Attack Force Z

I presume that this movie was meant to be a tribute for the Australasian special forces operating in WW2. Now, I've no doubt that they were totally professional and highly trained individuals, I just don't think this movie did them too many favours. They made so many tactical errors and decisions based on emotion that I'm quite sure in real life, thy wouldn't have made. Individuals leaving their unit as they'd fallen for a girl! Sorry, but it just wouldn't have happened with so much at stake. On the positive side, this had a great cast and terrific authentic locations. The action sequences were well done and the torture scenes particularly harrowing. But at the end of the movie, I just sat there thinking, what were they really fighting for and was it all necessary? So many lives taken without a second thought and for what? Not a classic, but thought provoking which in my book, is never bad.

ATTACK FORCE Z is the only Aussie war movie I've seen yet besides RETURN FROM THE RIVER KWAI. It's fast-paced, fun, cheesy and plenty entertaining.

Jon Phillip Law (DEATH RIDES A HORSE) stars as an Allied commando who leads 4 international commandos to rescue a Japanese defector from a Japanese-infested island in the Pacific.

The movie features a lot of familiar plot elements, and strongly resembles the earlier American features AMBUSH BAY and BEACHHEAD. Only here, the movie is based on fact; a similar mission involving the "Z" Special Forces team was actually undertaken in the Pacific. The cast features a lot of young actors who were unknown at the time, including Mel Gibson (WE WERE SOLDIERS) as the team leader and Sam Neill as the radio operator.

The movie is obviously pretty low budget, as the action scenes involve few extras and are mostly skirmishes between the 5 commandos and Japanese patrols. There's some great martial arts action as a Chinese commando judo-chops dozens of Japanese soldiers to their deaths. The final battle scene, in which a handful of Chinese resistance fighters hold off at least a few dozen Japanese soldiers with shotguns is corny, as the Japanese always charge right into oncoming fire and never attempt a flanking movement. One resistance fighter stands in the alley blasting away with a shotgun, only dying once he's taken 6+ direct hits and grenade fragments. The Japanese soldiers look and act like idiots and use American machineguns, and the Aussies have M3 machine-pistols with silencers that never run out of ammo and never miss -- but what the heck, it's pretty entertaining and logic-free entertainment.

The musical score is great patriotic stuff by Eric Jupp, and the cinematography is pretty stunning. The Taiwanese crew does a great job with the little budget they had.

The version shown on TNT and TBS once in a very great while is of good quality. Unfortunately, there were some scenes in Japanese and others in Chinese which lacked subtitles. The closed captions weren't much help either as they read, "Speaking in Oriental Language". I haven't seen the NTSC video yet because it's far too expensive for my taste.

All in all, this really isn't the best war film out there. The action scenes bring the worst excesses to WINDTALKERS to mind as they're excellently photographed by defy all logic known to man. Still, the pace is fast, the characters good and the scenery is stunning. I give this a 6/10.

Better than average Aussie "B" feature, where the producers have certainly gained maximum bang for their buck in more ways than one.

Let's be clear from the outset. This is a fictional story, supposedly based on the real life exploits of the Z force. The high body count pretty much attests to that. But high body counts do mean there is action and I have to admit some surprise as to how well director Tim Burstall, not really known for action films, choreographs the action sequences in this movie, bearing in mind that the budget he was working with was minimal. Still he cleverly manages to include realistically; a submarine, an exploding plane, fire - fights, martial arts and a climactic battle (of sorts). Attack Force Z may be many things, but it can't be accused of being dull.

Burstall even manages to throw in a couple of unexpected twists. One of the supporting cast members who was (and arguably still is) a very well-known Australian actor of the 70's and 80's, plays a character who barely has 5 minutes of screen time before suffering a probable unforeseen fate.

A bonus of course is we get to see both Mel Gibson (complete with Aussie accent) and Sam Neill playing together in pre-Hollywood fame roles. Gibson is the mission leader and Neill is effectively his trusty sidekick. I have to also say John Phillip Law plays the (token) American-Dutch, mandarin-speaking (LOL) character very competently.

The story itself too is quite interesting with its variation on the war against the Japanese in the Pacific, by this time, strongly highlighting the involvement of the ethnic Chinese.

I was pleasantly surprised with this film, as I'm sure others will be too.

When the Japanese invaded the area of the Western Pacific in 1941-42, their occupation was a harsh one. The people native to the areas were brutally treated and often killed for minor transgressions. Due to the wide area occupied by the Japanese and the difficulty of mounting large scale amphibious operations, the Allied forces formed a set of small commando teams that would engage in quick strikes against high value targets. This overall unit was called Z Special Unit and was primarily made up from Australian and New Zealand volunteers. During the war, small teams from this unit engaged in some very successful raids, particularly against Japanese shipping docked at Singapore harbor. The rate of survivability of the members of a mission was very low, it was not unreasonable to consider them suicide missions. This movie features a team of five members of the Z Special Unit going ashore from a submarine in order to find what may be survivors of the crash of an Allied airplane. Only the commander knows all of what they are there for and there is a significant Japanese presence on the land. After some fighting and with assistance from the non-Japanese locals, the team discovers that there were survivors of the crash and the viewer learns why they are considered so valuable. While there are some incredulous moments in the action, it is generally realistic. By this, the end results are a questionable outcome with deaths among the members of the Z Special Unit. The Japanese are depicted as being brutal in pursuit of their goals. There are no super soldier moments, they are all depicted as no more than well trained soldiers. It is a good movie and while a work of fiction, it could and likely did happen.

Continuing my plan to watch every Mel Gibson movie in order I come to Attack Force Z from 1981.

Plot In A Paragraph: A group of commandos go on a secret mission to check for survivors of a plane crash.

By the numbers, cliché ridden, dull, flat and instantly forgettable. There are some good individual performances, but the film, though produced with efficiency and what looks like a decent budget, is tough to say great things about this movie.

It probably wasn't helped by my DVD having a poor transfer. I'd go so far as to say if Mel Gibson and Sam Neil weren't in this movie it probably would have even had a DVD released.