For over 35 years this film passed me by. I had heard of it but had never fancied watching it due to vaguely remembering negative reviews. Looking it up on wikipedia after I happened to catch it late one night on TV, I noted, with some amusement, that it triggered tedious lefty snowflakes like the Guardian and Stewart Lee who described it as "very rightwing" and "nasty". If only I knew what these reviewers thought earlier and I would have checked out this good film a long time ago.
I wonder what about WDW that so triggers them? Certainly it admires masculinity and admits that some situations can only be resolved through brutal violence. It also unequivocally casts the radical left as villains (and how many films can you say that about?) Lewis Collins, fresh from his stint in the equally manly and gritty 1970s British TV series The Professionals ( a series which, incidentally, like this film could never be made now in these politically correct times) puts in an excellent performance as the rugged hero. The way in which he inveigles himself with the radical female Leftist is rather contrived, but that is typical Hollywood stuff.
My only real criticism is that it lacks the final degree of Hollywood panache. It actually looks more like a TV movie (albeit a violent one) in some ways. The fight scenes are extremely realistic, brutal and short. There are none of the prolonged gun fights of more fantastical films, with glass shattering all around and the hero dancing through hails of bullets. I rather miss that. Here the villains all have their brains blown out in a couple of seconds. Particularly effective are the scenes involving Collins wife and child, where the SAS have to blow a hole in the Neighbours wall in order to break in.
This film was made with actual SAS advisors apparently, and it shows.
I wonder what about WDW that so triggers them? Certainly it admires masculinity and admits that some situations can only be resolved through brutal violence. It also unequivocally casts the radical left as villains (and how many films can you say that about?) Lewis Collins, fresh from his stint in the equally manly and gritty 1970s British TV series The Professionals ( a series which, incidentally, like this film could never be made now in these politically correct times) puts in an excellent performance as the rugged hero. The way in which he inveigles himself with the radical female Leftist is rather contrived, but that is typical Hollywood stuff.
My only real criticism is that it lacks the final degree of Hollywood panache. It actually looks more like a TV movie (albeit a violent one) in some ways. The fight scenes are extremely realistic, brutal and short. There are none of the prolonged gun fights of more fantastical films, with glass shattering all around and the hero dancing through hails of bullets. I rather miss that. Here the villains all have their brains blown out in a couple of seconds. Particularly effective are the scenes involving Collins wife and child, where the SAS have to blow a hole in the Neighbours wall in order to break in.
This film was made with actual SAS advisors apparently, and it shows.