We’re very excited to launch Mercenary Month 2, the return of a month of films which look at how mercenaries are depicted in film. While a little tangental it fits within our remit of exploring ‘fighting on film’! We’ll be kicking off Merc Month 2 with 1966’s ‘The Professionals’ – a film we have been looking forward to covering for a while! Then 1971’s ‘Universal Solider‘, ‘Mercenary Fighters‘ (1988), and then ‘Uncommon Valor‘ (1983) and we’ll be ending the month with a film chosen by you via our monthly Patreon Pick – BUT this time it’s open to everyone and you can find out what the choices are and vote here.
If you missed Merc Month 1, way back in 2021 – if you can believe it, we covered some absolute classics and you can catch up with all of them below!
We kicked off Mercenary Month 1 with ‘Code Name: Wild Geese’. A 1984 action movie directed by Antonio Margheriti following a group of mercs in tasked with destroying opium farms in the Golden Triangle. The film stars Lewis Collins, Lee Van Cleef, Klaus Kinski and Ernest Borgnine.
We continued Mercenary Month 1 with a classic, ‘Dark of the Sun’. Jack Cardiff’s 1968 action movie that follows a band of Congolese commandos attempting to retrieve a huge diamond haul before the Simbas arrive. An artistic but visceral film staring Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Jim Brown, Peter Carsten and Kenneth More. Skilfully shot, lots of impressive action and some good performances combine to create a compelling film.
Merc Month 1 also saw us cover one of the worst films we’ve ever examined – ‘SAS: Red Notice’. A new film about mercenaries who highjack the ‘Eurostream’ train. Based on a book by SAS veteran Andy McNab it stars Sam Heughan, Ruby Rose and Andy Serkis. We watched it so you don’t have to, be warned there is some exasperated swearing. This was a bit of an unplanned added bonus for Merc Month.
Zip up your combat jackets & load up your ammo belts for one of our absolute favourite episodes! We looked at 1985’s ‘Commando’ starring none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger! The cult classic is chock full of action and macho bravado. It still entertains over 30 years later!
Armourer and deal Vic Tuff joined us to bring Merc Month 1 to a close with a look at a classic of the genre, ‘The Dogs of War’ staring Christopher Walken & Tom Berenger. Directed by John Irvin and with cinematography from the legendary Jack Cardiff it adapts Frederick Forsyths book about a mercenary led coup in a fictional African republic of Zangaro!
So there we have it – Merc Month 2 is inbound and if you missed any of Merc Month 1 you can catch up with some classic Fighting On Film episodes above! Synchronise your watches and we’ll see you in the chopper!
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