Joseph Losey directed this handsome but rather ponderous adaptation of Barry England's book about two British soldiers escaping imprisonment in a Latin America country, doggedly pursued by a helicopter armed with a sniper. Screenwriter and co-star Robert Shaw reportedly completed the final draft of the script while the film was in mid-production (he receives sole on-screen credit). Shaw omits the military backgrounds of the characters, instead making the exhausted, griping men an anonymous duo, which has led some to believe this an existential adventure. It certainly has more aerial and explosive action than any other Losey film (the helicopter stunts are often hair-raising), but the men (Shaw and a young Malcolm McDowell) are angry blanks--and this seems entirely deliberate. The dazzling on-location work in Spain of the three cinematographers, Henri Alekan, Peter Suschitzky and Guy Tabary, is worth-seeing, and the picture's puzzling, downbeat finale is intriguing, but this trek from the jungles to the mountains is mostly an unrewarding journey. ** from ****