Review of Where Eagles Dare (1968) by Adam R — 04 Sep 2011

There are definitely worse WWII movies but it's hard to think of one more boring than this, a leaden, banal effort to combine "Guns of the Navarone"-style behind-Nazi-lines infiltration with a poor John Le Carre-esque intrigue subplot.

Richard Burton stars as Major Smith, a hero we're instantly supposed to identify as uber-confident and cool under fire but comes off more as bored, Burton presumably wishing he could jet back to Ibiza or something to get liquored up. Clint Eastwood does a better job as American Lt. Schaffer, although a movie that boasts the actor's highest onscreen kill count really should consist of more than arduous running-and-gunning in a succession of stone hallways.

Together Smith, Schaffer and a team of not overly impressive British operative parachute behind Nazi lines with the mission of rescuing a captive British general before he talks. Only the captive isn't a general, and it's not so much a rescue mission as a very high-risk fact-finding effort, with one overly dense scene of exposition-laden dialogue explaining the nature of what Smith and company are really up to.

The majority of the action the critics love so well and contributes to Clint's record-setting body count comes in the third act, a legitimately well-done gunfight-cum-high-wire escape-cum-car chase that, despite its quality, doesn't manage to dislodge the memory of the tedious, overly talky scenes from earlier. Instead, the latter scenes form a welcome distraction from a film that rolled about an hour too long in the first place.

It would have been curious to see what a director like Sam Peckinpah or Walter Hill -- both artists equally capable of probing violence and macho male camaraderie while giving equal time to each -- could have done with "Where Eagles Dare." Director Brian G. Hutton doesn't seem overly fond of the story or the characters, his strong suit centering on set pieces in lieu of the buildup.

Unfortunately, "Eagles" represents about three-quarters worth of buildup with minimal payoff.