Attack Force Z is WW2 set men-on-a-mission action film from Australia. The early 80’s film is a nicely pacy affair, featuring effective gunplay, a fair bit of stealth stalking, a smattering of martial arts, oh & an early appearance from two later-to-be huge stars- Mel Gibson & Sam Neil.  Here from Severin is a new Blu-Ray release of the film, taking in a bold & bright 2k scan, and a few extras.

Attack Force Z was made in the year 1981 and filmed on location in the jungles & isolated beaches of Taiwan. The film was helmed by Stockton-on-Tees, County Durham, England born Tim Burstall. In all, he directed eleven feature lengths, as well as a good selection of shorts, TV films, and TV episodes.  His features took in writer-focused drama Two Thousand Weeks (1969), Romantic comedy regarding a waterbed salesmen Alvin Purple(1973),  suspenseful murder mystery End Play (1976),  and post-WWI drama Kangaroo ( 1986) which found a mild-mannered English conscientious objector moving to Oz- to get tangled up with trade unions & fascists.

After pre-credit texts detailing that Attack Force Z is an undercover commando squad, we see a group of men getting off a night time sub to boat into a small Chinese Island, which is recently been taken under the control of  Japanese soldiers. The squad have set down on the island to locate a US government Aircraft that’s crashed there, and its important cargo which could put end to the war.

The attack force squad is led up by Capt P.G(Mel Gibson), and takes in Sgt D.J(Sam Neil), Lt. Jan Veitch( John Phillip Law), and Sub-Let Ted ‘Kinggo’ King(John Waters). Both Gibson and Neil are fairly subdued in both their presence & acting in the film, with much of the film's focus being on Lt Jan. 

After getting on the island- losing one of their number to Japanese gunners, talking to a local farmer, and generally sneaking around. The group come across an isolated smallholding- here they find a Chinese family, led up by Lin Chan-Lang(Chun-Hsiung Ko) a kung fu fighting & knife-throwing troublemaker who is in the sights of the Japanese invaders. He has an early twenties daughter Chien Hua(Sylvia Chang), as well as three or four younger sons & daughters. Lt Jan is left to watch Chien, and her siblings while the rest of the squad heads out with Chan-Lang to find the downed plane- with the action switching back & forth between the two groups.

As things unfold in a decidedly pacey & fairly thrilling manner- we get jungle-bound gunplay, some hand-to-hand martial arts fighting, stealth stalking, and a stern Japanese officer torturing civilians. The film plays out most of the expected wartime action tropes- though the whole thing plays out in an entertaining and tense manner. Two of the more interested/ distinct elements here are the use of spoken Japanese( with yellow English subtitles) for the natives of the island, and a slowly developing romantic side plot.

Both Gibson & Neil play their roles well enough, but as they are playing officers they are understandably a lot more controlled and subdued in their interactions- though both get some decent lines & one or two key scenes to themselves. The highlights here are John Phillip Law, as Lt Jan & Sylvia Chang, as Chien Hua- as both get interesting character arcs, and play their roles with both believability and flare. I have to admit I’m not normally a huge fan of the straight/ serious takes on the WWII action genre- so I entered this film mainly out of curiosity to see how Gibson & Neil fared. And I must say I was pleasantly surprised by Attack Force Z- finding it both an engaging and entertaining example of the genre.

The new 2k scan looks bold and bright- with a good balance of colours, and clean ‘n’ crisp audio- though at times the subs are not the best placed- but that’s a minor quibble, as this only happens on a few occasions.  The only extra here aside from a trailer & image gallery is The Z Men Debriefed- this  2004 featurette runs twenty-eight minutes, and takes in interviews with Executive Producer John McCallum And Actors John Waters And Chris Haywood. We get a good overview of how the project came about & its true life influences. Moving onto on-set memories, discussion about why original director Phillip Noyce was dropped, and the film's director Tim Burstall.

Attack Force Z is a worthy Oz-made addition to the men-on-a-mission action genre- with enough thrills, tension, and edge to keep you held/ entertained. And it’s great to see it getting this Severin reissue- of interest to those who enjoy war-bound action, or want to see the early acting chops from both Mr Gibson & Mr Neil.