January, 1945. A group of Allied Commandos from 'Force Z' (or 'Z-Men'), led by the young and less experienced, but with the highest patent, the Aussie Captain Paul Kelly (Mel Gibson) and his subordinates, Dutch Lieutenant Jan Veitch (John Phillip Law); Aussie Sergeant Danny Costello (Sam Neill); the British Able Seaman 'Sparrer' Bird (Chris Haywood) and the New Zealander, Sub Lt. Ted King (John Waters), are given the mission to rescue the dissident Minister of War from the Empire of Japan which holds strategic secrets that could end the Second World War in the Pacific.
The plane the Minister was travelling to Washington crashes in an Island of Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia, and this 'Z Special Unit' elite are the Allied Forces only hope, before he falls into the hands of the Japanese again...
Based on true facts, even if the mission's target is fictitious, one of the many covert missions that 'Force Z' carried predominantly on Borneo and the islands of the former Netherlands East Indies during the Second Great War, namely 'Operation Opossum', "Attack Force Z" is a low-budget 'men-on-a-mission' / war / drama, a co-production between Australia and Taiwan, filmed on location, and produced on the field by the veteran, Australia's most prolific filmmaker in the 50's, Lee Robinson.
Phillip Noyce, who wrote the first draft of the script and developed the film, was fired during pre-production due to constant clashes between the producers, including the hiring of the American B-movie star and 'pulp hero', John Phillip Law, from "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" ('66); "Barbarella" ('68) or "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" ('73), for the leading role of Veitch, and he was replaced by the lesser, Tim Burstall.
Even if competently filmed and strictly realistic in the Z-Force Commandos techniques and their rules of engagement in open combat, "Attack Force Z" have a feeling of a rushed production due to its delays during director's replacement and the stage of the action scenes, could have been better handled, sometimes it's too cheap looking, too confusing and defys logic and, even if they were short on budget, Noyce's own vision on the material and his capability on staging action sequences, it would have improved the overall film.
The movie opens with an explanation on the screen, about who this 'Z-Men' were and their exploits as specialists in reconnaissance, rescues and sabotage and was even signed by John R. Gardner, President of the Z Special Force Association of New South Wales. It looks like a serious / profound take on World War II Commando missions in the vein of "The Guns of Navarone" ('61) or "The Heroes of Telemark" ('65), but it's more 'straight to the action' beefcake war / adventure vehicle on the footsteps of "The Dirty Dozen" ('67) or "The Wild Geese" ('78), minus the humour. And that's one thing peculiar about "Attack Force Z" it lacks the humour and witty dialogues that this 'genre' requires, even the Navarone Elite Team had its sardonic member in David Niven's exchanges with the others, but here maybe the producers aspired to the 'big thing' hoping for a realistic, somber and 'artsy' film during wartime, but the budget, the re-writing and the direction didn't allowed it.
Talking about the screenplay, they cut off some development made prior by Noyce, who had enhanced the plot (he wanted to explore aspects of colonialism) and the characters which in this final product were just there, we needed to know more about the team and each of them individually.
The pacing is kind of uneven, and some scenes in the Second Act are worthless, maybe because the movie was heavily edited (or re-filmed) and the problems of continuity related to that are way more evident than reasonable.
The cast had in it two major rising stars that were still virtually unknown for audiences outside Australia, Mel Gibson and Sam Neill. Gibson was in the first "Mad Max" movie and did a couple of Aussie indie films, but he only became an international star after the release of "The Road Warrior" ('81), which was a huge success around the world, and Neill was still to perform the adult Damien Thorn in "Omen III - The Final Conflict" ('81). So, if this movie had been released theatrically after the new found success of its stars it could have been better received than the tepid box office return it had in Australia, but later become a hit on the VHS rental circuit.
The casting choice of John Phillip Law was one of the major disagreements between the original director Noyce and the producers, but in this case i stand with the producers, even if the material wasn't there, Law gave his best, giving a heart and soul to the movie with his likeable redeeming character.
Gibson is playing here the second fiddle to Law, even if the characters part ways during most of the film, and even if i absolutly adore him (he's one of my all time favorites), his performance here is just passable, kind of robotic and not at all charismatic, i can blame it on the underwritten character, but Gibson's heart wasn't there. He's playing the authoritative, almost insufferable Official and he's upstaged everytime Sam Neill's coolness hits the screen. Just check how Neill handled his machine gun in combat and put it to rest afterwards.
