the audience applauded

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely the worst movie.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Attack Force Z is a strange one. Based on fact, regarding an elite squad of soldiers on a mission to rescue an important man, believed to be a plane that's crashed, this is a group that takes no prisoners, and are frighteningly unrelenting Gibson had done this the same time as Gallipoli and is strong, in his role, as the head honcho, with great support from Neil, Haywood, and sadly a short lived Waters. The other, John Phillip Law, who played a character I really liked is more a lover than a fighter, and I was grateful, the screen time I had with this guy, one near 20 minute duration, before we cross back to Mel and squad. Yes, this film has great action, but I found the film, sloppy in bits + some cheesy moments. Yes, good research has gone into it, but this is just a forgettable film. Great music score, one the film's assets, above not many years. Definitely worth a view, for the actors, in their young, talented prime.

Attack Force Z; A movie saved from obscurity solely because it provided early rolls to Mel Gibson and Sam Neill. Throw parallels to The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Dirty Dozen (1967) and Where Eagles Dare (1968) and you got yourself an Australian knock-off of early tough-soldier- man American bravado.A group of Australian special forces is deployed during WWII to recover the passengers of a downed plane in Japanese occupied Dutch East Indies. There they kick the proverbial hornets nest and try to stay alive thanks to the help of an underground resistance movement.It was hard to get into this one largely due to its constant clichés. I guess I have seen the dramatic self-sacrifice of a noble comrade and stealth gone awry because a twig snapped way too many times. The characters themselves aren't incredibly developed and any attempt to flesh them out feels jerky and unnatural. At one point it just gets absurd as one character stays behind to protect the love interest he had shared a room with only a few cuts ago. Granted she prevented him from being discovered but besides a common enemy they had little to really bond over.Another major problem I had was the elongated scenes involving other languages like Japanese and Cantonese. Perhaps it was just the version I saw but with no subtitles provided, I was forced to guess what they were saying and only later confirm what was going on. Plus if I'm not mistaken, they speak Malay in Indonesia not Cantonese.

Under the conditions this film was made, I think it sends a powerful anti-war message. When the film was made the original director left due to differences with the producers, a new director was brought in at short notice and that was an unfortunate setback for the film. This film has a great Australian cast plus John Philip Law. Mel Gibson plays his character with the conviction and talent he is famous for, he had just completed Mad Max and was well on his way to Stardom! This film focuses on a team of special ops Commando's call the "Z Force", similar to the green beret's, these were highly trained soldier's, equipped to handle the most impossible missions, this is one story of one mission which really happened during WWII, had this mission been a success,it is believed this would have altered the outcome of the war with the Japanese, unfortunately their mission was a failure and this is the message which is so powerful.. the total waste war creates. I enjoyed this film and i think you will enjoy it as well.

An odd little curio of an Australian action movie, made in 1982, enjoyable in itself as a popcorn movie for its WWII commando story. But it would largely be forgettable were it not that two of its lower-ranking actors--Australian Mel Gibson and New Zealander Sam Neill--were soon to became big international stars. Gibson, it's true, had made *Gallipoli* and a few other Australian movies, and Neill had starred in a delightful little picture called *My Brilliant Career* (with Judy Davis, no less), but both were largely unknown at this time. The headliner in *Attack Force Z* was good ol' American pulp-action hero John Philip Law, whose credits went all the way back to the early '60s and included the likes of *The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming!* Yet Law, for all his good looks and occasional noteworthy appearances, never reached anything like the fame that awaited his two co-stars in this minor action picture. It's worth seeing if only to be reminded that *everybody* has to understudy somebody else early in his or her career.