North Sea Hijack with Roger Moore

sambwoy · July 2009

I ordered this film which has just been given a DVD release. Just recently I read to my astonishment that Roger Moore preferred this to some of the Bonds that he starred in around the same time. How true this I'm not sure. It might have been someone on Wikipedia being a little vague, unless the person who wrote it was referring to AVTAK. NSH I read was Roger Moore's typecast-breakout film from the gloss of Bond.

I guess you could (up to a point) regard it as the Die Hard of its day; given the massive critical and public praise that Die Hard gets almost to the point of sickliness, NSH certainly gets points for being made before Die Hard, in terms of the terrorist/hijack/takeover plot and all the rip-offs that it spawned in the '90s (which I might add are mostly great too like Passenger 57 and Con Air).

Probably not in the same calibre as Die Hard- its more of an olde worlde Wild Geese one-last-hurrah romp than the blood spattering Die Hard, but that's what it should be. NSH is different. Its a 15-certificate, oddly enough, but the BBC once showed this film at 2pm in the afternoon, unless of course if it was trimmed for violence, whatever violence is in it.

I couldn't resist getting this on DVD. Never seen it fully, but it makes an interesting comparison piece with Die Hard. What do others think?

thesecretagent · July 2009

I'm going out on a limb here, because I have'nt seen the film for absolutely years - but North Sea Hijack is great! Like you said, it's in the same vein as Wild Geese, which was a great film in its day and has made it into my war collection of DVDs.
Thanks for reminding me about this film, I'm going to buy it right now, watch it as soon as possible, and update this thread later!

Loeffelholz · July 2009

Is this the film that was released as "ffolkes"?

Hardyboy · July 2009

Loeffelholz wrote:

Is this the film that was released as "ffolkes"?

Yep. I saw it when it first came out and I remember liking it immensely--however, I haven't seen it since and I don't remember much about it. In his autobiography, though, Roger Moore lists ffolkes as one of his favorite roles.

Loeffelholz · July 2009

I liked it as well---that and The Wild Geese, of course; I enjoyed Moore in everything he did outside of James Bond---guess I'll have to Netflix it B-)

Napoleon Plural · July 2009

I recall watching it with my Mum, Moore is cast against type, being a bit of a grump rather than a people pleaser, and has a beard.

His character trait is that he likes cats. It did seem a bit contrived, and he's not an action man if I recall, more a hostage negotiator. Die Hard comparisons are wide of the mark, I think it's more in the line of 1970s films like The Cassandra Crossing and such hokum.

sambwoy · July 2009

I understand that David (Felix Leiter) Hedison is also in it.

I think the notion that its akin to Die Hard comes because of the hijack plot, but has the distinction of being made before Die Hard (which don't get me wrong, is brilliant but it loses its sheen because of all the arse-kissing it gets). Of course I understand that hijack plots were a feature of '50s Westerns like Rawhide and The Tall T (according to Empire's film miscellany).

I did see Moore alongside Lee Marvin in Shout At The Devil, which he starred in the years between Golden Gun and Spy Who Loved Me. I can understand the wanting to go against typecasting because watching that film, the vision of Bond for me could not be erased.

dr. evan-gelist · July 2009

never seen north sea hijack, but just goes to show the limit and level of rogers acting abilities. and i bet he did this during his over long stint as bond. he was my mums favourite because she loved the saint!

hegottheboot · July 2009

Is this the film where RM is kinda folksy and has a beard?

dr. evan-gelist · July 2009

roger looks good as a bond actor, but phsically, since moonraker, he was unfit.

sambwoy · July 2009

Yes RM has a beard in this. Funny when you see FYEO, made about a year later, and he looks incredibly younger out of his admiral uniform and without a beard.

Overall, North Sea Hijack I can agree is an impressive film for the time (it came out 1979/80). Before the onslaught of 80s action films, which are generally violent, this is rather tame in terms of violence; those expecting a Die Hard splatfest might feel a bit shortchanged, but I think this film would lose its effect with the gore emphasis.

It is rather odd seeing Roger Moore out of his Bond persona, oddly, his character doesn't like women in this film, strange given in the Bond film he always gets his wicked way getting women into bed, or perhaps this is the same sexist attitude but on a different level.

Anthony Perkins is extremely good as the chief villain; a very ahead-of-the-times villain before Alan Rickman, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman et al.

Bond fans are also in luck, as the film co-stars two former Bond alumni; George Baker (from OHMSS) and David Hedison (Leiter from LALD and LTK).

thesecretagent · July 2009

Right, I'm back. Bought it and watched it and it's not bad! Obviously Moore is going out of his way to avoid being typcast as Bond. What he actually acheives is Bond's ex-SBS brother who likes cats, hates women, does cross-stitch or crochet (what the f**k?!) and has a beard.
The plot isn't bad, the terrorists are of their day, but to my limited knowledge this sort of plot hadn't been done before and I can see the comparisons with Die Hard, which to the film's credit, came along much later. I liked Anthony Perkins as the bad guy, and even Felix Leighter (can't be bothered to check the actor's name - most of you will already know!) was in there, which was a connection I missed as a kid.
Thanks for reminding me about this classic, it's gone in the keep pile and won't be on ebay anytime soon.

sambwoy · July 2009

Do you reckon the terrorists in NSH are more believable as terrorists than being all machine guns and muscles like in most action films?

The guy with the milk-bottle glasses looks proper psychotic.

Its interesting that about half the terrorists in the film are American. If this was a Hollywood film the terrorists would have probably been foreign, and the victims in NSH are presumably Norwegian. It turns the whole stereotyping on its head before Die Hard came along and changed the portrayal of folk from countries outside America.

chrisno1 · September 2009

North Sea Hijack has been on TV in the Uk twice in the last month (I have no idea why, it must have been a scheduling error or something) I watched it for the first time and it has that '70s half finished half glossed feel to it.

