Where Eagles Dare (1968)'s comments

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tricksta_p

There are a few too many contrivances and it's too long to sustain its momentum, but the action is solid and it has a couple of excellent set pieces.

11 years 3 months ago

Where Eagles Dare is a war movie (it definitely seems to be part of Inglourious Basterds' DNA), but it really owes more to Mission: Impossible which was on the air at the time (and while its pace is the show's, the twists and turns - and love of stunts - could almost belong to the film franchise). A group of special ops soldiers led by Richard Burton and including Clint Eastwood, must get into an alpine Nazi castle to smuggle out a captured general (or so we think, twists and turns, remember?), its tone alternating between explosive action epic and wetworks procedural in what I feel is an awkward way. The film is adamant that we must see every step getting into the castle, and every step getting out. And every bullet fired, for that matter, making for a long and tedious escape from Germany. Burton is almost the only character to get talking scenes, which makes all his men rather generic (which is a problem later), even Eastwood who we only really notice because he's Eastwood. His role is mostly to shoot all those bullets and look at Burton talking. The twistiness of the plot is the best thing about the movie, but I would have trimmed a LOT of the action (movie runs more than two and a half hours, after all). And while I'm at the editor's console, I would have added more Ingrid Pitt!

5 years 8 months ago

samlowery

If you were ever curious about the difference between English and American ideas of bad-asses, watch Burton & Eastwood in this.

8 years 1 month ago

Cassiodoro

Clint Eastwood is the man

10 years 4 months ago

JCS

"Broadsword calling Danny Boy, over".

12 years 5 months ago

goellnerd

As most people have noted, a great and entertaining movie, but my god, it's waay too long!

12 months ago

Forzelius

You could argue that the runtime could've been shortened by a good 20 minutes but I took some comfort in seeing all the plan and the action played out the long route. Reminded me of french new wave crime films where you get heists that last a good half an hour where you see every little detail.

The brass was also a good natural accompaniment to the military setting. It also didn't feel like a war flick for most of the time. More like a mixture of a war, james bond and crime themes. Great pair of lead actors. Burton at times even overshadowed Eastwood who was still a rookie in non-Western cinema. But by and large the pair worked well together. Thoroughly enjoyable.

2 years 11 months ago