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.
9 Reviews
By the numbers film has good action but isn't anything you'll remember
dbborroughs6 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
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.
When he plays the sleazy villain, I'm very Fond-a-Peter!
Coventry19 April 2021
Big fan of the late Peter Fonda here, especially when he depicts stone-cold, merciless and downright nasty villains. In "Freedom Fighters" he plays such a character, more specifically a mercenary only interested in money and power, regardless whether or not the job demands innocent people to be slaughtered. He, Virelli, and his team are hired by a corrupt army general to wipe out a handful of small villages and native tribes that rebel against the construction of a giant dam in a Southern African country. Under the influence of a cute Human Rights Activist, however, one of Virelli's team members - TJ - realizes he's battling the wrong camp and switches sides. The cool thing is that Fonda's character also knows this, but he doesn't care about people, only money. I know you're supposed to cheer for TJ, but he's just a chomp of meat without charisma, whereas Fonda is a loathsome beast with greasy long hair and a walking cane. Apart from the cool cast (also starring James Mitchum, Ron O'Neal and Robert DoQui), "Freedom Fighters" is standard 80s jungle/mercenary action guff, with exploding helicopters, land mines blowing up jeeps, native tribes performing naked dance rituals and beefcake men firing with heavy artillery at unarmed women and children. Forgettable fun, if you are into 80s Rambo rip-offs.
Mercenary Fighters left us unsatisfied.
tarbosh2200022 February 2015
Warning: Spoilers
When some tribesmen in an African village stage an insurrection, the President of Africa (yeah, that's the ticket
) calls in some foreign White Devils to quell the rebellion, presumably to distance himself from all the local killing and destruction. Vietnam vets T.J. Christian (Brown) and Cliff Taylor (O'Neal), along with Wilson (Mitchum) and some other guy are under the command of Virelli (Fonda), also a 'Nam veteran. However, as some of our "Mercenary Fighters" come to know the people of the land they're now in, alliances and allegiances change. Will they Fight to the finish? We can safely say that Mercenary Fighters is
something you'd find in a video store. At least back in the golden age. Its overall mediocrity ensures it being standard shelf-filler, or, perhaps more accurately, "Cannon fodder" (heh heh. Has anyone ever used that one before?) Nevertheless, the movie contains all the standard stuff we've come to depend on: explosions, exploding huts, exploding guard towers, guard tower falls, jungles or jungle-like locations, and plenty of shooting. Peter Fonda has a big gun that is a one-shot hut blower-upper, and most of the war violence occurs during the final battle. It is also at this climactic moment that we finally get to hear Reb Brown's time-honored "Reb-el" yell. He even gets so deep into his screaming, he does practically a whole dialogue scene in a helicopter, let's just say, not using his indoor voice.
While Reb's shoutings were apparently such a selling point in the 80's that he's even seen screaming on the front cover of the VHS (apparently by the late eighties they had really caught on), Peter Fonda's silly hair is NOT front and center on the box art. It's obscured by a mysterious hat. His long, scraggly locks seen in the film seem to be a leftover from his more hippie-ish acting roles, but on a dime about halfway through this film, he snaps into a tough commander role, as if he woke up midway through the production and realized he was supposed to be tough this time around.
Even though Mercenary Fighters on the whole is fairly middling, no one can accuse it of shortchanging us of our favorite stars. Besides Fonda and Brown, we also have Ron O'Neal – even though the credits misspell his name as "O'Neil" – and yet another fan favorite, Jim Mitchum. Mitchum here is classic Mitchum. Mitchum. He wears a shirt that says "Bad Boy", when he's not wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and is never seen without his Walkman. If it was somehow possible to not shave for 25 years and not grow a full beard, that's how his face looks. Surprisingly, his mellow performance would indicate he might not care too much about the proceedings.
On the whole, we've never cared too much for what we call "Africa Slogs", and this is certainly one. Truly this movie is no Red Scorpion (1988), the exception that proves the rule. Despite getting to see some of our favorite actors all together at once, and some decent war violence, somehow, Mercenary Fighters left us unsatisfied.
While Reb's shoutings were apparently such a selling point in the 80's that he's even seen screaming on the front cover of the VHS (apparently by the late eighties they had really caught on), Peter Fonda's silly hair is NOT front and center on the box art. It's obscured by a mysterious hat. His long, scraggly locks seen in the film seem to be a leftover from his more hippie-ish acting roles, but on a dime about halfway through this film, he snaps into a tough commander role, as if he woke up midway through the production and realized he was supposed to be tough this time around.
Even though Mercenary Fighters on the whole is fairly middling, no one can accuse it of shortchanging us of our favorite stars. Besides Fonda and Brown, we also have Ron O'Neal – even though the credits misspell his name as "O'Neil" – and yet another fan favorite, Jim Mitchum. Mitchum here is classic Mitchum. Mitchum. He wears a shirt that says "Bad Boy", when he's not wearing a Hawaiian shirt, and is never seen without his Walkman. If it was somehow possible to not shave for 25 years and not grow a full beard, that's how his face looks. Surprisingly, his mellow performance would indicate he might not care too much about the proceedings.
