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Killer Force
(a.k.a. The Diamond Mercenaries)
(1976)

Director: Val Guest
Cast:
Telly Savalas, Peter Fonda, Hugh O'Brian, Christopher Lee


It's no surprise that most American movies choose to shoot primarily or completely in Hollywood and Los Angeles. The weather always seems to be good, all the major studios and production companies have offices in the area, and other resources are easy to track down and use. But sometimes a Hollywood movie chooses to shoot somewhere else for one or more reasons. One popular area that Hollywood movie producers sometimes choose when shooting in the Los Angeles area would not be a perfect fit is Vancouver. You might wonder why so many Hollywood productions shoot in the Vancouver area, and the answer comes with several reason. The first and most obvious reason is to save money. Hiring a film crew, buying supplies, and other necessities all have much lower costs in Vancouver than in Hollywood. Even better, it's often possible for Hollywood productions to qualify for tax incentives (usually on condition of hiring enough Canadian talent) to save even more money. Another reason why Vancouver is attractive is that local film crews and other behind the scenes figures have a strong reputation of being very professional. A fourth reason Vancouver is an ideal location is that almost every environment you can think of is in the general area. There is urban Vancouver, there are forests and the ocean nearby, and there are even some areas that can be passed off as Southern California if you are willing to drive several hours out of the city. A fifth reason is that Vancouver (and the rest of Canada) for the most part has somewhat of a notoriety of being laid-back and less star-struck. Directors can find it easier to make movies to their personal visions since the studios aren't right at their backs, and famous actors are less pestered by the population whenever they leave the set and walk on the city streets.

Perhaps due to the success of Vancouver attracting millions of dollars every year thanks to American movie productions going there, other places outside of Hollywood have been inspired to open their doors and invite movies to be filmed there. For example, the city of Atlanta in the American state of Georgia has had a boom with movies shooting there thanks to tax incentives. And in eastern Europe, the country of Bulgaria has attracted many foreign film projects also due to it being cheaper to film there. It's quite often cheaper to film in foreign countries, but even when that's been true, there may be some sort of obstacle that all the same discourages Hollywood from coming. That was true for a long time in the country of South Africa. While it has always been cheap to film there, and there were other incentives like exotic locations, there was one obstacle that usually got in the way, and that was the era of apartheid. American movie studios (and studios from other countries) for the most part didn't want to risk being seen as supporting a racist regime, and this was also felt by many famous actors. Michael Caine once said that when he went to South Africa to star in Zulu, he at first had no preconceived notions of the country's politics and racial policies, but by the end of the shoot he had seen so much racism that he swore he would never return to the country until they had changed things for the better. Later, Michael Dudikoff was sent to South Africa several times so that Cannon movies like American Ninja 2 could be filmed there, but by the time American Ninja 4 was to be made, he had also seen so much in the country he didn't like, his grown clout and Cannon's much reduced power forced the studio to film his scenes in the more friendly country of Lesotho.

But actors are not the only people to have objected to filming in apartheid South Africa. I have to admit that every time I sit down to watch a movie that was filmed in South Africa by South Africans or outsiders while apartheid was in full swing, there is part of me that makes me a little Killer Forcehesitant at first. It makes me wonder if by watching the movie I might be supporting movies made by hostile governments. Still, I have managed in the end to enjoy several movies shot in South African during apartheid such as Kill And Kill Again and Survivor. When I got a copy of Killer Force - which was shot in apartheid South Africa (as well as Namibia, which was controlled by South Africa at the time of filming) - I did my best to prepare myself for seeing the movie as entertainment instead of being offensive to me, like what I had to do with those two other movies I mentioned. Set in South Africa, the events of Killer Force center around the Syndicated Diamond Corporation deep in the desert, a corporation that is involved with mining diamonds. Security is run in part by a man named Harry Webb (Telly Savalas, Backfire!), and right under him is a security officer named Mike Bradley (Peter Fonda, Race With The Devil), and not long into the movie we learn that both men are struggling with what seems to be attempts by outsiders to steal diamonds from the mine. Mike eventually makes a secret plan with the corporation's head of security to pretend he's become a thief in an attempt to draw out whoever is behind the scheme to steal from the mine. Not telling Harry, Mike "steals" from the mine and flees Harry's attempts to catch him. Shortly afterwards, Mike is contacted by the chief criminal planning to rob the mine, a man named John Lewis (Hugh O'Brian, Twins). The two men agree to work together to rob the mine with the assistance of Lewis' mercenaries, two of whom are played by O.J. Simpson (The Klansman) and Christopher Lee (House Of The Long Shadows). But if you've seen your share of caper and secret identity movies, you no doubt have guessed that there are bound to be complications during the actual robbery...

