Average Rating: 
Rating:  - A great War Movie
This movie, filled with drama, action, and a complex plot that will make your head spin, has it all. Richard Burton is dashing as the cold plotting secret agent who is leading his team on a mission to save D-Day from disaster. Clint Eastwood, here little more than a teenager, is wonderful as the somewhat befuddled American army ranger who cannot figure out why he is even on the mission.Any attempt to go into detail about the story would ruin some of the fun. Suffice to say that you will be riveted both by the action and the performances. One note though, Burton's monologue is amazing. If you like WWII movies and have not seen this one, you don't know what you are missing.
Rating: - One of the Greatest War Films of All Time !
Quite simply one of the greatest war movies ever made. A top notch thriller loaded with action, espionage and double crosses, "Where Eagles Dare" is the kind of movie that Hollywood just doesn't make anymore. This isn't some politically correct drama steeped in reality. No, this is good guys vs. bad guys. This is pure unabashed fantasy which keeps the audience on the edge of its seat. This is just darn good entertainment! Richard Burton is absolutely cunning as the British agent who leads an elite group of soldiers behind enemy lines and into a seemingly unpenetrable German castle to rescue an imprisoned American General. A young Clint Eastwood is the only American on the mission. Clint is his usual cool and calm self. However he, like the audience, isn't sure who to trust. Somebody's a double agent, but exactly who is anyone's guess. Don't worry about figuring it out, just sit back and enjoy the drama. You'll love the growing tension and suspicion between Burton and Eastwood. The journey into the castle is classic heart-stopping drama. Even better is Burton's fight with a German soldier high atop a ski lift -- truly one of the most riveting action sequences ever filmed. Bullets are flyin' and bombs are blastin' throughout. In the end, heroes emerge while evil perpetrators get their just due. Classic, absolutely classic! And yes, as several reviewers have noted, the stunning scenery and beautiful cinematography in this film would greatly benefit from a widescreen DVD treatment. So, how 'bout it, I want my DVD!
Rating: - Sit! Down! Major!
This is a fantastic, classic WW2 action film / 'Boys Own'-adventure, and it's a criminal shame that it isn't out on DVD (perhaps with extra sequences in which we see Clint Eastwood reload, or narration from a real WW2 Commando which, presumably, would degenerate into laughter as out heroes fight out entire divisions of German soldiers with nary a scratch). After a slow build-up, during which a carefully-planned, daring commando raid seems to unravel, the film kicks into gear and becomes non-stop action and intrigue. Even after blowing up most of a castle, our heroes get to cause mayhem with period kubelwagens and tripwires. Rather like 'Armageddon', almost everything in the film that can be blown up or shot, is.It's like a cross between 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' but with Nazis, and 'The Guns of Naverone' but with Clint Eastwood. Everything about the film is perfect, from the opening credits sequence (blood-red Germanic script, a Junkers transport plane, a driving, foreboding score) to the cast - Clint Eastwood is utterly Clint, Richard Burton is clipped enough to pass for Patrick McGoohan, and the Nazis are a fascinating, aristocratic bunch with groovy, well-pressed grey uniforms and matching MP40s. Furthermore it's *the* cable-car movie. It's also utterly irresponsible and very silly - only 'Kelly's Heroes' and 'Star Wars' have matched the comic-book, off-hand brutality of the violence, and there's a nasty bit with an boot, a cable-car, and somebody's face that makes me wince every time I see it. It's probably Richard Burton's most memorable screen performance, too, which is something Burton himself would probably not have anticipated. It's a shame that most of the distinctive cast are either dead, or very old nowadays. It gets shown on television every time there's a bank holiday, but it's hard to tire of watching it. Somebody release it on DVD - now.
|
