Attack Force Z

Attack Force Z
Region 4 DVD cover
Directed byTim Burstall
Screenplay byRoger Marshall
Produced byLee Robinson
Starring
CinematographyHung-Chung Lin
Edited byDavid Stiven
Music byEric Jupp
Production
companies
Distributed byRoadshow Film Distributors (Australia)
Release date
  • June 1, 1982 (1982-06-01)
Running time
93 minutes
Country
    • Australia
    • Taiwan
LanguageEnglish
Box office$88,000 (Australia)

Attack Force Z (alternatively titled The Z Men) is a 1982 war film directed by Tim Burstall, and starring John Phillip Law, Mel Gibson, Sam Neill, and Koo Chuan Hsiung. It dramatizes the exploits of Z Special Unit, also known as Z Force, a joint Australian, British and New Zealand commando unit. Its main brief was to conduct reconnaissance and sabotage missions throughout Imperial Japanese-occupied Southeast Asia during the Second World War.

The film is noted for starring Mel Gibson and Sam Neill, who were relatively unknown in the US at the time but who went on to become international stars. It was an international co-production between Australia and Taiwan, and was filmed on-location in Taiwan. It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on 18 May 1981.