The Eiger Sanction (1975)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Captivating movie !

Admirable film.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Beautiful music signed by John Williams. Beautiful Swiss landscapes carefully shot by Frank Stanley and William N. Clark. I like movies with action on the mountains and especially when the genre is thriller. But this thriller has many flaws. The character played by Clint Eastwood is a classical art professor and collector who doubles as a professional assassin. Really? Well, only Clint Eastwood can be such a scholarly mixture, he's the only hit man with such elevate artistic taste in the history... The one who sends Jonathan Hemlock (Clint Eastwood) to kill, does not know the victim's name but knows that the guy limps and knows on what mountain he will climb... Really? From the start the movie has some problems. Three writers, Hal Dresner, Warren Murphy and Rod Whitaker, three brains, but so many things that are not credible. All those other three climbers break their safety strings and fall into the abyss, only Clint's strings remains intact and is the only one who remains suspended and alive. Well, he's the main character, the hero of the film, also director and producer (Malpaso Company), he's Clint Eastwood. He has to stay alive, to finish the movie and to do many other films. The character George, played by Brenda Venus, is a brilliant excellent climber, much faster than Clint, and also a crazy drug addict? I like the very sharp knife look and the way Clint talks, but he had to think better about the imperfections of the script. George Kennedy is very natural as always. The other actors too. Only Clint seems to have a great carrot deep in his ass all the time.

(Originally reviewed: 18/03/2017) This is a picture that is most entertaining and very funny, it doesn't need to retort to crude antics, and it's simply well made, and features some of the most realistic cliff climbing sequences ever put on film. Eastwood fans will lap this up, and as a definite fan myself, I was satisfied, despite this not exceeding his best work, but then again it's hard to out-do your own work, when you have such classics like Dirty Harry and The Good the Bad and the Ugly on your filmography. The story here is fairly simplistic and it probably isn't as smart as it could be, but as a comedy it soars, and for something that has a running time of approximately two hours, it really kept me interested throughout.The humour is consistent and not everything land's, but most does and some real good lines include "Don't forget your trench coat, how will anybody recognise you without your disguise", and "but she's a girl" to which Eastwood's buddy replies "a lot of people notice that, and a rather funny sequence where one man says "You think I can't handle it, to which Eastwood replies "Not even in a locked closet with a grenade". Which are simply a few really funny lines, in a picture that should have been deemed a comedy, because that's how I personally viewed it, and found it extremely enjoyable. Clint is of course excellent as Jonathan Hemlock and the supporting cast are adequate, though I didn't like this two faced, homosexual, I felt his character was rather unnecessary but actor's like George Kennedy who play's Eastwood's friend Ben Bowman, and Vonetta McGee who plays a sort of love interest to Eastwood's character are rather good and have some really solid chemistry on screen with Eastwood himself.The picture looks good, is well shot, competently directed by Eastwood, and has some great cinematography, including scenery of the mountains; it never takes itself too seriously, and it's a lot of fun and has a solid amount of strong comedic value. Overall: The Eiger Sanction is a very good addition to the great Clint Eastwood's body of work.

"The Eiger Sanction" is basically a Bond movie with the assassin now an ageing art professor coaxed out of retirement to perform one last "sanction", or murder. His boss, who doubles as the villain, is almost too ridiculous for 007 - he's a "pure albino" who can only exist under red light and has to get his blood periodically transfused so that he can go on living!The "Eiger" of the title is a dangerous mountain and our professor- assassin also happens to be an expert climber who failed to reach the summit of the mountain's most dangerous slope once before, so, you know, this time it's personal. They also throw in that most tired of action movie clichés: The hero is given the mission, refuses it, then finds out some extra piece of information that means he can't just walk away...At one point the professor-assassin (yes, I find that a particularly ridiculous juxtaposition) actually asks why he wasn't made aware of the salient fact in the first place, and I must confess I was wondering that too. The movie doesn't provide an answer. Cliché for cliché's sake?The lengthy rock climbing scenes, which generate tension in moments, are in striking contrast with the movie's ridiculous opening. Showing men against nature can't help but clash with men against mutant albinos. The fact that the movie is also about 30 minutes overlong suggests that the beginning was added as an afterthought, perhaps by an outside influence. Either way, we get parts that don't add up, a beginning that let's down the ending, rather than the other way around.I also ought to say something about the movie's weird stereotyping of minorities. There's a beautiful, treacherous black girl who dazzles the hero with her sexuality and makes off with his payment, and a beautiful, treacherous Native American girl called George who dazzles the hero with her sexuality and drugs him with a syringe... did I mention the Bond movie similarities? Lastly, there's an outrageously camp gay guy with a lap dog called "Faggot" who keeps a body builder around as a boy toy and also gets offed, if not romanced, by the hero. I'm not sure what to make of any of that; obviously as a macho man hero of an action movie, he has to get laid by the ladies and approached by the gays, but why go out of the way to make these characters all so bizarre?

It's a 'one last job,two actually'plot.The 'job' ,Eastwood plays an ex mountaineer and art loving teacher with a class full of teenage girls, will feed his art obsession. He gets seduced on a plane by a hostess.I swear he says something about raping her as a demonstration of his desire.She's an agent.He's hired to bump off one of the mountaineering team.He doesn't know which one yet.This is a giant hole in the plot but a way to keep you guessing. The team is comprised of an older one with a nympho wife and 2 other Germans or Austrians.One is nice and one is nasty. Clint has to train with an old friend.Tough guy actor Burt Kennedy who spends the whole film angry,shouting obscenities and drinking beer.It's only 70s American beer though. He trains him with the help of a dark haired woman.At this point Clint starts a bizarre set of racist insults.It appears she is Native Indian.David Cassady's dad plays a 70s gay man.All safari suit,cravat,small dog.. The weather on the Eiger turns nasty.Clint survives of course and Burt turns out to be the target. A male fantasy.