The Wild Geese has a horrible title song, but then as I watched the credits I saw that it had production design by Syd Cain, and its opening title sequence was done by Maurice Binder. It also has a very impressive leading cast, Richard Burton, Richard Harris and Roger Moore. Not bad.

And while the storyline isn’t as gray-shaded as it could be, it was pretty solidly done.

Colonel Faulkner (Burton), persona non grata in England, is smuggled into the country to meet with a banker and financier, Edward Matheson (Stewart Granger). He is propositioned with a mission, and a hefty payday, to get into an African country and rescue former President Limbani (Winston Ntshona), who is being imprisoned by the dictator who now rules.

Matheson wants Limbani, a virtuous and strong leader reinstated so that he can negotiate a mining rights contract. So, y’know, greed.

Faulkner agrees but only if he can pick his own team, which includes Rafer (Harris), who can plan the whole thing, and Sam Flynn (Moore) a former officer now working as an underworld courier. In short, they are mercenaries. Rafer, as a father, has the strongest moral code, and while they can all use the money, they also want something that can invigorate their later years with a little excitement.

They are all of an age, which gives the characters some weight and gravitas as they go about laying out a plan of action. They bring their group together, and a small army of men who they have previously served with, and they put their plan into action.

But there are betrayals, and things go sideways very quickly, they are able to rescue Limbani, but then are in a run-and-gun as they try to get out of the country safely with their charge.

The action beats for the time, I’m sure, were pretty solid, now they don’t seem as impressive, and the story is almost a little too black and white, and while age is seen and mentioned a number of times throughout the film, it’s not really explored as a theme, especially in terms of service and ego.

There is an examination of racism, and though apartheid isn’t mentioned by name it’s there as seen in interactions between Limbani and Coetzee (Hardy Kruger), a white South African.

The Wild Geese, once you can’t past that horrific song, is a fairly entertaining film and its cast works to its benefit, but it wasn’t as good as it could have been, and is worthy of re-examination in a darker, and grittier update.