Spoiler alert! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shout at the Devil<\/em> is a British 1976 film starring the former James Bond actor Roger Moore, Lee Smith and Barbara Perkins. In terms of genres, it qualifies as both a war film and an adventure film. I watched it on DVD. It was directed by Peter R. Hunt, best known for directing On Her Majesty\u2019s Secret Service<\/em> (1969) starring George Lazenby and Diana Rigg, one of the most popular Bond films. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Plot Summary <\/p>\n\n\n\n The story centers around three characters: Colonel Flynn O\u2019Flynn portrayed by Smith, Sebastian Oldsmith portrayed by Moore, and Rosa O\u2019Flynn (later Oldsmith) portrayed by Perkins. It takes place between 1913 and 1914. The German declaration of war on the United Kingdom is briefly mentioned in a conversation between Colonel O\u2019Flynn and a British naval officer during the later half of the film. Its setting is German East Africa (more specifically present day Tanzania), and Zanzibar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Colonel O\u2019Flynn manipulating Oldsmith into doing things together with him is a central component of the plot. In the beginning, he has his associate Mohammed, played by Ian Holm, stealing Oldsmith\u2019s money. Having lost it, Oldsmith can no longer finance his trip to Australia. As a consequence, O\u2019Flynn sinks his claws into him, persuading him to join him on his \u2018expedition\u2019 in territories colonized by the German Empire. There, they among other things shoot elephants, take possession of and sell their ivory, and steal the taxes collected from the villages by the German imperial troops on site. In another instance, O\u2019Flynn agrees to a reconnaissance on the Bl\u00fccher, but instead of committing to doing the task himself, he rapidly delegates it to Oldsmith. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Bl\u00fccher, a German light cruiser, is also vital to the story, and its name is mentioned on multiple occasions throughout the movie. Ironically, however, the ship itself is barely in it. It only makes three appearances: In the opening scene, in the ramming and sinking of O’Flynn’s dhow scene, and during the climax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Characters <\/p>\n\n\n\n Protagonists <\/p>\n\n\n\n The three protagonists are very much a product of a white man\u2019s fantasy, and I do not sympathize with any of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Flynn, whom I detest the most, has the following characteristics: He is greedy, macho, unpleasant, alcoholic, racist, and misogynistic. He repeatedly patronizes Rosa when talking to her. In addition, when learning about his granddaughter\u2019s birth, he reacts with disgust, as he wanted a grandson instead. He is, however, later shown grieving the death of his grandchild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oldsmith, on the other hand, is portrayed as a charming womanizer to whom Rosa instantly is attracted. He is very much a copy of Moore\u2019s Bond, although in stark contrast to that particular character, Oldsmith also has a macho attitude. This is manifested when he and O\u2019Flynn immediately start fighting when Oldsmith says that he wants to use the money he earned on the ivory they sold to pay for his and Rosa\u2019s wedding. During this confrontation, both he and O\u2019Flynn brag about their boxing merits. Unlike his father-in-law, he has no problem with his newborn child being a girl. He is also shown being overprotective of Rosa, refusing to let her avenge her daughter herself, thereby depriving her of her agency. He is the one blowing up the Bl\u00fccher, and killing Hermann Fleischer, the antagonist and the man responsible for the death of their child. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Oldsmith and O\u2019Flynn both regard the territories they visit as their playground, demonstrated by the fact that they enjoy poaching, and they do not care about the native soldiers working for them. Many of these men are also killed protecting them from attacking German forces. But the main characters are never shown reflecting upon the sacrifices these people make. They neither offer their condolences to their next of kin nor acknowledge their actions. To them, these men are nothing but expendables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With respect to the third and final protagonist, Rosa O\u2019Flynn\/ Oldsmith, she is a very one-dimensional character, primarily functioning as Oldsmith\u2019s love interest. Upon meeting him, she immediately falls for him, even though they have just met. After her daughter Maria\u2019s death, she becomes consumed with hatred. This character has the closest thing resembling a character arc, although it is very thin. In comparison, neither of the other two protagonists have one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Antagonists <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are three antagonists: Hermann Fleischer, Commander of the Southern Provinces, and Heinrich Graf von Kleine and Ernst Kyller, the Bl\u00fccher\u2019s Captain and Captain-lieutenant respectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fleischer is unquestionably the most dominant and the most active of these. He repeatedly comes into conflict with the Oldsmiths and O\u2019Flynn. When O\u2019Flynn and Oldsmith wreak havoc on the territories colonized by the Germans, he retaliates by murdering the newborn Maria Oldsmith, and burning the Oldsmith property to the ground. When the trio, as a countermove, attack some of his forces transporting large wheels to the ship and Rosa kills one of his subordinates, he has Mohammed killed, and