On the whole, we've never cared too much for what we call "Africa Slogs", and this is certainly one. Truly this movie is no Red Scorpion (1988), the exception that proves the rule. Despite getting to see some of our favorite actors all together at once, and some decent war violence, somehow, Mercenary Fighters left us unsatisfied.
Mercenaries
BandSAboutMovies29 March 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Colonel Kjemba (Robert DoQui, Sgt. Reed from RoboCop) has called in Vietnam vets Virelli (Peter Fonda), T. J. Christian (Reb Brown, forever Yor) and Cliff Taylor (Ron O'Neal, forever Youngblood Priest) who join up with Wilson Jeffords (James Mitchum, forever Robert's son) and ) to stop a rebel uprising, but you know, sometimes you never know what side of the battle you're really on.
In Richard Kiel's autobiography Making it Big in the Movies, he claims to have only turned down four roles in his whole career. Peter Fonda's part in this is one of them.
I mean, this is Avatar 21 years earlier and around a few hundred millions less in the budget. But does that movie have Peter Fonda being racist and Reb Brown screaming at the top of all of his lungs?
In Richard Kiel's autobiography Making it Big in the Movies, he claims to have only turned down four roles in his whole career. Peter Fonda's part in this is one of them.
I mean, this is Avatar 21 years earlier and around a few hundred millions less in the budget. But does that movie have Peter Fonda being racist and Reb Brown screaming at the top of all of his lungs?
Lousy Cannon fodder
lor_25 April 2023
My review was written in March 1988 after a screening on Manhattan's 42nd St.
"Mercenary Fighters" is a lamebrained action pic made in South Africa in 1986 under the title "Freedom Fighters" Cannon released it regionally last month, and dropped it in New York at a 42nd Street fleapit with zero advertising.
Peter Fonda toplines as a U. S. soldier of fortune hired by the government of the fictional central African nation of Shinkasa (an anagram for Kinshasa, ex-Leopoldville, capital of Zaire) to wipe out some rebels blocking a vast dam project which would force the Kurubu tribe off its homeland.
Of Fonda's motley crew of mercenaries, kindhearted beefcaker Reb Brown (after falling for a pretty white nurse, Joanna Weinberg) realizes he's fighting for the bad guys and takes up with the rebels. Dissension among the mercenaries pushes Ron O'Neal to do the right thing in the final reel but Fonda is a gammy-legged bad guy only out for a buck till the end.
Slapdash script and ineffectual direction (an explosion every once in a while) draint this programmer of any believability. Such is its miscalculation that miscast Robert DoQui as the heinous villain was mightily cheered on by the predominantly black 42nd Street audience when he viciously slaps down the nurse, who's only been trying to protect women and children in villages being murdered by DoQui's troops. Equally ridiculous is the scene of Brown named new leader of the Kurubu rebels by their dying chief, just after Brown in Rambo pose has mowed down Kurubus with a machine gun as he was hired to do.
Tech credits are acceptable except for the tinny musical track. A sloppy touch has erstwhile "Superfly" star Ron O'Neal misspelled as "O'Neil" in the opening credits.
"Mercenary Fighters" is a lamebrained action pic made in South Africa in 1986 under the title "Freedom Fighters" Cannon released it regionally last month, and dropped it in New York at a 42nd Street fleapit with zero advertising.
Peter Fonda toplines as a U. S. soldier of fortune hired by the government of the fictional central African nation of Shinkasa (an anagram for Kinshasa, ex-Leopoldville, capital of Zaire) to wipe out some rebels blocking a vast dam project which would force the Kurubu tribe off its homeland.
Of Fonda's motley crew of mercenaries, kindhearted beefcaker Reb Brown (after falling for a pretty white nurse, Joanna Weinberg) realizes he's fighting for the bad guys and takes up with the rebels. Dissension among the mercenaries pushes Ron O'Neal to do the right thing in the final reel but Fonda is a gammy-legged bad guy only out for a buck till the end.
Slapdash script and ineffectual direction (an explosion every once in a while) draint this programmer of any believability. Such is its miscalculation that miscast Robert DoQui as the heinous villain was mightily cheered on by the predominantly black 42nd Street audience when he viciously slaps down the nurse, who's only been trying to protect women and children in villages being murdered by DoQui's troops. Equally ridiculous is the scene of Brown named new leader of the Kurubu rebels by their dying chief, just after Brown in Rambo pose has mowed down Kurubus with a machine gun as he was hired to do.
Tech credits are acceptable except for the tinny musical track. A sloppy touch has erstwhile "Superfly" star Ron O'Neal misspelled as "O'Neil" in the opening credits.
A BLOT UPON SEVERAL REPUTATIONS.
rsoonsa30 September 2003
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.
Typical action fodder
Leofwine_draca6 October 2022
MERCENARY FIGHTERS is a typical action flick from South Africa, made by the Cannon Group and about a group of mercenary fighters who are flown in to take down some rowdy villagers. Except, of course, it turns out that the villagers aren't that rowdy after all and the government aren't that nice either. Shades of Lundgren's later RED SCORPION, but for the most part this is a WILD GEESE copy with typically explosive but uninvolving action. One of the best things about it is the case, with Peter Fonda tackling an unusual role, Reb Brown being his usual wooden self, and Robert DoQui stealing his scenes, much as he did in ROBOCOP.
Politically correct message
Robbie-A1 March 2018
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.
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