Where Eagles Dare [1968]

Product Details

Director : Richard G. Hutton
Actor : Clint Eastwood, Richard Burton, Mary Ure, Patrick Wymark, Michael Hordern
Format : PAL, Widescreen
Aspect Ratio : 2.35:1
Binding : DVD
EAN : 7321900651868
Number of Discs : 1
Product Group : DVD
Region Code : 2
Release Date : 2006-06-01
Running Time : 148minutes
Studio : Warner Home Video

ASIN : B0000BK6LS

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Scorned by reviewers when it came out, Where Eagles Dare has acquired a cult following over the years for its unashamed and highly concentrated dose of commando death-dealing to legions of Nazi machine-gun fodder. In 1968 Clint Eastwood was just getting used to the notion that he might be a world-class movie star; Richard Burton, whose image had been shaped equally by classical theatre and his headline-making romance with Elizabeth Taylor, was eager to try his hand at the action genre. Author Alistair MacLean's novel The Guns of Navarone had inspired the film that started the 1960s vogue for World War II military capers, so he was prevailed upon to write the screenplay (his first). The central location, an impregnable Alpine stronghold locked in ice and snow, is surpassing cool, but the plot and action are ultra-mechanical, and the switcheroo gamesmanship of just who is the undercover double (triple?) agent on the mission becomes aggressively silly. --Richard T Jameson

Customer Reviews

Where Eagles Dare (2008-09-14)

The one thing that puzzles me in this film, and no one seems to have noticed, when Richard Burton meets Ingrid Pitt for the first time in the tavern, he whilstles the tune "Lauralie" which was written by a Jewish composer and banned in Nazi Germany. He later says that he is the brother of Himmler, if that was the case there is no way he would have chosen that tune!

Nazi gypsies machine fodder (2008-06-19)

This badly contrived 1968 romp of a war movie brilliantly casts two acting giants from different sides of the Atlantic. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton were at the top of their game at this stage of their careers, and they helped make Where Eagles Dare a hilarious, thoroughly enjoyable boys own adventure. "Broadsword calling Danny Boy, come in...."I will never forget that voice and those words. It reminds me of Christmas day TV. Anyhoo, the plot to Where Eagles Dare is incredibly contrived and implausible, the coincidences are staggering (as much that we're expected to believe them all as anything) and the reality deeply flawed. But who cares?? I love this movie, and 'Where Eagles Dare' school of WWII action sequences: submachine guns blazing away in corridors and hitting people eventually (instead of tearing them apart at once), ham acting (by Burton) and glaring stupidity. And who can forget the tagline: They look like Nazis but . . . The Major is British . . . The Lieutenant is American . . . The Beautiful Frauleins are Allied Agents! One weekend Major Smith, Lieutenant Schaffer and a beautiful blonde named Mary decided to win World War II. They dare to climb a terrifying new peak in suspense... all the way up to hell!The cinematography and background score catapults the film to new heights. The title music is haunting and remains hours after you've finished watching the film. I feel that maybe a little more deft editing would have enabled the film to be labled as a classic, hence the four stars. Despite incoming machine gun fire from multiple positions, Eastwood's and Burton's characters seem to have no trouble in dispatching multiple opponents in a matter of seconds, whether it be with a machine gun, pistol, or one of those magic sticks of dynamite. It's all incredibly silly, but it is the sheer lack of believability that makes the film so entertaining. You never truly know exactly what is going to happen next, thanks to the fact that our heroes seem capable of clearing any obstacle laid in the way of their goal. It has always mystified me why Eastwood and Burton never decided to continue their Nazi slaughter and travel onto Berlin in a Tank and take Hitler down.

Superb (2008-04-09)

Where Eagles Dare is a Boy's Own War film with a twist. It is fast paced with an interesting story which keeps you riveted for the duration. Both Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood are very good in their respective roles and are ablely supported by the rest of the cast. Although at times you laugh at the apparent stupidity of the Nazis this is just a minor drawback in a wonderful film.

Entertaining War drama (2008-01-09)

A slightly humerous look at a special operations unit from WW2, trying to find a leak from within its organisation! A great cast, with excellently filmed scenes, you are sat on the edge of your seat waiting for the next thing to happen. A must for any war film buff!!

Very enjoyable but ludricrous cartoon strip romp (2007-11-25)

This is such an entertaining war action thriller that it seems a shame to criticise it at all, but my lordy, does it take liberties! The first of these liberties is any sense of realism at all. It is so cartoonish in its depiction of slaughter that it almost seems like a spoof movie at times. Our brave boys, Eastwood - very believable as a crack commando, and Burton - takes a lot of believing as a crack commando, ageing and plump, seem to have taken some sort of magic potion that makes them five times stronger than the enemy and completely indestructible. While they saunter through blockades and checkpoints, scale a fortified castle's walls and have some fun on top of a cable car, they must have despatched five hundred nazis between them, most of them prized weimar troops, and receiving only a scratch on the hand between them as Burton closes the castle door behind him, which incidentally, is only made of wood, and has about 15 troops with schmeisers and mg42s firing off thousnads of rounds at it from about 20 yards away, if that. Yes, well it is what it is, this movie and it is great fun if you like comic book stuff. Very entertaining and totally ridiculous.

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