Game for Vultures

The movie tells about an English businessman (Richard Harris) dealing with another (Ray Milland) about illegal helicopters to export towards Rhodesia . Meanwhile, an African patriot called Gideon (Richard Roundtree) fights against the government troops by means of ¨guerrillas¨ and besides , he'll try to avoid at whatever means the helicopters load arrives to Rhodesia.

The picture is indirectly based on true events . In 1965 the white minority obtained independence of the Commonwealth and created the Republic of Rhodesia with Ian Smith as President who confronted the black nationalist guerrilla. In 1980 took place the Republic of Zimbabwe with Robert Mugabe as President that today continues . Along the way , several civil wars cause rampage, destruction, starvation and thousands of deaths . The movie belongs to sub-genre of African mercenaries , such as : ¨Dark of the sun ¨(Jack Cardiff) ,¨Wild Geese¨ (Andrew McLagen) and recently ¨Tears of the sun¨ (Anthony Faqua) . In the film there is suspense , frenetic shootouts , noisy action and a little bit of violence when the fights happen . It contains nice and atmospheric cinematography by cameraman Alex Thompson . The motion picture was regularly directed by James Fargo . Rating : Mediocre but entertaining.

This film essentially involves two men on the opposite side of a civil war. The first man, "David Swansey" (Richard Harris) is working with the government of Rhodesia and attempting to circumvent trade restrictions imposed upon it by the United Nations. The other man, "Gideon Marunga" (Richard Roundtree) is fighting for independence from Rhodesia's apartheid government. Yet even though both of these men are on opposing sides they each have concerns. For example, David realizes that he is on the wrong side of history and that eventually Rhodesia will lose this war. Gideon, on the other hand, is devoted to the cause but recognizes that the people he has allied himself with don't share his sense of justice and morality. As a result, he witnesses the murder and rape of priests, missionaries and school teachers with particular revulsion. Yet even though they have never met, what the two of them don't realize is that eventually their paths will cross--and this will have an immediate impact upon both of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather mediocre war-drama due in large part because neither of these characters inspired much interest and the film lacked a coherent plot. That said, although I didn't think this was a bad film necessarily, considering the solid cast it should have been much better and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

With a cast that includes the likes of Richard Harris, Richard Roundtree, Ray Milland, Joan Collins and Denholm Elliott, you would expect A Game For Vultures to be a pretty bankable success. Would all those talented stars sign up if the script was a load of old rubbish? Surely not. Add to that the plot, which concerns itself with sanctions-busting and freedom-fighting in 1970s Rhodesia, and you'd expect a film with a level of gritty realism and political topicality. It is sad to report, then, that A Game For Vultures is an absolutely disastrous film which misfires in every conceivable department.

In 1970s Rhodesia, black freedom-fighters - dubbed "terrorists" by the white leaders - are busily ambushing the white soldiers on patrol. One such man, Gideon Marunga (Richard Roundtree), is nearly killed when a routine ambush goes wrong and results in several deaths and casualties on both sides. Meanwhile, back in Britain, sanctions-buster David Swansey (Richard Harris) is hired to smuggle some helicopters into Rhodesia to aid the white government in their fight against the black revolutionaries. A Rhodesian by birth, Swansey is determined to support the whites as they struggle to retain control in Rhodesia, even though the rest of the world has imposed crippling sanctions on his nation. Also cast into the mix is unscrupulous business tycoon Colonel Brettle (Ray Milland), who finances Swansey's plans, and crusading journalist Larry Prescott (Sven Bertil Taube), who desperately wants to expose Swansey's illegal activities in the press.

A Game For Vultures is rather confused and heavy-handed. It gets far too plot-heavy for its own good and the result, in all honesty, is a deadly bore. Ironically, the opening fifteen minutes are actually quite good (it's an extended action sequence featuring an ambush which goes bloodily awry), but as soon as the sequence is over the film begins to nose-dive. Richard Harris here contends with probably the weakest role of his career (it's NOT his worst film, but certainly his most bored and subdued performance ever), while supporting stalwarts like Ray Milland, Sven Bertil Taube and Denholm Elliott are wasted too. Even Joan Collins - included primarily just for sex appeal in a male-dominated story - fails to add any sparkle to the proceedings. James Fargo directs rather lethargically, making the plot unbearably hard-to-follow on the one hand while over-simplifying the racial themes on the other. I won't be watching A Game For Vultures again and, if you value your time, I'd suggest that you shouldn't even bother with it in the first place!

This was one of the last International Co-production made in the 70's, and it is easy to see why it sat on the shelf and was never released in the U.S! It has way too many subplots, and many of the plots gets interconencted with others, thus adding confusion! Great music score, great photography cannot save this rather tedious film with absolutely NO sympathetic characters whatsoever! Roundtree kept losing his South African accent many times during the film! In fact most of the characters wind up trying to kill each other, and you kind of wish they do! And the ending actually undermines the whole film! It isnt even a good time waster! Definitely the last of these European international co-productions from the 70's!

I think this movie is far better than the ratings it has received here would suggest. Personally I did not find the plot overly complicated or hard to follow and the dialogue and action are well executed.

However I can imagine many probably found a political slant to the movie which was distasteful, and that may have impacted their opinion of the movie and influenced the tone of their subsequent comments. I could not help but notice that the preponderance of nasty violent acts depicted were committed by the black freedom fighters / terrorists, rather than the white oppressors. So it lacked balance in that regard.

But despite that, I think it builds up an unusually well rounded and nuanced picture of the suffering that it does depict, from the front line protagonists and guilty background conspirators, to predicament those who are only trying to get by and survive, yet are unable to avoid being dragged into the conflict, to the innocent children, with no choices to make, who are caught in the middle.

Of the two protagonists, Richard Roundtree goes on the longer moral journey, his confidence and belief in his cause slowly undermined and eaten away each time he witnesses the death of a different category of collateral individual. While for Richard Harris the consequences of his actions remain largely abstract until the final big action scene of the movie, when he quickly catches up.

Richard Harris' performance is more charming than usual and he manages to put off being conflicted until the final scenes. Richard Roundtree (Shaft) relishes a rare international outing. Joan Collins, Albe Parsons and Jana Cilliers all look good. Ray Milland, Denholm Elliott, Sven-Bertle Taube and Tony Osba (McLaren from Porridge) all add to the quality of the production, but I most enjoyed the performance of Ken Gampu as the fearsome "Sixpence".

Both leads learn to give greater weight to the human cost of the war the more they come to experience it for themselves, but in the end does it make any difference?

So in conclusion, I think it works well as a "general" anti-war movie, but not so well as a balanced view of the specific war it depicts. All people will fight to be free, unfortunately for the people of Zimbabwe so far they have only succeeded in replacing one oppressor with another.