her abducted and taken to the Bl\u00fccher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Supporting Characters <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mohammed, played by Holm, is O\u2019Flynn\u2019s associate. He is mute, thereby depriving him as a non-European of any opportunity of making his voice heard. The only purpose he serves in the story is executing O\u2019Flynn\u2019s decisions. Other than that, he is a passive supportive character, who merely is supposed to be there to look \u201cexotic\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another supporting character worth mentioning is the Portuguese pilot Da Silva. He is very stereotypical, and immediately starts flirting with Rosa. The screenwriters obviously did not do their homework when writing his dialogue, as he speaks Spanish, not Portuguese. After being introduced, he is killed off instantly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Portrayal of Colonialism and the Tanzanians <\/p>\n\n\n\n The filmmakers never criticize the notion of colonialism, in fact they trivialize it. When the duo of Oldsmith and O\u2019Flynn \u201cdiscover\u201d an area not yet colonized by the Germans, it never occurs to them that there are already people living here, and that it is de facto<\/em> their land. Instead, they discuss whether it should become an American or British colony. Since they disagree, they decide to flip a coin. Oldsmith wins, and it becomes a British one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After being washed ashore in a land colonized by the Portuguese, the duo is shown being carried on stretchers by the natives, emphasizing the belief that the natives in their eyes are nothing but labor power. In another scene, the Germans are also shown employing them as such, when transporting cannons and gun parts through the mountains. The Tanzanians composing O\u2019Flynn\u2019s army are portrayed as incompetent for comedic effect when being unable to hit the targets, instead hitting the wall right behind them. O\u2019Flynn yells at them when one of the bullets ricochets, destroying his bottle of gin. He is not the only one yelling at them, Oldsmith and Fleischer repeatedly do it as well. Whether or not it is a matter of them giving them orders or not, I still associate this behavior with an attitude of hostility and racism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides being used as soldiers, the natives are also shown working as maids and nannies for the Oldsmiths. Treating them as such reproduces a racist hierarchy in which the white man is regarded as \u201csuperior\u201d to the black man. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These people are also othered and dehumanized when in the dark shown attacking and setting fire to the Oldsmiths\u2019 residence, bayonetting the maids and nannies, and killing Oldsmiths\u2019 infant daughter by throwing her into a burning house. They also laugh and grimace at Rosa Oldsmith. Them being depicted as sadists increases this dehumanization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What further contributes to this othering and dehumanization is the blackface used by Oldsmith as a \u201ccamouflage\u201d when infiltrating the Bl\u00fccher. Naturally, the Germans don\u2019t notice him, nor do they spoil the operation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The movie itself was actually filmed in Apartheid South Africa, thereby normalizing and directly supporting racist politics of its government when the international community had imposed sanctions on it. Add to it, South African investors also financed the project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tropes and Narrative Devices <\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon rewatch I also noticed the utilization of one trope and one narrative device, which deserve being brought up. The trope in question was the Sacrificial N****. The proof of its existence in the story was that many of the soldiers working for O\u2019Flynn and Oldsmith died protecting them. This is another example of this racist hierarchy being recreated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The narrative device in question was the Damsel in Distress trope. In this case, Rosa is held captive onboard the Bl\u00fccher, needing to be rescued by her husband and her father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Pacing <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I watched this the first time, I remember finding the pacing incredibly slow. Consequently, I was quickly bored. However, on rewatch, I found it to be slightly, slightly better. But given all the problems with the movie detailed in the sections above, this will not affect the score positively in any way. I want to make that perfectly clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rating <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 star out of 5 for the Bl\u00fccher exploding at the end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Elias Abrante <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gustavsberg, September 24th, 2026 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spoiler alert! Shout at the Devil is a British 1976 film starring the former James Bond actor Roger Moore, Lee Smith and Barbara Perkins. In terms of genres, it qualifies as both a war film and an adventure film. I watched it on DVD. It was directed by Peter R. Hunt, best known for directing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19952,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[72398,72446],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogg","tag-colonial-and-postcolonial-studies","tag-film-review"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n