I think it's safe to say that when it comes to movies concerning robberies at established institutes, diamonds have very often been the target of the robbers. So I was kind of expecting Killer Force might just go through familiar plot developments when it focused on its diamond caper. Unfortunately, my low expectations were not all that dashed. The only part of the caper that at least partially caught my interest were some of the security measures the diamond corporation were using to deter thieves. For example, around the diamond headquarters was a barrier that could detect metal; that obstacle did mange to make me wonder how it would be overcome. However, I found it very hard to swallow one of the security devices on the diamond vault which was (get this) nerve gas. The more you think about that, the dumber the idea becomes. Actually, it was one of the script details that at least interested me; every other plot detail is predictable and/or badly written out. We learn very little about the diamond corporation, for one thing. Various plot turns will be anticipated by just about everyone in the audience. Can you guess what eventually happens to the corporation's head of security not long after Mike goes undercover? If not, let me make clear that only the head of security know that Mike is undercover... oh, you guessed it? Also, since these type of caper movies almost always seem to have some sort of twist near or at the very end, the impact of the twist near the end of this particular caper is muted because not only will you know it's coming, you will also likely have some sort of idea as to what it will be.

Jumping back towards the first part of Killer Force, there are additional plotting weaknesses to be found. For example, believe it or not, the diamond heist isn't really plotted out before it happens; almost all of it is revealed step by step to the other members of the robbery gang seconds before it happens. (There is an excuse for this mentioned, but it's so lame that I don't want to get into it.) Before the robbery is actually put into motion, viewers will also have to sit through some really slow plotting, such as the fact that Mike does not go on the run until more than a third of the movie has gone by. The plot unfolds in such a dull and boring manner that it almost manages to make the actual diamond heist look exciting in comparison. Which brings me to another misstep of the movie, its unsatisfying direction. Director Val Guest (The Quatermass Experiment) doesn't show all that much enthusiasm behind the camera. He does produce some nice photography, mainly shots of the South African/Namibia desert. And any director who knows that the view through binoculars shows an image in one circle instead of two circles connected must have a few smarts. However, there just isn't that much energy on display here. Guest was clearly hampered in part by the fact that almost all the action in the movie is confined to the last section of the movie, but whenever the action does pop up at any moment, it's never presented any more than a routine and unimaginative manner. But I think that Guest could have done something to liven up the non-action parts of the movie. People walking through the vast desert don't seem uncomfortable or challenged. The pacing in most places is so casual and weak you can both see and feel the great amount of padding. Also, the strident music score by Georges Garvarentz (Quicker Than The Eye) should have been rejected.

As I said in the previous paragraph, there doesn't seem to be all that much enthusiasm behind the camera for Killer Force. Should it come as a surprise that there isn't all that much more enthusiasm by the players in front of the camera? But I will give credit where credit is due. Hugh O'Brien does okay in his role as the ringleader, showing enough emotion to make it clear his character is confident and should not be crossed. And while O. J. Simpson was never a particularly good actor, in this movie he compensates for his lack of thespian skills by showing a great amount of enthusiasm that temporarily injects some energy into the movie. As for the rest of the cast, Christopher Lee (who doesn't get that much to do) seems bewildered, and both Peter Fonda and Telly Savalas are simply phoning it in. I suspect that the lack of passion by all the players is not only due to director Guest's unenthusiasm, but that the characters are pretty thinly written. What is the basis of the relationship between Fonda's character and his character's girlfriend (Maud Adams, Octopussy)? What are the backgrounds of the diamond caper team, such as how they met and came up with their idea to rob the diamond corporation? Why is Savalas' character so obsessed with coming to the diamond corporation and pushing security so hard? These are just some of the reasons why that the characters in Killer Force are so uninteresting, they didn't make me care one way or another what their fates would be. The Kino Lorber DVD and Blu-Ray editions for the movie includes an alternate ending that shows a much different fate for two of the movie's characters, but even if that particular ending had been used, I still wouldn't have been interested in how the movie wrapped things up. I would have been more interested in seeing a documentary about how Telly Savalas was notorious for acting in sub-par movies like this just to feed his real-life gambling habit, even if he had to go work in apartheid South Africa.

(Posted December 29, 2024)

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See also: The Deserter, The Five Man Army, Free Money

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