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Movie Review | Commando Leopard (Margheriti, 1985)

I spoil a key plot point that most of the other reviews I've read have spoiled as well. You can skip past the disclaimers if you want to go in blind.

This is very much in the same vein as Code Name: Wild Geese, and probably plays as a remix of sorts: characters running around the jungle and shooting the place up, handsome widescreen cinematography, handful of recognizable actors including some returning cast members shuffled to different roles, and great miniature-assisted set pieces. I found it a little less fun as the pacing isn't as tight, but it offers the same pleasures. In terms of the performances, I particularly liked Manfred Lehmann, returning from the other movie but this time playing a priest who joins up with the heroes, as well as John Steiner as a mercenary hired by the heroes whose loyalty is very briefly brought into question. To be honest, Steiner isn't the first actor I'd think to cast in an action movie, as his vibe is less "experienced soldier of fortune" and more "guy who dies of dysentery after spending five minutes in the jungle", but he's pretty good in the role. You also get Klaus Kinski once again looking sweaty and firing a machine gun, this time talking in his actual accent instead of the weird British one he was saddled with in the last movie. He looks like he gets pretty close to some of the explosions, and if Antonio Margheriti's experience with the guy was the same as everybody else's, well... let us not speculate what he might have hoped for.

The other thing that makes it stand out is that the politics are probably more left wing than these things usually get, as we're rooting for rebels waging a guerilla war against what's implied to be a right wing dictatorship, with maybe a bit more complexity than you'd get in these kinds of things.

***SPOILERS***

There's a pretty tense stretch where you have the characters deliberating and then trying to execute a plan to shoot down an airliner that the president might be on board. Depending on how charitable you're feeling, you can call this either cynical or honest, but it does force you at least for a bit to grapple with the unsavoury tactics that might be employed in the service of a sympathetic cause.

***END OF SPOILERS***

That being said, the relative earnestness with which it treats the rebels combined with the slacker pacing mean that this is less fun than the other movie, especially when you get to the embarassingly schmaltzy song at the end. But there's enough to enjoy if you like jungle shoot 'em ups.

#film #movie review #commando leopard #antonio margheriti