Who Dares Wins (1983)

great movie!!! PLEASE release to region 1 dvd!

I saw this movie on cable during the mid-late'80s, haven't seen it since then. Totally kick a**!!. Please,please, pretty please release to region 1 dvd. April 30, 2008

Not bad, but....

This film isn't bad in a lot of parts - the opening is great, and scenes like when a team takes down the flat (apartment) by placing charges against the wall in the adjacent flat were terrific. It also shows a lot of the SAS training going on.
The film does drag in some parts.
The US Army Ranger and the German GSG-9 characters were poorly portrayed - no Ranger would have that sort of long hair or be that unprofessional. But, hey, the film is about the SAS, not anybody else. Those two could have been left out.

Overall, pretty good action flick that reminds of earlier times, earlier terrorism, etc....Worth watching...
September 10, 2007

A classic action movie, they don't make'em like this anymore!!!

Based on the book THE TIPTOE BOYS by James Follett(under the pseudonym George Markstein), this movie adaptation works on many levels. If you like movies chock full of military action and anti-terror ops done realistically without Jerry Bruckheimer-style slowmo and weepie music when some terrorist gets creamed, this is for you - straight and to the point! Even 25 years on, this movie is still as thrilling, heart pounding and relevant as ever.

In the movie, SAS officer Peter Skellern goes undercover into the People's Lobby, a far-left wing peacenik anti-nuclear organisation to investigate possible terrorist infiltration - and gets close to the group's leader Frankie Leith(well played by Judy Davis) to gather intel. Trouble is, insiders are watching him and when the group launch their attack on the US Ambassador's Residence and threaten to detonate a nuke in Scotland in the name of peace(!!??!! shows how hypocritical such radical organisations are at times when they let themselves get manipulated by extremists!!) and as if that wasn't bad enough, his wife and child are taken hostage. Watch out for Ingrid Pitt(WHERE EAGLES DARE) here, playing a cold-blooded terrorist with plenty of energy! The fight between her and Skellern's wife in front of her baby is just priceless, adding to the tension.

This movie would never be shot today - if it was, by the likes of Bruckheimer or Tamahori, the politically-correct radicals would be the good guys, the Brits the bad guys and the Americans would be the heroes - and you'd get a Nashville-written corporate cheese country ballad by the likes of Martina McBride or Faith Hill at the end credits as opposed to Roy Budd's pulse-pounding action soundtrack here! Watch out as well for the scene where the American military officers are discussing tactics for world peace with Frankie and generally telling her that terrorism on behalf of the 'common people' is unjustified, almost reducing the scumbag to a wreck! Genius! August 25, 2007

Great Movie!

This is one of the better movies made regarding the take down of a building in a hostage situation. The last twenty minutes are worth the price of the movie. Super job of showing what highly trained Soldiers can do. Highly encourage others to see this movie. August 22, 2007

Review of the Film not the DVD

This was Lewis Collins first major film role after TV parts in "The Cuckoo Waltz" and "The Professionals". The whole film seems to run as a feature-length version of the latter about the adventures of the CI5 operatives Bodie; maybe Doyle was on holiday? It is overly long and drawn out, and thus very slow in the middle sec­tion; 30mins could easily have been re­moved by moderate rewriting and judi­cious editing to no serious detriment of the plot.

However, the climatic siege sequence (based on the real-life events in the Ira­nian Embassy) is very good, as are some of early scenes showing the SAS basic training methods. The plot basically con­cerns Collins as an undercover SAS op­erative who infiltrates a subversive ter­rorist group (disguised as a `peace lobby') before they attack and hold hos­tage some highly important political fig­ures for a ransom.

Their demands are totally ludicrous, i.e., the dropping of a nuclear bomb on the Scottish submarine base in the name of `peace'! Naturally enough the shooting of one uppity hostage leads to the sending in of the SAS, who kill every terrorist in sight (very efficiently). The film looks ex­actly what it is, a hurried attempt by the producers to cash-in on the sudden blaze of popularity of the SAS who had, hith­erto, been relatively unknown. In fact, this public fascination with a secre­tive and highly deadly military group contin­ues to this day in the form of books, films, TV shows, etc.

Ingrid Pitt has her first co-starring role in 9 years (last seen in the "Wicker Man" in `73) as Helga, a German terrorist leader and trainer - a role that would typecast her for a while ("Wild Geese II"), perhaps because of her slight accent. She leads the assault on Collins' house, holding his wife, child, and a policeman hostage to ensure his cooperation. She is ultimately shot dead by a special squad of the SAS who blow a hole in the wall from the next house in order to catch the ter­rorists by surprise. This is a gripping ac­tion scene, possibly one of the best in the film, as tension builds when Ingrid tries to shut the crying child up and is at­tacked by its mother; will she be killed before the SAS can get to her? No, of course not, but its fun waiting and watching to see exactly what and how it will happen.

Overall, as I said, the film is too slow and talky, with the above-mentioned excep­tions, in particular the final 10-15 mins, and so only gets a 3 star rating. However, the video can be recommended for fans of the older TV shows, such as "The Sweeney", "The Professionals", "target", etc.

This movie put Collins in the running for the role of Bond, but as it turns out he lost out - pity really, he might have been good with the right script. April 4, 2007

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