The Wild Geese (1978)

The Wild Geese is a British 1978 adventure film directed by Andrew V. McLaglen about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger. The film was the result of a long-held ambition of its producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film similar to The Guns of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare.

The screenplay by Reginald Rose was based on an unpublished novel titled The Thin White Line by Daniel Carney. The film was named The Wild Geese after a 17th-century Irish mercenary army (see Flight of the Wild Geese). Carney's novel was subsequently published by Corgi Books under the same title as the film.

The novel was based upon rumours and speculation following the 1968 landing of a mysterious aeroplane in Rhodesia, which was said to have been loaded with mercenaries and "an African President" believed to have been a dying Moise Tshombe.

Synopsis

Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), a British mercenary and former army colonel, arrives in London to meet the rich and ruthless merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger). The latter proposes a risky operation to rescue Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona), the imprisoned leader of a central African nation who is due to be executed by General Ndofa, the man who deposed him. Limbani is currently being held in a remote prison in Zembala, guarded by a unit of Ndofa's personal troops known as the "Simbas".

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