The Wild Geese (Severin Films)

[Mykol Gantt]

THE WILD GEESE To Fly Again On Blu-Ray


Severin will be releasing the mercenary soldier epic THE WILD GEESE, starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore and Richard Harris, as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo. The new high definition transfer from the original negative is complete and some very special exclusive new extras are being produced.


Last week veteran director Andrew V. MacLaglen, one of the few directors to have the distinction of working with both John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, sat down for a lengthy interview about the production of the film.


Richard Burton’s character Colonel Faulkner was apparently based on perhaps the world’s most famous mercenary Mike Hoare, also known as Mad Mike Hoare or the Mad Bloodhound. Hoare (now 92, the same age as MacLaglen incidentally) retired to South Africa some years ago after writing a number of books focusing on his military exploits. He has only very rarely given interviews but agreed to talk to us for this Special Edition of THE WILD GEESE wherein he discussed his incomparable career and his involvement in the movie as military advisor.


More details to follow on the ultimate edition of THE WILD GEESE.

http://www.severin-films.com/2012/01...in-on-blu-ray/

We'll see how this stacks up against Arrow's forthcoming UK edition.

[oildude]

YES!!!

This is fantastic news. Finally, The Wild Geese, one of the best secret ops action movies ever made. Stellar cast, great story. I have been wanting this on blu-ray for years and it is always near the top of my wish list!

I just hope they give it a proper transfer, since it has never really looked all that good on DVD. Even upscaled on my blu-ray player, the DVD is washed out, soft, and lacking detail.

Richard Burton is great. Roger Moore, who was making his Bond films at this time, is also quite good, and he doesn't play it campy, just cool and mean. And Richard Harris gives a strong performance too, one of the finest I have ever seen him in. Also stars Hardy Krueger (who played the German panzer commander in A Bridge Too Far), along with many familiar actors from 1970s British cinema.

Just an all around top notch classic film about a group of aging mercenaries brought together to perform a rescue of an African politician held in a remote camp after a coup. If you like The Dirty Dozen and Tears of the Sun, you will like this.

[jawsfan1975]

This is excellent news! I was getting ready to buy the import from the UK. Hopefully it will get a proper transfer with DTS HD sound too. This was one of the great British action action films of the late 70's. I still watch my dvd frequently.

[punking]

I know it's a little point, but the cover on the US version is better than the UK one. The use of the poster art is great.

[stephenwilson04]

Originally Posted by punking

I know it's a little point, but the cover on the US version is better than the UK one. The use of the poster art is great.

Is a little point.....but the UK release will have 4 artwork options. Including the one fearured on the Severin disc.

[Variable_Star]

Originally Posted by stephenwilson04

Is a little point.....but the UK release will have 4 artwork options. Including the one fearured on the Severin disc.

Where did you get that information? Any shots of the covers yet?

[stephenwilson04]

Originally Posted by Variable_Star

Where did you get that information? Any shots of the covers yet?

I'm a mod on the cult labs forum and all Arrow blu-rays have 4 choices of artwork you can display. No shots of the other art yet for The Wild Geese, but since Arrow's previous dvd featured the same art as Severin, and there's not too many different covers out there, I'm confident that art will make an appearance.

[kastas]

Great news! I remember reading the comic book about the film way back in 78 or 79. This will be a great add for my Bluray collection!

[The Driver]

http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/index.ph...&tle_id=589&v=



cinemaretro.com

I don't have fond memories of this movie but I'll take a look at the Blu-ray.

[DrrnHarr]

I'm working on a custom cover, just waiting on the Special Features listing:

[jawsfan1975]

Any update when this is coming out in the US?

[Trekkie313]

YES!

Hope we get some good extras and subtitles!

[movieman1979]

FInally watched this last week. Great, GREAT action movie with characters you actually care about (making the demises of a few of them all that more bitter). My own real qualm with the film was the cheesy 70's song which opened and closed the movie. But, Richard Harris was brilliant, Richard Burton was awesome and i dare say I even enjoyed Roger Moore! I will pick this up without hesitation when it comes out on blu.

[NoirFan]

What happened to Severin? They haven't released anything since Horror Express last November.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

What happened to Severin? They haven't released anything since Horror Express last November.

It looks like they may be going out business, as a big chunk of their catalog, including all of their Blu-rays except Horror Express, has just been discontinued.

[MikeyHitchFan]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

It looks like they may be going out business, as a big chunk of their catalog, including all of their Blu-rays except Horror Express, has just been discontinued.

Looks like I'll have to import the Region B - whenever it gets released. It's been delayed a few times already.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Geese-B...4806815&sr=1-2

[Akijama]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

It looks like they may be going out business, as a big chunk of their catalog, including all of their Blu-rays except Horror Express, has just been discontinued.

Severin is very much alive.They recently stated on Second Sight's FB page (weird,right?) that they will be back on track very soon,with promised The Wild Geese and Zulu Dawn.

[Nighteyes]

Originally Posted by Akijama

Severin is very much alive.They recently stated on Second Sight's FB page (weird,right?) that they will be back on track very soon,with promised The Wild Geese and Zulu Dawn.

In the meantime, they haven't shown up at their own FB page for like 6 weeks. Why would pretty much all of their Blu-ray releases go OOP, all at once and just like that? I dunno really, looks very peculiar to me ...

[budious]

Bummer, I still need to pick up Hardware and The Inglorious Bastards, but the latter has been overpriced forever if could find it. I thought it was already out of print for some time.

Edit: Noticed that The Inglorious Bastards was going for $7.99 at bestbuy.com so dropped an order for it. Amazon or anywhere else it's usually over $30.

[NoirFan]

Originally Posted by Nighteyes

In the meantime, they haven't shown up at their own FB page for like 6 weeks. Why would pretty much all of their Blu-ray releases go OOP, all at once and just like that? I dunno really, looks very peculiar to me ...

They also haven't been paying attention to their own site, as the security certificate for their store link expired on April 28th.