Review of Where Eagles Dare (1968) by Nicholas M — 12 May 2008

A suspension of belief is required for most action movies, and this is even more true for "Where Eagles Dare", a spy-thriller-action flick starring Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. Although the premise is ridiculously complicated, part of the fun of espionage stories is never knowing what to believe.

Richard Burton delivers his convoluted lines with such conviction that it becomes impossible to separate fact from fiction. Unfortunately, if there is one glaring flaw in this movie it is the completely impossible foresight of Burton's character, who makes Sherlock Holmes look like a mere Encyclopedia Brown.

Somehow, despite numerous catastrophic deviations to his plans, Burton always happens to have an even more clever backup plan in place that he can execute at a moments notice. Although it is fun believing that our hero can reason his way through the mess that is wartime spy-counterspy dynamics, it is really REALLY hard to believe that he can anticipate the movements of literally hundreds of soldiers.

There is ZERO randomness in soldier actions in this movie, except for one VERY brief scene, which, of course, involves Clint Eastwood's character and not Burton's. Still, if you don't mind watching movies where you know that the good guys can't die (or even get hurt), then "Where Eagles Dare" is a fun and intriguing thriller.