Product Details

• Actors: Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Richard Widmark, Edward Woodward, Robert Webber
• Directors: Ian Sharp
• Format: NTSC
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00000F3JB
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #303 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #37 in

  Video > Action & Adventure

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Who Dares Wins!, June 1, 2003

By	Dr Lim Michael "thetravellinggourmet" (Asia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

From the deserts of Africa to Iraq, the Special Air Service Regiment of the Brish Army is renowned for their derring-do and never say die attitude. This movie is a dramatization and tribute to the courageous men of the SAS and was probably motivated by the public interest after the real life Iranian Embassy seige in London. Lewis Collins who plays Capt Peter Skellern SAS goes undercover for MI5 the Security Service to infiltrate a violent anti-war "ban the bomb" group planning a big terrorist operation. He becomes intimate with the group's highly sexed but really ugly looking leader. In the final climatic scene, you go into the skin of an SAS Counter Revolutionary Warfare black clad trooper as he takes out the terrorists in the US Ambassador's residence. The action sequences are authentic especially as the technical advisors were serving members of the ultra secretive SAS. The speed of the action sequences are breathtaking especially the "double taps" or 2 shots to the brain technique used by the SAS CRW troopers. Note too the quick entry techniques used like the shooting out of the door hinges by 12 gauge combat shotguns. The techno music is very excitiing and inspiring too. The action movie buff will definitely enjoy this movie. When I first saw this movie in 1982 in England, the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament supporters actually protested outside the cinema! Dr. Michael Lim The Travelling Gourmet.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars something to think about, September 8, 2003

By	I. Tysoe "Inna Tysoe" (Earth) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This movie, loosely based on how the SAS rescued the hostages in the Iranian Embassy in 1980, is believable and not so believable.

The action is believable; the demands of the terrorists(that the UK nuke Scotland) I did not find terribly believable.

However, there are two parts in this action-packed movie that are truly food for thought. The first is the conversation between the British Foreign Secretary and the terrorist leader. He asks her if she thinks she can achieve a peaceful or even a better world by murdering all the hostages. In other words, aren't her means also her ends? She tries to argue that but in the end concedes his point to a fellow terrorist.

And the other part was the very end. That's when the people who orchestrated the whole thing, who paid for all those deaths, cheerfully went off to dinner at some ritzy London restaurant assuring each other that there is always a next time.

Indeed there is.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Undiscovered Classic, September 16, 2006

By	N. Farquharson (Allen, TX United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Who Dares Wins (The Final Option) [Region 2] (DVD)

Now 25 years since it was filmed in England and Wales, this movie is an as yet "undiscovered" classic. The supporting cast of UK and US actors are instantly recognizable. It includes Richard Widmark, Robert Webber, Maurice Roeves, Patrick Allen, Edward Woodward and Tony Doyle, the latter currently famous for his role in Ballykissangel. While the beautiful Ingrid Pitt plays a very convincing "evil" terrorist who we, the audience, can love to hate.

Other reviewers on this page have been rather unkind to leading lady, Judy Davis, describing her as "ugly". If you click on her credit link at the top of the Amazon page you can see how many movies she's made and how attractive she is, both before and after 1982. Perhaps it is the early 1980s "big" hairstyle and makeup that are not found attractive today. Also, in her role here as a baddy, she sneers her way through the whole movie to impress her leading man, while in doing so repelling us, the audience. The leading man in this movie is played by Lewis Collins, who at that time still enjoyed the notoriety garnered from the very successful "The Professionals" action series.

What drives this movie is the superbly photographed action sequences, that are earthy, realistic and devoid of the modern "Hollywood" treatment where film shots are overly choreographed. The musical score is upbeat and drives most of the action, though the incidental music for a couple of family scenes is a little too syrupy. The tension builds slowly with occasional outbreaks of violence that we see are secretly financed by an organized international group. We see neo-Nazi "skinheads" beat up innocent bystanders and a good old British bobby (police officer) being kicked in the face. Later we are endeared to another unarmed bobby who, despite being repeatedly beaten by terrorists, continues to give words of encouragement to a hostage with a small baby. Thus by the time we approach the climactic events at the end of the movie, we are in no doubt who the good guys and the bad guys are. It is because of the time taken to build this tension that when we finally approach the climax, the urgency feels tangible: you really are sitting on the edge of your seat. I regard the scene where Rosalind Lloyd fights with Ingrid Pitt's character to save the life of her 10 month old baby as one of the most nail-biting sequences ever put onto film.

The first hour of the movie may seem somewhat slow to an US audience as the characterizations are established. Also the anti-Americanism portrayed both in opinions expressed and in on-stage "entertainment" may seem extreme, yet at that time, parts of European society were expressing these kinds of sentiments, and so these scenes should be viewed as authentic.

By today's movie standards, the SAS tactics used look somewhat passé, until you remember that this is the movie in which these tactics were first seen, and that this is the movie that many other have followed.

Numerous people involved in the making of this movie are still alive, including Phil Meheux, cinematographer, Ian Sharp, director, Chris Chrisafis, executive producer, and many of the cast. I personally would love to see the 35mm print remastered to a new DVD, with commentary and extras added. What better time than the 25th anniversary of its theatre release?