The Aussie stars, Chris Haywood, as the 4th billed, loudmouth, half-Scottish radio operator and John Waters, in a thankless role (he's killed whitin less than 10 minutes of screentime, due to his role being shortened when Burstall came aboard), completes the main cast. Thai actress Sylvia Chang playing a native and Veitch's love interest and Chun-Hsiung Ko playing her father, the Resistence leader, they make a good impression.
In short, "Attack Force Z" have some flaws, but despite that, it's a strangely rewatchable obscure little Aussie flick that deserves better.
I give it a 7.5 !!
Based on true facts, even if the mission's target is fictitious, one of the many covert missions that 'Force Z' carried predominantly on Borneo and the islands of the former Netherlands East Indies during the Second Great War, namely 'Operation Opossum', "Attack Force Z" is a low-budget 'men-on-a-mission' / war / drama, a co-production between Australia and Taiwan, filmed on location, and produced on the field by the veteran, Australia's most prolific filmmaker in the 50's, Lee Robinson.
Phillip Noyce, who wrote the first draft of the script and developed the film, was fired during pre-production due to constant clashes between the producers, including the hiring of the American B-movie star and 'pulp hero', John Phillip Law, from "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" ('66); "Barbarella" ('68) or "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad" ('73), for the leading role of Veitch, and he was replaced by the lesser, Tim Burstall.
Even if competently filmed and strictly realistic in the Z-Force Commandos techniques and their rules of engagement in open combat, "Attack Force Z" have a feeling of a rushed production due to its delays during director's replacement and the stage of the action scenes, could have been better handled, sometimes it's too cheap looking, too confusing and defys logic and, even if they were short on budget, Noyce's own vision on the material and his capability on staging action sequences, it would have improved the overall film.
The movie opens with an explanation on the screen, about who this 'Z-Men' were and their exploits as specialists in reconnaissance, rescues and sabotage and was even signed by John R. Gardner, President of the Z Special Force Association of New South Wales. It looks like a serious / profound take on World War II Commando missions in the vein of "The Guns of Navarone" ('61) or "The Heroes of Telemark" ('65), but it's more 'straight to the action' beefcake war / adventure vehicle on the footsteps of "The Dirty Dozen" ('67) or "The Wild Geese" ('78), minus the humour. And that's one thing peculiar about "Attack Force Z" it lacks the humour and witty dialogues that this 'genre' requires, even the Navarone Elite Team had its sardonic member in David Niven's exchanges with the others, but here maybe the producers aspired to the 'big thing' hoping for a realistic, somber and 'artsy' film during wartime, but the budget, the re-writing and the direction didn't allowed it.
Talking about the screenplay, they cut off some development made prior by Noyce, who had enhanced the plot (he wanted to explore aspects of colonialism) and the characters which in this final product were just there, we needed to know more about the team and each of them individually.
The pacing is kind of uneven, and some scenes in the Second Act are worthless, maybe because the movie was heavily edited (or re-filmed) and the problems of continuity related to that are way more evident than reasonable.
The cast had in it two major rising stars that were still virtually unknown for audiences outside Australia, Mel Gibson and Sam Neill. Gibson was in the first "Mad Max" movie and did a couple of Aussie indie films, but he only became an international star after the release of "The Road Warrior" ('81), which was a huge success around the world, and Neill was still to perform the adult Damien Thorn in "Omen III - The Final Conflict" ('81). So, if this movie had been released theatrically after the new found success of its stars it could have been better received than the tepid box office return it had in Australia, but later become a hit on the VHS rental circuit.
The casting choice of John Phillip Law was one of the major disagreements between the original director Noyce and the producers, but in this case i stand with the producers, even if the material wasn't there, Law gave his best, giving a heart and soul to the movie with his likeable redeeming character.
Gibson is playing here the second fiddle to Law, even if the characters part ways during most of the film, and even if i absolutly adore him (he's one of my all time favorites), his performance here is just passable, kind of robotic and not at all charismatic, i can blame it on the underwritten character, but Gibson's heart wasn't there. He's playing the authoritative, almost insufferable Official and he's upstaged everytime Sam Neill's coolness hits the screen. Just check how Neill handled his machine gun in combat and put it to rest afterwards.
The Aussie stars, Chris Haywood, as the 4th billed, loudmouth, half-Scottish radio operator and John Waters, in a thankless role (he's killed whitin less than 10 minutes of screentime, due to his role being shortened when Burstall came aboard), completes the main cast. Thai actress Sylvia Chang playing a native and Veitch's love interest and Chun-Hsiung Ko playing her father, the Resistence leader, they make a good impression.
In short, "Attack Force Z" have some flaws, but despite that, it's a strangely rewatchable obscure little Aussie flick that deserves better.
I give it a 7.5 !!