Universal Soldier

Maybe that will sound strange to you, but I have always confounded this movie, made in the early seventies, and the last of director Cy Endfield, with another mercenary tale, also from 1970-71, and also the last of another film maker: Gordon Flemyng, called THE LAST GRENADE. Both anti hero tales, as there were batches in those times, downbeat, gloomy, not for today's audiences anyway. I prefer THE LAST GRENADE, I don't know why....ha ha ha. Gordon Flemyng never gave us the same filmography as Cy Endfield. But of course both films are totally different. This one is a pacifist and totally improvised film in terms of script, not an action flick. Most audiences will find it tedious, because it is. We are here entirely in the seventies mood, hippy and so on...But this one is not charmless for old seventies dramas or thrillers. I don't care if that's not a masterpiece nor Cy Endfield's best work. I like it. Period. I would have imagined Nick cage in Lazenby's role, if it had to be remade. Maybe because of Cage in 2005 LORD OF WAR, also speaking of arms traffick.

This film begins with an extremely influential mercenary known simply as "Ryker" (George Lazenby) coming out of retirement in order to assist an exiled African ruler overthrow the government of that particular country. Naturally, because of his mercenary mindset, Ryker makes it clear to everyone concerned that he is totally non-political and that his only concern revolves around the money--and nothing else. Curiously enough, while in the process of procuring arms in London, he suddenly begins to rethink his position and, together with his colleague "Jesse" (Ben Carruthers) decides to renege on his contract--with devastating consequences for all concerned. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, in the course of watching this movie, I kept waiting for something interesting to happen. That moment never came as each and every scene seemed even more monotonous than the one preceding it. Likewise, the awful music accompanying many of these same scenes only made matters worse. In short, while there may be a few anti-war movies from this era that might be worth watching, this isn't one of them, and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Following George Lazeny's one off stint as James Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Lazenby tried to break away from Bond and his second starring film 1971's Universal Soldier was described by Lazenby as "Ant-War and Anti-Bond". The movie is very much defined by the counter culture era that gave us such films as Easy Rider and Lazenby certainly disappears into his role as the mercenary known as Stryker, but its satire is so broad and indulgent the movie really does become a monotonous watch with endless scenes of lingering on weapons with "ironic music" placement and the lack of direction in the movie becomes an endurance test.

At its core the movie is a satire of the military industrial complex and the messy political and economic machinations that keep the engine of warfare running, but that's basically the only real point the movie has as it just endlessly repeats meandering directionless scene after meandering directionless scene. I will say the Lazenby is committed in his performance, but the surrounding movie is just so suffocating it's hard to get engaged in his characters journey through various arms dealers and shadowy political figures because by Lazenby's own words the movie has "no plot" and is "just a series of happenings" so there's nothing keeping you invested. I didn't feel right giving this film a quantifiable rating because it's a loosely structured movie that's lacking a point by design and your experience will be subjective. What others will see as indulgent lack of direction, others will see as daring film making of the era.

This film was a lot better than I thought it was going to be and a lot better than its given credit for in my opinion. After leaving the Bond franchise after only one movie (1) George Lazenby was looking for a project that had personal meaning for him, rather than just a paycheque. It was the late 60s early '70s and he was sincerely inspired by the "make love not war" sentiment which defined those times for many. Enough to put his career on the line in order to try and get this message across. His comments at the time indicate that he put his heart and soul into it, but, for whatever reason, the movie critics and the ticket buying public remained unmoved. Looking back, a disheartened and disillusioned Lazenby has been dismissive and disparaging about the project, but I see it as, if not a great movie, at least a very worthy attempt to making one.

Cy Enfield does a good job of directing, in the less stage-bound, semi documentary style of the 60s and 70s, when outdoor shooting became much more common, finding plenty of interesting and imaginative camera angles. I didn't find the plot at all hard to follow, the dialogue is spare, containing little in the way of exposition, and the story is often advanced via musical montage sequences, which I'm not always a fan of, but in this case worked well enough. I particularly enjoyed the music, by a fellow called Phillip Goodhand-Tait, a talented songwriter in his own right who has released numerous albums and been covered by several well-known artists, which I found was nicely representative of the "Hairy rock" sound of those times. Lazenby's own performance is very good, understated and natural, as are those of the other performers involved (including the infamous Germaine Greer and also Lazenby's future wife in real life, who plays his girlfriend in the movie).

The Story is about a former mercenary who has tried to retire, but is reluctantly drawn back into "the life" as he is running out of money. His heart is not in it and, part way through, an unfortunate incident triggers him to abruptly abandon his involvement without completing his contract. He finds comfort among the more bohemian elements of London and hopes to live quietly among them, learning yoga and searching for spiritual peace. However his former associates and employers have other ideas and he is forced into taking counter measures. I won't say any more in order not to spoil it for anyone planning to watch the film.

(1) Re the Bond franchise, did he jump or was he pushed? We will never know for sure, as Bond management always prefer to allow the actors to say they chose to leave, in order to make the legacy seem warm and fuzzy rather than cold and calculating. The decisions a result of artistic differences, rather than driven by economically realities, and all good friends again now, with a vested interest in the continued good health of the franchise.

George Lazenby said that after doing the excellent On Her Majesty's Secret Service, he doubted that the James Bond era could continue much longer with the arrival of new films such as Easy Rider.

This could well be among the worst predictions made in movie history but its an interesting one that goes some way to explaining the thinking behind Lazenby's next project, Universal Soldier.

This film has the influence of Easy Rider written all over it and in trying too hard to copy the style of what was a cinematic one-off, Universal Soldier is prevented from developing into a coherent story.

Very little happens in this film and too little is clearly explained. From what I can put together only a couple of hours after seeing the film, Ryker (Lazenby) is a mercenary soldier in some kind of deal with an African group, represented by Mbote played by none other than Rudolph Walker, better known in the UK as Patrick Trueman in Eastenders. At night Ryker is haunted by the images of violence he has seen in his career.

The accidental shooting of a dog and its subsequent merciful (or is it bloodthirsty?) slaying during a bit of fun target practice seems to trigger Ryker's conscience as he loses interest in the African deal. He rents a basement flat, goes to parties, attends a political meeting, starts dating a schoolgirl(!) whilst his group members wonder what has happened to him.

Once he is found, it is too late. He has decided upon another way of life...

I'm actually making this sound better than it is. For the most part Universal Soldier is incoherent with jarring and misplaced musical interludes (the Easy Rider influence) and it is very difficult to tell what, if anything, is going on.

Despite this, it remains watchable throughout mainly for two reasons; its curiosity value in seeing how Lazenby followed up being 007 and the sheer strangeness of the whole film.

Anyone with an interest in either of these points would be recommended to try and track down this film although it isn't easy to get hold of.

Fans of Open All Hours may also want to watch this as Nurse Gladys Emmanuel makes an appearance and I'm sure its Mr Bronson from Grange Hill working in the airport in the first scene.