THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS.
by Jarrod Jones. The historic exploits of Z Special Unit, the covert Allied special forces outfit established in 1942, seem tailor-made for a specific brand of war movies. Among their decorated feats were reconnaissance and sabotage missions behind enemy lines; for those who pursue grimy, morally conflicted action, grizzled fodder like that is almost too much to resist.
In Tim Burstall’s Attack Force Z, which streams on Film Movement Plus beginning this week, the mission for the Australian-led unit is extraction. An American plane has been shot down over an island currently held by the Japanese Imperial Army, and its occupants — crucial figures in the Allied war effort — need to be pulled out before they’re intercepted by the enemy.
Simple. The film’s opening shot, however, is complicated: an Australian submarine surfaces in dark, pre-dawn waters, and five soldiers set up two kayaks atop its hull. Once they’ve secured themselves, the submarine drops back into the sea and they’re off, paddling silently to shore. If the premise of his movie is bare-bones, Burstall certainly didn’t half-ass its execution.
Attack Force Z has maintained a peripheral existence thanks to the later successes of its two leading men: you’ll surely recognize Mel Gibson, who stars as Z Force’s young captain Paul Kelly, and there’s no missing Sam Neill, who brings an easy charm to his no-nonsense sergeant character, Danny Costello. (John Phillip Law, Chris Haywood, and John Waters — not that one — fill out the rest of Z’s ranks.) Burstall’s ferocious five arrive on the shores of this occupied island under sniper fire, and a member of Z Force loses a kneecap for his trouble. Like the rest of his unit, Costello knows the score: no loose ends. Neill sells what comes next with cold comfort.
Burstall, who works a lean screenplay by Roger Marshall (he wrote, among many other British shows, The Avengers), is establishing the stakes, if not exactly setting the tone. Later, in a besieged Chinese village, Kelly’s heroes run up on resistance fighter Lin (Ko Chun-Hsiung) and his family; the film soon shifts its focus from mission and procedure to a treacly subplot concerning Law’s Lt. Veitch and his growing affection for Lin’s daughter Chien Hua (Sylvia Chang). Its score, a ridiculous victory parade of snare drums and trumpets, is most conspicuous in sequences where Veitch and Chein Hua share knowing gazes and snuggle in a resistance hideout.
The romance angle doesn’t sink Attack Force Z, but it distracts from the film’s task. Burstall has shot an economic war picture; the action sequences — where Ko shows a commanding presence when the conflict gets up close and personal — are swift, brutal, and matter-of-fact, making the lovey-dovey stuff feel like additional, not to mention unnecessary, padding.
Distracting things further are certain members of the cast. Historically, Z Force was also composed of Timorese and Indonesian soldiers, but Attack Force Z doesn’t bother honoring them. Law’s Veitch character is supposed to be Dutch, which isn’t exactly a stunning win for diversity, but he doesn’t put in much work making Veitch feel real. (Or, for that matter, Dutch.) Instead, Law saunters around various battlefields with a put-on American hero stoicism that I didn’t buy. (The film’s first director, Patriot Games and Dead Calm‘s Phillip Noyce, might agree with me.)
As an early vehicle for two rising stars, Attack Force Z has enough barrel-blazing brio to rise higher than standard men-on-a-mission fare. It’s not at the caliber of effectiveness it could have been — one wonders what Noyce might have done with this material — but when it fires, Burstall’s action movie hits its target dead-center.
Attack Force Z will be available to stream on Film Movement Plus on May 12. To start a free trial, click this.
5.5 out of 10
Directed by Tim Burstall.
Screenplay by Roger Marshall.
Cinematography Hung-Chung Lin.
Starring John Phillip Law, Mel Gibson, Sam Neill, Chris Haywood, John Waters, Koo Chuan-Hsiung, Sylvia Chang, and O Ti.
Produced by Lee Robinson.
Not Rated, but contains wartime violence and torture.
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