Today, Matt & Todd cover 1978's The Wild Geese, directed by Andrew V. McLaglen and starring Richard Burton, Richard Harris, and Roger Moore.

If you've seen "The Wild Geese," you understand where we're coming from. If you've made assumptions about how this movie might handle apartheid-era politics, don't—because it didn't think too hard about it. The movie reflects that in nearly every character, why they're there, and what they're doing. This is not a message film, nor a political one. We appreciate the sense of honesty the film has about what it is doing and why.

The movie remains controversial for filming within South Africa during a time of heightening pressure against the oppressive regime, causing early bad publicity towards the film and outright bans in several countries.

On the surface, "The Wild Geese" is a straightforward action-adventure starring a cast of older stars whose characters are looking for profit and adventure. It is fair to point out the film for not getting into the socio-political problems it references, or the real-life mission it was inspired by. While forming that criticism, we think it is important to remember: It is a film made by one of the most mercenary operations in existence—filmmaking and exploiting something for entertainment without thinking too hard about it. We feel it handles the subject matter about as well as could be. If nothing else this film sticks to the clear motivations of the main characters with glints of humanity that may not be the best developed, but these are pretty single-minded lads by nature.

If you're an action fan, this should entertain you; it is thrilling, tense, and dramatic in just the right places.

You can also check out two critics we respect saying the exact opposite:

Roger Ebert - ("...dumb movie...", "...stay away...") and Gene Siskel - ("dull", "Dog of the Year")

Ebert's opening line about the cast is objectively funny.

We didn't watch this review before recording ours, and I can only imagine what they would have thought us.

As always, thank you for listening, and Happy New Year!

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