1974 - THE TERRORISTS aka RANSOM

Mediocre movie watching continues with this film.  The batting average for good film watching has not been great lately.

In order to get Sean Connery back in the role of James Bond for Diamonds Are Forever, United Artists agreed to several of his demands,  Connery wanted one million dollars for his return and the right to produce three films of his choosing.  Connery didn't have much success with the films he chose, The Terrorists was one of these films.

 

In The Terrorists,  Connery with his Scottish accent and really stretching credibility plays Col. Nils Tahlvik, the head of security for a fictitious Scandinavian country called uncleverly "Scandinavia".  When the British ambassador is kidnapped by terrorists and a plane is hijacked at the same time, Connery has his hands full dealing with both terrorist acts and government ineptitude.  If this sounds like an interesting idea for a plot it sort of is.  Unfortunately the director Casper Wrede and the screenwriter Paul Wheeler can't seem to work up any tension or even interest in these conflicts for that matter.  The film plods along with lots of poor acting and an incredible mishmash of unbelievable English and sort of Swedish accents for a country called "Scandinavia."  

Even the photography by one of the greatest cinematographers in the history of film, Sven Nykvist looks like it was filmed as a TV show, clearly this was just a paycheck for him.  The film sort of has a twist ending and very little action.  The best you can say about this film is it looks like it's on the cold side since this was shot on location in "Scandinavia",  This film is just about a complete waste of time even for Sean Connery die hards.

The running time is 94 minutes.