Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37128 in DVD
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Running time: 150 minutes

Customer Reviews

shout the devil
Having recently viewed this film for the first time I was impressed how the actors made such an enjoyable film out of such a week plot.The acting carried this film from beging to end ,mr. marvin gave a totally convincing preformance as a ner-do well hero wanna be,with a darker past then he paints.Mr. Moore seems to act beyound his usual limited range to give a geniune beleavible adaptation of a dislocated englishman and reluctant hero.This film apprears to catch ms. parkins in her prime,she gives a quality job thou just a little short of her job in the Kermiln Letter .All in all it is a good watch and an enjoyable hour and a half on their performances alone.

Gung ho adventure in 70's mould
This is far from a classic, but fans of Lee Marvin will be well rewarded with a flamboyant performance, and fans of Roger Moore with.. well, a standard Roger Moore performance.
Story is based on Wilbur Smiths novel of the same name, and loosely based around real events, albeit with fictional characters. Roger Moores Englishman forms an unlikely alliance with Lee Marvin's alcoholic rogue, firstly in the poaching game, and latterly in the fight against the Germans, 1914 style, in Zanzibar. One of the oddest casting decisions is Ian Holm as a loyal mute native!
The story has some appeal for looking at a time and location seldom visited by the cinema, but is hampered by vacillating wildy in tone - what starts as a light hearted buddy movie becomes something more grim as the war against Fleisher the German sadististic local officer becomes revenge, and ultimately climaxes in the battle on the German battleship.
The directing by Peter Hunt, who directed On Her Majestys Secret Service, has its own style, but has dated - and even then does not settle on side of farce or thriller. It is best however when skulking around and mounting tension in the final scenes. It is somewhat of an irony to see how Hunt would have directed Moore in a Bond movie! Hunt also pulled along another Bond veteran, John Glenn, who directed the action scenes for Hunt as second unit director and fulfills that role again here. He rightly went on as a successful director of Bond movies in his own right. Also present from Bond movie lore is Maurice Binder, who famously designed the titles for Bond movies - he performs the same function here albeit in more workmanlike fashion.
If you are thinking of buying - beware - the movie is washed out in colour, and sound is of low quality. Bizarrely, the German speaking scenes which were originally in English, have been dubbed into German - but not subtitled in English! Since many key scenes are in German, this is a near fatal flaw.
Basically it is a gung ho action movie with buddy movie elements, but is uneven in tone and lacking in clarity of vision, although illuminating an intriguing era in WW I history.

USA DVD EDITION???
This is one of Lee Marvin's best movies and it's a shame that it is only in a Region 2 format, what about us poor schmucks that live in the USA and need a Region 1 release, what are we "Chopped Liver"?