Universal Soldier

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.

Universal Soldier was aired on British TV around 1980* and I watched it, as a young teenager, in our family sitting room on my own with the lights turned down. It was the first film I can recall having any kind of emotional effect on me (other than fear, which was the usual outcome watching 'scary stuff' like Dr. Who as, say, an eight-year old).

Having not seen the movie since then, this review might understandably be a little shaky in the fact department. All I am writing here is a memory of a film I saw over 20 years ago.

Universal Soldier stars ex-007 George Lazenby who plays a mercenary being hired by some African despot to carry out dirty deeds. The movie opens with him arriving off a long-haul flight and going to collect his pistol from the purser/ customs department in the arrivals hall (you could obviously do this sort of thing in 1971 especially if you had been Bond). Whilst back office he glimpses some long-haired bum having his body cavities searched for illicit substances, and gives him a wry smile. He is living a glamorous lifestyle with flash cars and a bird on each arm but the purpose of this visit is also work related: making contacts for his next assignment, testing some assault hovercraft on a country estate in England, that sort of thing.

Anyway, somehow along the way he meets fellow Australian Germaine Greer, the now-well known feminist, who plays a sexy hippie chick with a cool pad where they can both smoke pot and chill out. They fall for each other; she shows him the light and causes him to reject his immoral and unethical ways.

I am sure the movie is hiply shot and full of devices in fashion with filmmakers at the time, giving it a now much dated feel. (See the incongruous running-around-in-circles 'musical' scene in the otherwise excellent The Swimmer for example). But, at the time, I saw through that (or more likely, obliviously went along with it).

The film made a strong impact on me as a teen full of romantic ideals about love and war. Universal Soldier has many potent ingredients: dashing leads, cool gadgets, interesting plot, soft drugs, a strong female, sex and ethics. (I wonder what my ex-girlfriends think of this review). Incidentally, another film that appealed, viewed several years later, was Sherman's March.

In the days after seeing the film I kept coming back to it in my mind and marvelled at how a mere movie could have such an unexpected impact. From then on I saw all films with different eyes learning to pay close attention to what was going on to get the most out of them.

Since then movies have played a small but significant role in my life as I have served on the committee of my university film society, been a buyer for a video club and have over 300 movies at home on DVD and video.

In my memory of over 20 years ago, this is surely a cult classic but when I first looked up Universal Soldier on the IMDb in 1998 the title didn't even exist as an entry and now at time of writing only has 10 votes. If I saw it again would I be disappointed???

Edit 17 Oct 2014 - just found out the actual date this was broadcast due to the BBC genome project: 28 Feb 1981. http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/5042eb362d8b4cb89f97531ad4e90615

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.

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.