behind the stunts - the wild geese
DESCRIPTION
A look at the action sequences on the 1978 British war epic starring Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Kruger.TRANSCRIPT
For me it has been and always will be a classic British war film. Wonderful cast, huge
amounts of top quality action, supervised by the legendary Bob Simmons. It stands the test
of time and the story of the action scenes deserves to be told.
A British businessman, Stewart Grainger, seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central
Africa. He hires a band of mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous
but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when
the team has performed a perfect rescue, Grainger does a deal with the vicious dictator
leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.
Roger Moore plays Shawn Fynn a smooth, Irish mercenary….yes Roger Moore plays an
Irishman! I know… still moving on. He has just killed the local Mafia Godfathers nephew
and the biggest contract London has ever seen has been put out on him. He is hiding out
above a casino when the heavy mob arrives.
Quite a bunch they are too. Here we see five of the country’s top stuntmen. Left to Right:
Terry Richards, Eddie Eddon, George Leech, B.H.Barry and Tim Condren all looking down
because Richard Harris has just thrown a grenade onto the floor. It goes off killing two and
causing the rest to run from the establishment with their tails still between their legs.
As the song says “You will always find him in the kitchen at parties”, wearing his and hers
raincoats these two stuntmen discuss the mission ahead. On the left is Clive Curtis and he
is talking to Greg Powell on the right. Incidentally this proved to be a very interesting
picture for Clive who was the only black stuntman on the Equity Stunt Register at the time
of filming. As the movie goes on it becomes clear that black stunt performers will be in
high demand in this business.
Greg Powell & George Cooper on
the training ground in Tschepisi,
South Africa.
So the rescue is on and the troops take their place in the cargo plane ready for a night
time parachute jump. On the right of the picture is stuntman George Cooper, easily
recognisable with his distinctive moustache. Just behind him is Greg Powell. Also aboard is
Rocky Taylor who makes it down safely and prepares to regroup after landing. Seen here
in the middle of the shot.
So the first assault is on the perimeter fence and relies on a silent approach. Hardy Kruger
plays South African Pieter Coetze whose weapon of choice is the crossbow. This allows him
to take out the guards manning the watch towers without causing unnecessary alarm.
Clive Curtis performs the high part of the fall into a box rig after being picked off by the
crossbow. In order to allow the scene to work the actor playing the guard must now sell
the close up. Sadly he starts by standing in shot, showing the audience that he is going to
fall onto the ground from a standing position. At least Clive sold the high part of the fall
for him.
Clive Curtis, seen here on the left, as a guard attempting to prevent the opposition
leader, Julius Limbani, from leaving the prison wing of the camp. Martin Grace also takes
a brief cameo as an East German guard. His role is cut short by the very man he doubled
on a regular basis Roger Moore.
Martin has to negotiate the railing in order to make the landing area. Starting a gate vault,
Martin pushes against the railing in order to get as much clearance from the wall as he
can.
Stage 3 of Twickenham Studios becomes the interior for this next action set piece. Inside
the bar. Now as I mentioned earlier Clive Curtis was the only black stuntman on the Equity
register back in 1978 and this production called for many black actors and extras to be
used. This scene calls for 17 guards to be caught up in the middle of the attack, involving
a grenade and machine gun fire. Nine of these guards are extras the other eight are
stuntmen and only one is black.
Greg Powell can be seen wearing a heavy duty back pad as he is required to be hit by
flying furniture during this sequence.
Ironically George Cooper is then spotted in the doorway with the other mercenaries killing
himself! Funny old game the movie business isn’t it?
Rocky Taylor
Jazzer Jeyes Greg Powell Clive Curtis George Cooper
Martin Grace
Chris Webb Tim Condren
“That was LUDICROUS, sir. You're jumping from
an aeroplane, not a whorehouse window. Do it
again”.
Kit West, the special effects supervisor, started life in the film business under the
supervision of Les Bowie who was responsible for sfx on the Hammer films of the fifties
and sixties. One such invention of Les Bowies was the fire jacket. A suit jacket that had a
ring stitched into the lining. This ring could be lit for a stunt and allowed the stuntman to
have complete control over his performance.
Filming a fire sequence for The Wild Geese in Northern Transvaal (Limpopo province) on
the border of Zimbabwe, one of the driest regions in Africa would prove very demanding
for the stunt team, but it was one of the most memorable sequences in the film.
A plane fitted with high powered machine guns and a bomb heads towards the convoy of
military trucks. A mechanical fault has caused one to stop on the bridge making it an easy
target. The plane flies past and opens fire. George Cooper is in the thick of the action.
Then the plane makes another pass and drops its bomb. It scoots across the dry river bed
and explodes underneath the bridge.
