The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

I only saw a small part of this film, but three-fourths through the movie there is a politically correct monologue from the Caucasian actor about how stupid Caucasians are and how the native people know better. I was offended by the "Caucasians are bad" stereotype.

Peter Fonda leads a team of mercenaries into an African nation in order to fight the revolting people who object to a dam project that will displace them. Along the way they find that the situation is not as pictured and they have a change of heart. I'm under explaining the plot but in all honesty the film is so by the book and by rote that you'll be able to fill in any blanks on your own. I know I was lining up the various characters as they showed up as to what their arcs were going to be and for the most part I was pretty much on target. I didn't hate the film, but I didn't love it either. Its just sort of there doing what it does in a workman like but unremarkable fashion. There are good performances and good action but the nothing to make the film really stick to your brain. Its almost completely forgettable, even though its entertaining.

If action is your genre, this film won't disappoint. The story never sags as it follows its band of mercenaries through a mine field of shifting loyalties and enemies. This movie has great visuals throughout and a solid ensemble cast led by Peter Fonda. Characterization is minimal, which is typical with this type of story, but the actors do a good job of keeping it real. The female love interest is especially good in her role as the nurse who risks her own life to defend the tribe. While it's true that nothing in this film stands out as truly memorable, it is definitely one of the better, older action films I've come across. If you're in the mood for something literary, skip it, this is pure pulp, but it's entertaining and delivers the goods the genre demands.

This is of the category of action films, and action is the yield with very little reprieve in this generic tale of contemporary mercenaries in central Africa, entangled with intratribal warfare as the party in power in an imaginary nation hires them to protect construction of a dam which will displace villages of the rulers' historical adversaries. The leader of the hirelings, Vitelli (Peter Fonda), assembles a group of individuals to his unsparing taste, including characters played by Ron O'Neal (listed as O' Neil in the credits), James Mitchum, and Reb Brown as D.J., among other stalwarts, and they decamp to the mythical nation where the stunt work begins. We are then privy to watching vicious attacks without stint by our heroes, with helicopter gunships and, of course, sophisticated ordnance, as croutoned bodies are sent flying by a seemingly limitless progression of explosions while one marvels at the determination to persevere of the luckless quarry. The type of creature who enjoys this sort of fare would undoubtedly be delighted if this course of behaviour were to continue, but the well-funded producers apparently prefer that a love element be present (with Reb Brown!) as well as a midstream shift of allegiance by D.J. which makes no sense at all. Brown obviously has a forbidding time with any dialogue, but does enjoy yelling, and does a great deal of that, making it, if possible, even more surreal that a collection of tribesmen, with a distinct cultural history, would desire that sharp shift of mores required to accept D.J. as their warrior chieftain. After all, being a mercenary is just a job, as we are notified often from the script; unfortunately, not a very capable job is evident in this production, with sloppy direction, flawed tactics followed by all combatants, and some very poor cast performances, although O'Neal tries to rise above it all.