Where Eagles Dare (1968)

[mike siegel]

That film will always remain as one of my unsolved mysteries. I enjoyed it when I first saw it with my (then) best friend
in 1981. But to him it became his favorite film. Although we were just 13 years old, I couldn't understand that at all. A fine
actioner with great winter settings. There's Eastwood looking great, MG firing from around the corner (back then my favorite scene).
But then again he is so wasted and Burton is so displaced. And he has no neck for uniforms. There's not a single
character in the film that is likable really (Clint should have played the REAL lead). The Germans die like flies in a campfire,
there's a strange modern helicopter and the story is thin at the most.
But the action was terrific, the models were fantastic. Authentic locations & uniforms, snow for a change and great
camera work.
I watched it on 70mm again 3 years ago and I still think it is a bit boring (a deadly sin to me). KELLYS HEROES is so much better.
I guess Hutton learned a lot from his boring characters in EAGLES, in KELLY not a SINGLE character is boring, what
a great entertaining cast. I mean Don Rickles, Sutherland, Savalas, Harry Dean, Stuart Margolin... I wish KELLY was
as long as EAGLES runs..

[drinkanddestroy]

That film will always remain as one of my unsolved mysteries. I enjoyed it when I first saw it with my (then) best friend
in 1981. But to him it became his favorite film. Although we were just 13 years old, I couldn't understand that at all. A fine
actioner with great winter settings. There's Eastwood looking great, MG firing from around the corner (back then my favorite scene).
But then again he is so wasted and Burton is so displaced. And he has no neck for uniforms. There's not a single
character in the film that is likable really (Clint should have played the REAL lead). The Germans die like flies in a campfire,
there's a strange modern helicopter and the story is thin at the most.
But the action was terrific, the models were fantastic. Authentic locations & uniforms, snow for a change and great
camera work.
I watched it on 70mm again 3 years ago and I still think it is a bit boring (a deadly sin to me). KELLYS HEROES is so much better.
I guess Hutton learned a lot from his boring characters in EAGLES, in KELLY not a SINGLE character is boring, what
a great entertaining cast. I mean Don Rickles, Sutherland, Savalas, Harry Dean, Stuart Margolin... I wish KELLY was
as long as EAGLES runs..

they're very different films (both good), EAGLES is a serious espionage/action movie, KELLY is a comedy heist/action, I wouldn't compare the comedy and the drama. With a drama, if you don't buy into something - like if you think it's way too unrealistic or whatever - then that ruins the movie, cuz there's always a point beyond which you can't suspend your disbelief any longer. In a comedy, it's all a joke anyway, so even if something is way over the top, who cares.

[mike siegel]

Depends on your point of view.
To me KELLY has also an anti-war feeling to it which makes it valuable beyond sheer entertainment (just like M*A*S*H, which isn't 'just' a comedy).
While EAGLES to me is a serious as any Marvel comic blockbuster these days - I recite Peckinpah: ''Action without character is just crap'.
DIRTY DOZEN is a case in point. Same behind-enemy-lines stuff, but some interesting characters. And it doesn't take itself too seriousely,
which is what bothered me about EAGLES. Dead serious Or is it?

[dave jenkins]

I watched it on 70mm again 3 years ago and I still think it is a bit boring (a deadly sin to me). KELLYS HEROES is so much better.
I guess Hutton learned a lot from his boring characters in EAGLES, in KELLY not a SINGLE character is boring, what
a great entertaining cast. I mean Don Rickles, Sutherland, Savalas, Harry Dean, Stuart Margolin... I wish KELLY was
as long as EAGLES runs..

Absolutely spot on.

And I don't buy Drink's different categories approach. Kelly's Heroes is not a comedy. When the 3 men die in the mine field, there's nothing to laugh about. Yeah, there's a lot of humor in the film, but then there's a lot of humor in life (which is also not a comedy). When people die in KH there is pathos, because the characters mean something to us. When people die in WED there is nothing, because the characters are total cardboard.

[noodles_leone]

I understand the criticism but I actually kind of like the simple characterization in WED: they're good at what they do. That's who they are. These guys are professionals playing chess. It's cold and cool. The only two characters with more humanity than that are the Gestapo officer (it makes him greatly stand out as The Main Villain) and the German in Italy (who provides a nice contrepoint to the seriousness of the big dialogue scene).

I like KH a lot but that movie is a mess. I'm not a fan of the humor in MASH but that's just personal taste.

[stanton]

Noodles, I still can't believe that you like this film (already a bold term for this turkey ), and that you, even worse, rate it higher than FAFDM.
Actually there are so many more, whose taste I respect, and who are fond of this fi ... mess.













God it's so bad in every respect

[mike siegel]

NOODLES,
If we all had the same taste, THAT would be a mess . SOMEWHERE or GRAND HOTEL BUDAPEST showing up on
a year's TOP 10 box office list .
Sure they are pro's and they are excellent in what they are doing. But I just don't care for any of them and
to see 'just' the spectacle was a preview of today's 'blockbuster' mentality.

I watch KELLY each year I guess. Followed in a matter of days by M*A*S*H and CATCH 22. Because as soon
as I watch one of those films I want to see the other two as well again
Almost every scene and most of the dialogue of those films give me pleasure and a feeling of hope regarding
human intelligence -  EAGLES just gives me 2 hrs + of endless shoot-outs. I guess for 30 years
now my favorite dialogue in the film is Eastwood's 'in the last half hour you got me so mixed up that I almost forgot who I was..'(translated from my memory of the German dubbing)

But OF COURSE I collect on the film, it IS highly collectable.
The German lc set contains 43 cards! Most of them mediocre, but what a number..

[noodles_leone]

43 cards?? And many of them are just variations on the same theme.
Do they show the whole film, scene by scene?

[mike siegel]

43 cards?? Do they show the whole film, scene by scene?

Don't they appear on your screen?
I posted them all..

[noodles_leone]

Ok I wondered if you had some others, i didn't count. They sure show a lot.

[dave jenkins]

Have fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeqR4clzso8&t=325s