What do you get when you smash Roger “James Bond” Moore, David “Guns of Navarone” Niven, Telly “Kojak” Savalas, Sonny “Cher’s Ex” Bono, Richard “Shaft” Roundtree, and Elliot Gould into a World War II movie that is one part heist, one part espionage and one part Greek Isle vacation? Throw in Nazis, POW camp in ancient Greek ruins, priceless art treasures being sold on the black market, Greek resistance, a monastery, and a secret German V-2 rocket base?
You get Escape from Athena, a World War 2 action adventure comedy from 1979.
This movie blew my mind. I was surprised it did not do as well as I thought it should have but there are some flaws that make the movie somewhat disjointed and hard to follow. There are also some character motivations that are not entirely clear, and I also think they tried to do too much in one movie. This could have easily been three separate movies with a little more work. But they decided to throw in 3 stories in one and somehow make sense of it.
From an RPG standpoint, the characters are somewhat important because their (somewhat distorted and sometimes confusing) motivations really drive the three major storylines, which are basically missions. We are first introduced to the mission team and the Greek Resistance:
- Professor Blake (David Niven): Blake is the senior British officer as well as a well-known archaeologist, he leads the team of misfits and is a close ally to the Greek Resistance. His goals go from loyal soldier to mercenary seeking riches through out the movie.
- Sgt. Nat Judson (Richard Roundtree): An African-American soldier and amateur magician, Nat is the trusted enforcer of Blake.
- Bruno Rotelli (Sonny Bono): Bruno is a shifty Italian professional chef, who seems a little out of place at times, but is one part comedic relief and one part thief/scout. I just kind of wished Bono had cut his 70s style hair for the movie. Almost took me completely out.
All three are prisoners on a special POW camp on a island off the coast of Greece. They are being forced to excavate some ancient Greek ruins in hopes of finding valuable artifacts to fund the Reich’s war effort. At this POW camp, we are introduced to two key figures.
- Major Otto Hecht (Roger Moore): an Austrian who is the Wehrmacht commandant of the POW camp, a former antiques dealer. His loyalties are a little shaky as he really is smuggling anything of value to his sister in Switzerland. He is also encouraging Professor Blake to pretend to find more artifacts so Hecht can “sit out the war” here in the luxurious Greek Isles and not get shipped off to the Eastern Front.
- Maj. Volkmann (Anthony Valentine): SS officer and the town commandant, this guy becomes a key bad guy. He suspects Hecht is lying about his discovers and rules over the town ruthlessly.
This team is also in contact with the Greek resistance and we get a sense that something big – an Allied liberation – is going to happen soon. This is a major aspect that drives the movie. As mentioned above, there is also the Greek resistance movement, which is constantly being hunted by Volkmann.
- Zeno (Telly Savalas): He is a former priest and head of the Greek island’s resistance movement and manipulates many of the other characters into accomplishing his key missions. The only other person that seems to know what is really going on is the Professor. His sole goal is to rid his island of Nazi no matter the cost.
- Eleana (Claudia Cardinale): She is a local madame, and girlfriend of Zeno. Her network of call girls help the resistance.
If it isn’t complex enough, two characters are introduced during the POW camp scenes – two captured USO entertainers who was shot down during a trip to entertain Allied soldiers:
- Dottie Del Mar (Stefanie Powers): Dottie is an American USO stripper, she is more than a pretty face. She is an experienced diver and a great way to distract the Nazis while the others do their dirty work.
- Charlie Dane (Elliott Gould): My favorite character, Charlie is an Jewish-American comedian, USO performer and professional partner of Dottie. He ends up being recruited into Blake’s team and proves to have way more useful skills than you would expect. Gould and his line delivery was on point throughout the movie!
The movie weaves a complex story of three primary missions in preparation for the Allied liberation of the island.
- Take over the POW camp and the neighboring town from the Nazis. Instead of the standard Great Escape/Hogen’s Heroes trope of building a tunnel to get out, Blake and his team must take over the camp, with a little help from the Greek resistance. They recruit the USO performers to help with a “distraction” while the rest accomplish their goals. A combination of a sultry dance from the stripper to distract the officer staff, the right additive to the food for the rest of the guard staff, and external covert assault from the outside by a the Greek resistance secure the camp fairly quickly. Blake ends up “convincing” Major Hecht to join their efforts and take the town before the kill ten citizens in reprisals for actions by the resistance.
- The second phase of this mission is to eliminate the submarine refueling base on the coast of the island. Eliminate the submarine presence, and the invasion will have a better chance to succeed. Ms. Del Mar (who has now taken a liking to Major Hecht) is a trained swimmer and has some diving experience, of course, so she is recruited to place the explosives on the refueling lines. The rest are sent in to make sure no warnings are sent out anyone on the mainland.
- The final mission shows just how manipulative Zeno is to the rest of this team. Earlier in the movie, the story of hidden ancient gold plates in a monastery on island hill was planted. Now that plant has it’s payoff as Zeno tells his team they can help him retrieve them, appealing to the greedy side of most of the Americans in the group. In truth, they find out that they are infiltrating yet another Nazi base to destroy a V-2 rocket aimed at the invasion fleet.
This movie had a lot going on but perhaps too much for an under-2 hour run time. I loved it but the editing and the script really made the movie feel jumbled and messy. But from the RPG point of view, there is a lot of potential from this. Each mission can be an adventure in itself. Breaking the huge cast down to an RPG party would be challenging but it can be done.
Starting with the group in a POW or prison that they now have to take over is a very unique way to start out. Perhaps they are contacted by the outside ally like the resistance and are given some instructions on what to do along with some minimal supplies to help. Breaking out of a prison camp is one thing, but taking one over is another. Hechts is not a loyal Nazi and eventually grows into an ally. Making one of the players this kind of character could make for even more interesting role play.
Perhaps the second mission can come across as a surprise. They thought that taking the prison camp was the mission but perhaps there was a deeper reason. Some key aspect for the second mission is being kept at the prison camp. The players now must use that key aspect to complete the second mission.
The third mission come out of secondary information gathered in mission 1 and 2. It is a tempting mission for those that with other more personal or selfish motivations. Once mission 2 is done, the group can decide what to do about mission 3. Maybe one person has a deeper reasoning for that mission, beyond selfish motivations. Perhaps they know something more about it that they are not willing to share. And what is revealed about it is so much more than anyone imagined.
I loved this movie for it’s inspiration but it was kind of cobbled together and poorly executed. It is inspiring and I hope I find a chance to use this idea.