so ludicrous, it has to be seen to be believed. It involves Collins’ character avoiding capture by driving sideways along the wall of a tunnel. He goes a good 200 yards at least. You don’t have to look closely to tell it’s a toy car and a miniature set. LOL! I live for stuff like this.
Granted, the stars of Code Name: Wild Geese don’t turn in Oscar-worthy performances. It’s far, far, FAR from their best. Making matters worse is the posh English voice replacing Kinski’s own. He was one of the finest screen slimeballs, but the dubbing makes him almost comical. Collins is okay in the lead. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him, he was bigger in Europe (especially West Germany) than he ever was in the States. Van Cleef may be old, but he’s still one of the toughest old birds in old school action cinema. I’m not sure if I buy Borgnine as a DEA agent but whatever. Farmer does little more than try to balance out the high level of testosterone with a dose of estrogen. BTW, if the actor playing the priest (Luciano Pigozzi) looks familiar to you, it’s because he was also in Yor. He played Pag.
I’ll concede that Code Name: Wild Geese doesn’t represent cinema at its finest. It’s crap, I agree. BUT it’s entertaining crap if you like cheesy European-made B-movies. It was released by New World Pictures in the US which, for me, is one more reason to appreciate it. I’ll say this much; I liked it a whole lot more than the official sequel Wild Geese II. I still haven’t tried again to make it all the way through that one. Maybe someday, who knows?
