Today's movie was the Clint Eastwood suspense thriller The Eiger Sanction from 1975. Eastwood directed and starred in the movie and most importantly, did all his own stunts.
The film is a convoluted spy story that worked much better in the book of the same name. Eastwood Johnathan Hemlock former mountain climber, art professor and retired assassin. He is called back in by his old agency for one last kill or "sanction". His job is to kill two men who murdered an agent in Zurich and stole microfilm and gave it to the "other side". The first sanction is a easy. One of the men is quickly located in Zurich and killed by Eastwood. The second one is more challenging. The actual identity of the killer is not known. All that is known is that he is a member of a mountain climbing team planning to climb the Eiger in Switzerland. Eastwood joins the team and must determine which man he is to kill during the climb.
The first sanction happens very quickly then at least an hour of the film is devoted to Hemlock getting back in shape to climb the Eiger and also dealing with some unpleasant business with a former military comrade.
The getting back in shape scene features multiple montages that get repetitive. It also features Eastwood doing his own climbing of pillar in Monument Valley.
Then the action moves to Switzerland where the rest of the film is focused on the actual mountain climbing.
The film also stares George Kennedy, Thayer David, Jack Cassidy and Vonetta Mcgee as Jemima Brown.
The film lacks suspense and real tension. Mountain climbing is not the most cinematic of sports and the viewer really does not understand the complicated routines of the climber. The only saving grace in these scenes was Eastwood actually doing his own climbing work.
Not Eastwood's best directing efforts and the book does a much better job of making the convoluted plot seem plausible.
At the Movie House rating ** stars
1 comment:
You might be getting tired of the movies because this is the first 2 star movie oyu have done and it really is not all that bad...It sure beats Tarantula...Which brings up a great question..Are all rankings the same?...In other words, can a movie earn a higher ranking than another movie even though it was not as good. I think the instance we have here answers the question in the affirmative...Tarantula is not as good as Eiger sanction, but in its genre it represents well...I think therefore, a movie earns its own rating and is independent from other films
As for this movie, I liked it...it is from that Odessa File, Eye of the Needle era (two very good movies) and I think it made for a good film, at least 2.5 if not 3.
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