Wildgänse II

Richard Burton was to star in this sequel to the original Wild Geese, but he died before shooting started. Edward Fox was rushed in as his younger brother with a script change. The film was dedicated to Burton.

Probably a much better film could have been dedicated to Burton, I think he would have liked some Shakespearean production dedicated to him. Not that the first Wild Geese would ever rank among the great films of all time, but it was nicely done story about the comradeship of the military fraternity.

These guys headed by Fox and Scott Glenn aren't mercenaries, they're heist guys. And it's a who they're trying to heist not a what. The last prisoner in Spandau where all the surviving Nazis were contained, those who weren't hanged.

Sir Laurence Olivier takes out his mitteleuropa Albert Basserman accent for the last time to play Rudolf Hess, former Deputy Fuehrer of the Third Reich who escaped the hangman at Nuremberg because of insanity and the fact he'd flown to the UK and was captured there. He sat out World War II in a British jail while the Holocaust was going on. Hard to prove complicity in it in that situation.

Hess was a symbol to neo-Nazis everywhere, a last living reminder of Hitler's Germany. But the man himself was essentially a nobody. What he did do was attach himself early on to Adolph Hitler, served time in jail to him. As a faithful scribe he took down Hitler's prose in what later became Mein Kampf.

When Hitler came to power, he gave Hess a nice high falutin' title of Deputy Fuehrer, a reward for services rendered. But Hess was never in the inner circle of things and gradually moved farther and farther out of Hitler's orbit as he consolidated power in Germany.

So in 1941 poor Hess cooked up this whacko scheme to fly to the United Kingdom on his own to try and negotiate a separate peace. Of course when it was realized that he spoke for no one, the British clapped him jail. It was a sad pathetic attention getting gesture by a very mediocre man, shoved aside by those in power.

The premise of this story is that Glenn and Fox are hired to spring Hess out of Spandau so he could tell what he knew about Hitler to the world. The plot gets needlessly complicated as the Russians, the Palestinians, and the IRA all get involved.

Knowing what we know about Hess the question to all this is why bother?

Even Laurence Olivier doing a part by rote is better than most players giving their all. The rest of the cast just goes through the motions as Olivier does.

Not a great tribute film for Richard Burton.

Not good, but not too bad. Takes a while to get going, but then the action is pretty good. Ending is a bit lame, and unnecessary. The movie could have been ended 10-15 minutes earlier.

I saw this film just once in the mid eighties immediately after it's release. For anyone mildly interested in the historical events of the 'cold war' era, it is an excellent example(without giving away any of the plot) of how the East and West used Hess as a pawn. Olivier as always, does a truly remarkable job portraying the latter day Hess. I could not imagine any other actor being able to portray him so convincingly, and with the usual attention Olivier paid to his visual appearance, he gives a first class performance which has remained in my memory some 17 years on. It left such a good impression on me that I have spent the last 15 years scanning the TV film pages for it - to no avail. Scott Glenn too returns a creditable performance, and Edward Fox steps into the shoes of Richard Burton quite seamlessly. Good story line for anyone with even a scant knowledge of modern history, and well directed. This film has never seemed to make it to the TV screens and I cannot understand why. Nor have I seen a video available in the UK. It is an excellent film, but probably not of much interest to the younger viewer who has no interest in the era and the history

As a fan of the original "Wild Geese," I couldn't help but be crushingly disappointed by this disjointed, boring "sequel." Scott Glen goes through the film as if on Prozac and Barbara Carrera is strictly no-talent eye-candy. Edward Fox looks bored in yet another of his Jackal-ripoff roles. As for Laurence Olivier as Hess, well, it looks like he thought he would reprise his embarrassing performance as Neil Diamond's father in the 1980 "Jazz Singer." This was just one more of the many child-support-and-alimony-payments-are-due roles that crowded the end of his otherwise distinguished career.

I have just seen this film, and l thought it was quite good, not up to the original but the story line was good, the acting was good, in fact it was a good film with a fantastic idea.

Olivier and Fox add to the cast with Olivier doing his best to convey a hard part...

I have read in books that this film was a "bomb" and a lot of folk don`t like it, but why has every film got to have a message, why can't people just see a film for what is should be a bit of fun, l give this film

8/10