There are loads of movies like this from the '70s (RM was in at least 5 of them: Gold, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, to name a few) and there was a whole slew of Alastair MacLean adaptations that started with Fear is the Key.

I rather like these starry, hotch potch thrillers. I guess it takes me back to a mis-spent youth watching late night movies. They seem quite innocent compared to the noisy, chase 'em and shoot 'em up we have to suffer endlessly these days (Bad Boys 2 anyone?)

NSH isn't a great example of this sort of thing, but it's pretty good in its way.
It's based on a novel called "Esther, Ruth and Jennifer"
RM good in it (but the beard is a terrible actor - it does seem to have a life of its own) and it is a role with a touch of 007 about it.
James Mason plays an irracible Admiral, not unlike M
Anthony Perkins is the villain, and a good job he makes of it too
David Hedison is the ops manager on the oil rig
The final shoot out is convincingly swift.

The title was changed to ffoulkes in the USA because apparently the executives at Universal didn't think American's would know where the North Sea was.
I think the title change makes the film sound less exciting, more like a comedy than a thriller.

It's directed by Andrew V. McLaglan who made lots of run of the mill westerns (many with John Wayne) and later expanded his horizons to war movies and thrillers like this.

Worth a look basically.

thesecretagent · September 2009

chrisno1 wrote:

North Sea Hijack has been on TV in the Uk twice in the last month (I have no idea why, it must have been a scheduling error or something) I watched it for the first time and it has that '70s half finished half glossed feel to it.

There are loads of movies like this from the '70s (RM was in at least 5 of them: Gold, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves, to name a few) and there was a whole slew of Alastair MacLean adaptations that started with Fear is the Key.

I rather like these starry, hotch potch thrillers. I guess it takes me back to a mis-spent youth watching late night movies. They seem quite innocent compared to the noisy, chase 'em and shoot 'em up we have to suffer endlessly these days (Bad Boys 2 anyone?)

NSH isn't a great example of this sort of thing, but it's pretty good in its way.
It's based on a novel called "Esther, Ruth and Jennifer"
RM good in it (but the beard is a terrible actor - it does seem to have a life of its own) and it is a role with a touch of 007 about it.
James Mason plays an irracible Admiral, not unlike M
Anthony Perkins is the villain, and a good job he makes of it too
David Hedison is the ops manager on the oil rig
The final shoot out is convincingly swift.

The title was changed to ffoulkes in the USA because apparently the executives at Universal didn't think American's would know where the North Sea was.
I think the title change makes the film sound less exciting, more like a comedy than a thriller.

It's directed by Andrew V. McLaglan who made lots of run of the mill westerns (many with John Wayne) and later expanded his horizons to war movies and thrillers like this.

Worth a look basically.

I love the concept of films being retitled for the US. Either the executives underestimate the average American's basic intelligence, or the alternative is just plain scary. My favourite one is The Madness of King George V - this was retitled in America without the Roman numeral, in case the audience thought they'd missed the other four films...

Firemass · July 2017

thesecretagent wrote:

Bought it and watched it and it's not bad! Obviously Moore is going out of his way to avoid being typcast as Bond. What he actually acheives is Bond's ex-SBS brother who likes cats, hates women, does cross-stitch or crochet (what the f**k?!) and has a beard.

I watched NSH last night. Have to agree the writers went way too far overboard to avoid Moore being typecast. He was way too quirky for my taste. I wish he would have just played the role like 007 minus the tuxedo. Oh well..still a pretty cool movie. The decoy explosion was a ballsy gamble. The poison scene was also quite nail bitting.

Even with a beard, Moore looked quite a bit younger than FYEO which came out the following year. Go figure.

That reminds me….I need to watch The Sea Wolves next.

philpog · July 2017

sambwoy wrote:

The title was changed to ffoulkes in the USA because apparently the executives at Universal didn't think American's would know where the North Sea was.
I think the title change makes the film sound less exciting, more like a comedy than a thriller.

After the movie bombed in the U.S., the film was re-titled ASSAULT FORCE for television.

IanFryer · July 2017

None of the titles really make the film seem an attractive proposition. North Sea Hijack is somewhat prosaic, ffolkes sounds too much like a comedy and Assualt Force sounds like a Steven Segal movie. In fact, I think he did put out some straight to DVD drivel by that title!

EDIT: Just checked. The Segal movie was Attack Force!

Firemass · July 2017

IanFryer wrote:

ffolkes sounds too much like a comedy

One of the worst titles ever. Hard to believe it was changed to this for the American audience.

??

Cam008 · July 2017

One of Sir Roge's best works.

BondJasonBond006 · July 2017

I totally love the film. Only watched it recently when I did a Moore-athon to honour his great life he had.

ffolkes...will always remain my favourite film of Sir Rog outside of Bond.

Thunderpussy · July 2017

Ffolkes is a fantastic character, and Sir Roger seems to be in his element playing him.
I still laugh when he mistakes the young girl for a Boy and pushes her/him into the
Hot shower for a run down

) and Anthony Perkins makes a terrific villain.
You could look on it as an early British Die Hard.

Cam008 · July 2017

Under estimated movie and role by Sir Roge'.

Jarvio · July 2017

North Sea Hijack is pretty good, and I really like Gold too.

But my favourite RM film outside of bond is The Man Who Haunted Himself.

Cam008 · July 2017

Good movie and Sir Roge' did better than useless

North Sea Hijack with Roger Moore

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