Review of The Eagle Has Landed (1976) by Walter M — 11 Feb 2005

[font=Century Gothic][color=olive]"The Eagle Has Landed" is a particularly, daft piece of lunacy. It starts out with a mention of a Nazi paratrooper rescue of Mussolini in 1943(which actually did happen). Since that worked so well and nobody was doing anything on Saturday night, Hitler decided to try and kidnap Churchill while he is visiting a coastal village. When the first character we meet is a one eyed German general played by Robert Duvall(Curt Jurgens was busy?), you get a feeling where this one is heading.(It is very strange seeing Duvall sharing scenes with Donald Sutherland, just six years after M*A*S*H.) Plus, it takes forever to get moving. And the ending has to be one of the most convoluted of recent memory. Michael Caine and Donald Pleasance are of course better than the material. Donald Sutherland seems to be having fun as an Irish rogue. But for the first time, Jenny Agutter is an unwelcome distraction.[/color][/font].

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[font=Century Gothic][color=#808000]Robert Duvall and Michael Caine would reunite 20+ years later for Secondhand Lions.[/color][/font].

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[font=Century Gothic][color=#808000]Duvall and Treat Williams would again be on opposite sides in The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper(1981).[/color][/font].