Two soldiers are now set alight from this explosion. Greg Powell told me that the
conditions were not favourable for a fire ‘gag’. 108 degree heat and a limited water
supply were far from ideal. Greg and George Cooper were selected by Bob Simmons to
perform the stunt. One of them would have to fall from the bridge into a box rig
positioned out of camera shot. George Cooper performed the fall and was asked by
Simmons to get out of the landing rig as fast as possible….it might set alight too! Greg told
me that two buckets of water had been placed out of camera shot, one to extinguish
George and the other for him to stand in when he’d finished. The heat from the ground
coupled with that of the fire had caused the army issue boots to melt!
Note that the back of the camouflage jackets are ridged. The flammable ring is sewn into
the jacket and only the top half of George and the bottom half of Greg is a blaze.
Scenes in which someone is actually set on fire are among the most dangerous ever
filmed. The stuntman wears several layers of protective clothing, including fire-resistant
materials like asbestos. Special gloves and a hood cover the hands and head. In most burn
scenes, the hood is clearly evident, though its appearance can be minimized by good
editing. Inside the hood is a small breathing apparatus connected to a small oxygen tank.
The performer is then coated in a specially prepared flammable gel. All of these would
have been standard precautions taken when dealing with fire. On location for The Wild
Geese they had fire retardant gel to stop the stunt performer’s skin blistering, wet
blankets and buckets of water. Heath Robinson eat your heart out!
Greg Powell
George Cooper
After the initial screening the censor asked producers to remove to shots of burning
soldiers inside the bombed van. These soldiers were dummies, but still the scene was too
graphic for some audiences.
Now all of us who enjoy the action movie are very familiar with what happens when a
grenade is thrown into the path of a bunch of charging attackers. Firstly we see the
explosion, then we see one or two villains flying through the air with the fireball behind
them, then we see them hit the ground. Well none of this would have been possible
without Bob Simmons who is responsible for giving the audience this perspective. Much
more than just a coordinator, Bob saw action scenes as a fan and would craft his scenes to
give the maximum input to the paying public. The trampoline explosion is one such twist
on the action flick. A full size trampoline is positioned in the foreground and the stuntman
will make a series of bounces to get him to the right height without bouncing out of shot.
On ‘Action’ the special effects team will set off the explosion, in the background, and
time this to the stuntman’s bounce. If everything goes according to plan you get
something like the two shots above. Here we see Martin Grace being blown up. All the
trampoline explosion sequences for this film were shot in slow motion which allows a
beauty and grace to the whole thing.
Here in another selection of trampoline explosions from the film we see Jazzer Jeyes and
Rocky Taylor in the top three pictures and Martin Grace again in the bottom three.
Clive Curtis appears once again as a Simba soldier with a very nasty looking blade in his
hand about to give dear Witty a very permanent divorce. Good job he’d written a will.
Leaving everything to the dearest, kindest proctologist in the whole wide world.
In this next sequence we see Greg Powell doubling a Simba soldier being blown up. No
trampoline or mini tramp here. This is Greg launching himself into the undergrowth.
It would be right and fitting to give the last word to Bob Simmons who appears briefly in
the film as a pilot over powered by Roger Moore and his men. Bob also doubled for Richard
Burton during the scenes where Limbani is carried through the jungle. Martin Grace took
over doubling Burton and Hardy Kruger for these scenes when Bob was needed elsewhere.
Bob had worked on Paper Tiger for producer Euan Lloyd back in 1975 and they had agreed
over a few drinks and a hand or two of poker to continue working together regardless of
other commitments.
Bob said that working and doubling for Richard Burton was a great thrill and that visiting
all these exotic locations was far better than any real job. He was a man of great ambition
and style, but underneath it all just like you and me a real fan of movies and he made sure
that the viewer got every penny of the entrance fee in pure excitement.
Flight Of The Wild Geese
Sad are the eyes
Yet no tears
The flight of the wild geese
Brings a new hope
Rescued from all this
Old friends
And those newly found
What chance to make it last
When there's danger all
around
And reason just ups and
disappears
Time is running out
So much to be done
Tell me what more
What more
What more can we do.
There were promises made
Plans firmly laid
Now madness prevails
And lies fill the air.
What more, Oh
What more
What more can we do.
What chance to make it last
What more
What more can we do.
Dedicated to those stunt
performers no longer with us
George Cooper 1945 - 2006
Bob Simmons 1933 - 1987
Martin Grace 1942 - 2010
Eddie Eddon 1935 - 1999
Tim Condren 1927 - 2006
The Wild Geese
Stunt Arranger – Bob Simmons
Credited Stunts – Tim Condren, George Cooper, Clive Curtis, Eddie
Eddon, Martin Grace, Jazzer Jeyes, George Leech, Greg Powell and
Rocky Taylor
Uncredited Stunts – Chris Webb, Richard Graydon, B.H Barry and
Terry Richards
“Thirty men in the valley of the shadow, and he wants to take over
an entire country”!