Six Soldiers (1974) User Reviews

Better than average war movie

[jamesbond · 7/10 · 21 January 2000]

Six young men get drafted into the SADF (South African Defence Forces). As usual in this genre they have different personalities and respond to their new life in the army in different ways. Their training is hard but realistic (i.e there are neither bad-ass attitudes nor sadistic officers in the unit).They eventually get their baptism of fire under arduos conditions. On a patrol/recon close to the border (presumably Namibia) they get attacked by terrorists and then hunted like prey while trying to get back to base and warn their fellow countrymen of the oncoming threat.

I found this movie enjoyable and a nice break from pretentious war movies with bombastic scores and mighty explosions. This was a quiet more realistic film with a pleasant cast and exotic locations. It ranks as one of the better war movies (yes, better than the pretentious Platoon) and worth checking out even though I noticed a bizarre detail: there were no slings on the rifles!!!

Six Soldiers (1974)

[karc-rd · 29 September 2006]

At the time the film was made it was SOP not to use slings on rifles. I was a SADF soldier at that time. As said this was a very true to life depiction of the Border war. However many believe that this was a politically backed production. Personally I found it to be accurate up to the point where the guys became the hunted. This scenario was far fetched as far as I am concerned. One radio call and one usually had the whole sector 10 converging on a contact, not something the terrorists relished as one could deduct from the way they avoided contact with SADF and other security forces. For someone who was part of this history this movie brought back all the memories.