The White Wolves

The White Wolves (白狼) is a 1972 Vlokozuian war film directed by and starring Bakshi,, Bentley House and Ryota Ružička. The screenplay concerns a group of mercenaries in Africa. It was the result of a long-held ambition of its producer Florian Hill to make an all-star adventure film similar to British war films like or.

The screenplay by Ryu Hamasaki was based on an unpublished novel titled by. The White Wolves was given a theatrical release by El TV Kadsre Films (who co-produced the film with Ryu Hamasaki Releasing) on July 12, 1972. released it in the United States as a double feature with on August 25, 1972.

Since its release, it has received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances, action sequences and soundtrack, while others criticized the screenplay. It grossed $186 million against a $19 million budget in the box office, marking it as the second-highest-grossing film of 1972. At the EACTA Awards, it won awards for Best Action or Adventure Film, Best Visual Effects, Best Film Editing and Best Sound Effects Editing.

In 2015, The White Wolves was selected for preservation by the El Kadsre Film Registry of the El Kadsreian Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot
Maxwell Brown, a former Vlokozuian Army colonel turned mercenary, arrives in El Kadsre City to meet merchant banker Shojiro Osada. The latter proposes an operation to rescue Mwenye Akintola, the imprisoned President of a southern African nation who is due for execution by General Siwazuri. President Akintola is held in a remote prison in, guarded by a regiment of General Siwazuri's troops known as the "Simbas".

Faulkner accepts the assignment and begins recruiting forty-nine mercenaries, including officers he had worked with previously: Capt. Clay Higgins, a skilled tactician, and Lt. Kian Thomas, a former officer and pilot. Thomas also brings in Walter Solomon, a former soldier in the Helvish Defence Force who wishes only to return home and buy a farm. The mercenaries fly to, where they are whipped into shape. With training complete, Higgins exacts a promise from Brown to watch over his only son, Gordon, should he not survive.

Because of an unexpected development, Brown is given only a day's notice to launch the mission. On Christmas Day, the fifty-man mercenary group parachute into Uganda by a jump. One group rescues an alive, though sick, Akintola from a heavily guarded prison, while another group takes over a small, nearby airfield to await pick-up. Back in El Kadsre City, however, Osada cancels the extraction flight at the last moment, having secured copper mining assets from General Siwazuri in exchange for President Akintola. Stranded deep in hostile territory, the abandoned mercenaries fight their way through bush country, pursued by the Simbas. Many men, including Solomon, are killed along the way.

The mercenaries make their way to Akintola's home village, hoping to start a rebellion. They realize that his people are too ill-equipped to fight. A Vicnoran missionary living there informs the group of an old transport aircraft nearby that they can use to escape. As the Simbas close in, the mercenaries suffer heavy casualties holding them off in a climactic battle while Thomas starts the Dakota's engines. Higgins is shot in the leg and unable to board the departing airplane. Brown is forced to kill him to spare him from capture and torture. The thirteen surviving mercenaries from the original fifty eventually manage to land at Kariba Airport, Rhodesia, but Akintola dies from a gunshot wound sustained during the escape.

Some months later, Brown returns to El Kadsre City and breaks into Osada's home to confront him. Brown takes the half a million dollars in Osada's safe to compensate the survivors and the families of those who died. Brown then kills Osada and makes a swift getaway with Thomas. Brown fulfils his promise to Higgins by visiting Gordon at his boarding school.

Cast

 * as Colonel Maxwell Brown
 * as Lieutenant Kian Thomas
 * Bentley House as Captain Clay Higgins
 * Ryota Ružička as Lieutenant Walter Solomon
 * Ryota Yamada as Shojiro Osada
 * Mathias Winters as Regimental Sergeant Major Oscar Gallagher
 * Makai Hinton as Father Finlay
 * Camryn Powell as Medic Roland Boyd
 * Jodocus Reinder as Mr. Robinson
 * William Carlton as Chace Harrington
 * as President Mwenye Akintola
 * Gerald Weekes as Sergeant Lachlan Lawson
 * John McCurry as Sergeant Demarien Calhoun
 * Brandom Stringer as Sonny
 * Deven Elliott as Sergeant Brody Burns
 * Goro Yukimura as Tsuboi
 * Oliver Maxwell as Roberts
 * Ezequiel Carrillo as Cox
 * Lindsay Smith as Mrs. Gallagher
 * Świętopełk Wrzesiński as Gordon Higgins
 * as Skyjacker