Z-Men

A little-known World War 2 drama despite featuring the talents of Mel Gibson and Sam Neill. The film follows an Australian Special Forces team led by Gibson on a mission to rescue the occupants of a plane crash-landed on a Pacific Island. Naturally, the island is swarming with Japanese determined to thwart the mission at every turn.

The film is not without its weaknesses; Gibson & Neill are a little flat thanks to a script that doesn't allow them to show off their talents to the full(compare to Gibson's brilliant performance as Frank Dunn in Gallipoli made around the same time). The music is poignant but fails to add much to the drama and there is a low-budget feel to much of the film in general.

Having said that, Attack Force Z is fairly entertaining; it moves at a good pace and there are plenty of well-staged action sequences. The ending makes a strong statement on the futility of war. A decent addition to your war movie collection but for fans of the genre only.

Low-key WWII adventure film with noisy action , thrills , patriotic events and impressive battles . Moving warlike production set during WWII on the South Pacific at a location plenty of Japanese and a crew of New Zeeland soldiers battling an important base . As a group of Australian commandos launch a secret mission against Japanese forces in World War II. The brave commando is assigned a perilous mission on Chinese Islands already inhabited by stranded Japanese forces , they have some hours to get their objectives . The Americans are commanded by a Captain P.G. (Paul) Kelly (Mel Gibson) , along with Lieutenant J.A. (Jan) Veitch (John Phillip Law) , Sergeant D.J. (Danny) Costello (Sam Neill) ,Able Seaman A.D. 'Sparrer' Bird (Chris Haywood) , Sub Lt. Ted 'Kingo' King (John Waters) . At the beginning the soldiers successfully in wiping out Japanese and they endeavor to blow up a pivotal Japanese installation , but one of them early dies . Then they are spotted and descended upon by enemies forces ; meanwhile suffering casualties , exhaustion, dangerous encounters until execute their mission and to be rescued . They must go to the other side of the island to a beach , being really besieged by Japanese forces . Then , the daredevil captain and his underlings find themselves vying during the escape . The group must try to survive enemy that undergo a chase and a mini-war , as they fight all by themselves and finally find how wrong his misconceptions are .

A well known plot all before the end of WWII : an elite of corps of Australian military is Force Z volunteers are chosen for a risked mission . Australia/Taiwan Co-Production realised thru Roadshow Film, The Australian Film Commission and Umbrella Entertainment and written by Roger Marshall . Flag-waver , jingoist wartime movie with a typical crew of Anzacs battling the 'yellow menace' and to find the aircraft that crashed somewhere and rescue a defecting government official on board . The film packs warlike action, thrills, drama and being quite entertaining . All the potentially thrilling set pieces are thrown away with a disregard for the basic mechanics of suspense and the climax is literally cardboard thin . The story contains a brief studio character seeking human frailty beneath surface heroism . Talented cast is partially wasted , being effectively directed in this limited budget adventure, featuring two young newcomers actors : Mel Gibson and Sam Neill , both of whom to have a long , long career . Splendid Mel Gibson , he is consistently watchable for the whole damned poor show with no much emotion ; however , appealing the WWII enthusiasts . Gibson plays as a tough captain , in one of his first roles when he starred early Australian successes such as : Tim , Chain reaction , Mad Max , Mad Max 2 , Beyond thunderdome , Gallipoli , The year of living dangerously , Mrs Soffel . A cool cast, nimble direction from Burstall with riveting climax and enhanced by energetic score make this a must for wartime hardcore fans, though it has some flaws , gaps and failures . The picture was filmed entirely on actual locations in Taiwan . The producers gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the New Zeeland and Taiwan government and its armed Force . Thanksgiving to Department of Defense , New Zeeland Navy , Army Corps and Coast Guard , for their invaluable assistance .

This medium budget movie was professionally directed by Tim Burstall (1927-2004) . Director Burstall's skill with the thrills overcomes the artificiality of the story . He was a craftsman who made several TV series such as Return to Eden , Water Rats , Snowy River : The McGregor Saga , Special squad and films such as : Naked country , A Descant for Gossips , The Last of the Knucklemen , Duet for Four, Eliza Fraser , End Play , Getting Back to Nothing , Libido , Pesadilla en Bitter Creek , among others .

Others movies concerning the warfare sub-genre about Allied soldiers battling Japanese on the Pacific islands and Philippines during the WWII are the following ones : Guadalcanal diary (43) by Lewis Seiler with Anthony Quinn and Lloyd Nolan ; the classic Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) by Allan Dwan with John Wayne ; Beachhead (1956) by Stuart Heisler with Tony Curtis and Frank Lovejoy ; None but the brave, directed and starred by Frank Sinatra. In addition, Between heaven and hell(1956) with Robert Wagner, and Ambush Bay (1966) by Ron Winston with Hugh O'Brian , Mickey Rooney , James Mitchum , Peter Masterson , among others.

War films formed the basis of many a childhood, mine included, and this film is a firm favourite of mine, my brother and my cousin.

Made by the Australian film industry it is one of two films about the Australian Special Task Force Z during the Second World War. It shows that the war in the Pacific was not won solely by the Americans and that the Japanese occupation of China was brutal to anyone who would oppose them. Having seen photos of what the Japanese did to Chinese relatives of mine and to the population of China in general this film goes someway to highlight a rather forgotten piece of history.

Having said that, taking the film as an action/ war drama it is well paced and fairly realistic with but one feat of fantasy. As cinematic trivia it is noteworthy for the performances of Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and singer/actress Sylvia Chang pre-stardom. The star that never was, John Phillip Law takes centre stage for the most part but is beaten for intensity by Gibson as the young officer. The effects are a bit ropey, the blood has the red paint quality of war films of the late 60's - early 70's, but this adds to the charm.

If you like "men on a mission" films you should enjoy this.

NB- For more films on the Z Special Forces see "Heroes" 1 and 2 (made for tv). "Heroes 2" follows the same failed real-life mission as the second of the two Australian films whose title escapes me.

Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order I come to Attack Force Z from 1981.

Plot In A Paragraph: A group of commandos go on a secret mission to check for survivors of a plane crash.

By the numbers, cliché ridden, dull, flat and instantly forgettable. There are some good individual performances, but the film, though produced with efficiency and what looks like a decent budget, is tough to say great things about this movie.

It probably wasn't helped by my DVD having a poor transfer. I'd go so far as to say if Mel Gibson and Sam Neil weren't in this movie it probably would have even had a DVD released.

I presume that this movie was meant to be a tribute for the Australasian special forces operating in WW2. Now, I've no doubt that they were totally professional and highly trained individuals, I just don't think this movie did them too many favours. They made so many tactical errors and decisions based on emotion that I'm quite sure in real life, thy wouldn't have made. Individuals leaving their unit as they'd fallen for a girl! Sorry, but it just wouldn't have happened with so much at stake. On the positive side, this had a great cast and terrific authentic locations. The action sequences were well done and the torture scenes particularly harrowing. But at the end of the movie, I just sat there thinking, what were they really fighting for and was it all necessary? So many lives taken without a second thought and for what? Not a classic, but thought provoking which in my book, is never bad.