Who Dares Wins (film)

Euan Lloyd gained the idea for the film from events surrounding the Iranian Embassy siege in London, most notably the storming of the building on 5 May 1980 by the SAS. Living just half a mile from the embassy, he visited it on multiple occasions during the four days it was occupied by terrorists, witnessing the dramatic ending to the siege in person. That same evening he called his lawyer in New York and asked him to register five titles with the Motion Picture Association of America, one of which was SAS: Who Dares Wins. In a slightly abbreviated form, this became the name of the film based on the incident which he then set out to make.[9][10]

Lloyd intended for Who Dares Wins to "counterbalance" the anti-authority messages of contemporary films like The China Syndrome, Missing, and Gandhi. Discussing his stance, Lloyd opined that "[s]ince John Wayne and Jack Warner have left the scene its become unfashionable to wave the flag."[4] He also stated that the film was a reflection of his anti-terrorist beliefs and "an opportunity for me to say what I've felt for a long time."[9]

Lloyd contacted friend, writer, and former intelligence officer George Markstein and commissioned a treatment. They decided to end the film with an embassy siege, but to make the film more relevant to American audiences they changed its nationality from Iranian to American. Similarly, they also exchanged the Iranian separatists of the real siege for anti-nuclear extremists. Markstein wrote a treatment in a week, then Lloyd gave the job of writing a script to Reginald Rose. According to director Ian Sharp he was "handed a script that needed a lot work". Sharp flew to the United States to work on the script with Rose, but they "never got to a really strong plot." The action scenes were rewritten by Sharp.[11] The budget was raised by pre-selling the film to multiple territories.[9]

Lloyd's investors were willing to go with a lesser name actor as star. The producer considered a number of options before going with Lewis Collins, then best known for The Professionals.[12] Collins trained intensively for the part.[13]

Judy Davis was cast on the strength of her performance in My Brilliant Career. She said she did not base her character on Patty Hearst as she felt Hearst was ultimately not serious about politics; she was inspired by Bommi Baumann and his book Terror or love?[14]

The production began in September 1981. The film had advisers who had worked in the SAS which led to some concerns from the Ministry of Defence that the film could breach the Official Secrets Act.[3] However, Lloyd said the ministry eventually gave its "tacit approval" to the film after two small changes to the story were made, providing much wider access to defence equipment and personnel, including three military helicopters.[9]

According to the DVD commentary, the film was made with the help of the 22 SAS Regiment at Hereford, although their commanding officer, Peter de la Billière, had initially refused to help in a pre-production meeting with Euan Lloyd. Director Ian Sharp, who was hired due to Lloyd's liking of his direction in The Professionals, was invited to SAS headquarters at Stirling Lines where he met some of the troops who assaulted the Iranian embassy. With the cooperation of the SAS achieved, production moved ahead swiftly.

During one of his visits to Stirling Lines, Sharp had met a Fijian trooper who had a mishap during the Iranian embassy assault. The trooper told how he got caught up in his descent and his uniform caught fire due to the explosives used for their forced entry. Inspired by this, Sharp had a similar scene inserted.

The first scenes were shot in Portobello Road market in January 1982. The concert, speech and subsequent fight were staged at the Union Chapel in Islington, London. Skellen's house and the hostage taking was shot in Kynance Mews in South Kensington.[15]

When it came time to shoot the SAS assault on the U.S. Ambassador's residence, the crew had prepared the helicopters and stuntmen but the SAS offered to do the scene instead. Sharp accepted as he thought the look they gave could not be replicated by the crew.

The action sequences were arranged by veteran James Bond stuntman Bob Simmons.[16]

"The film isn't a serious psychological study of a terrorist's mind, but it has been a good meaty part", said Judy Davis.[17] According to an interview with director Ian Sharp, Judy Davis wanted the dialogue scene between her terrorist character and Richard Widmark's Secretary of State rewritten."She wanted her character to counter some of the things Widmark says to her. I wasn’t about to rewrite a scene of that magnitude that was already that well-written. I didn’t think her suggestions made any sense anyhow. Behind her objections lurked an actor’s ego."[11]

Filming wrapped after seven weeks. Lloyd started to organise the publicity campaign, but like his previous film The Wild Geese, rumour had started to spread that the film was a right-wing propaganda film attacking the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.[18]

The film was the sixth-highest grosser at the UK box office in 1982.[20] (Another source put it 10th highest.[21])

In the UK it returned £388,521 to distributors.[22]

Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said: "There are so many errors of judgment, strategy, behavior and simple plausibility in this movie that we just give up and wait for it to end. You know you're in trouble when the movie's audience knows more about terrorism than the terrorists do."[23]

Who Dares Wins was panned by some critics as being right-wing. Sight & Sound described the film as "hawkish".[24] Derek Malcolm in The Guardian called the film "truly dreadful".[25]

The Washington Post enjoyed the final assault, describing it as "a pip", and praised the authenticity of the action sequences, but thought "an awful lot of talky, slack footage accumulates before this whirlwind payoff" and that the "storytelling rhythm is defective."[26]

Within days of the film's release, producer Lloyd received a phone call from Stanley Kubrick praising the film and calling the casting of Judy Davis "inspirational".[20] This claim has been strongly contested by Kubrick's assistant Anthony Frewin, saying that, "Lloyd, as the gunnery [sergeant] in Full Metal Jacket would say, is blowing smoke up our asses. That film is the antithesis of everything Stanley stood for and believed in."[27]

Soon after the film was completed, copies of it were requested for viewing by the White House; it was seen by Ronald Reagan and his advisers at Camp David and they reportedly enjoyed the film. It was also enjoyed by Alexander Haig, Reagan's former Secretary of State, who had recently joined the board of MGM/UA. In an interview, Haig praised the film as a "terribly exciting drama... a realistic portrayal of the world in which we live." On his recommendation, MGM/UA bought the film for distribution in the U.S., retitling it The Final Option.[4]

At the premiere people protested against the film because it allegedly painted the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament as terrorists. In a 2021 interview, director Ian Sharp said: "This is one of the confusing things (...) In the film the point is that the CND is infiltrated by the terrorists. They are using a legitimate cause for their terrorism. When they are doing their machine gunning practice, they’re using CND symbols to shoot at, to show their contempt. I don’t know how they missed all the signs." In the same interview he conceded: "It’s probably my own fault. It was clear to me, but I misjudged it."[11]