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"The Eagle has Landed" is a fine World War II fiction film placed in England that deals with a German commando operation planned to kidnap (or kill) Winston Chruchill.

The pìcture is most entertaining right from the start -when the plan is designed- and keeps up all along when it comes to the operation's achieving. A good script, excellent British outdoor locations, well made action sequences and a most competent cast are highlights of the film. Its also interesting that the German commandos are shown as decent and even likable men, professional soldiers that just like the allies fight a war for their country even if they don't agree with the Nazi regime that rules it.

"The Eagle has Landed" is also a good farewell from movies for director John Sturges (this is his last work in direction) a prolific man that gave us movie and western fans very good titles of the genre such us "Gunfight at OK Corral", "The Magnificent Seven", "Last Train from Gun Hill" and the more contemporary "Bad Day at Black Rock".

A most entertaining and enjoyable film in the genre.

After the successful rescue of Mussolini by German Paratroopers, Col.Max Radl is asked to prepare a feasibility study on an attempt to kidnap Winston Churchill. At first this seems a preposterous idea, until a message arrives from an agent in Britain which reports that Churchill will spend a weekend in the picturesque Norfolk village of Studley Constable, which is only a few miles from a deserted stretch of coastline. A plan is formulated to drop Col.Kurt Steiner and his highly experienced unit into Norfolk to carry out the mission, aided by IRA man Liam Devlin and respected local figure Joanna Grey, who is a German agent and the source of the original message.

This film has been a personal favourite of mine since I first saw it on its TV premiere around 1979, aged 12. It is of course the screen adaptation of Jack Higgins bestseller. I must admit to never having read the book, so I can't testify how closely the film follows it. Produced by ITC in 1976, it boasts an impressive cast in Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasance and a pre-JR Larry Hagman. Veteran Hollywood Director John Sturges was at the helm - the man responsible for 'Bad Day At Black Rock', 'The Magnificent Seven' and 'The Great Escape' to name just three. The production values and technical credits are uniformally good.

As to the film itself, it remains an entertaining romp. Your interest is held throughout, and you find yourself half wanting the Germans to get away with it, as Michael Caine and his men are such decent chaps. Donald Sutherland is full of Irish charm as Devlin, Larry Hagman is intentionally funny as the incompetent Col.Clarence T.Pitts, Robert Duvall is convincing and sympathetic as Radl, and Donald Pleasance quite chilling as Himmler. Good though the film is, it might have been better. In his autobiography, Michael Caine talks about the fact that after shooting had wrapped, Sturges headed back to California and never returned for any of the editing or post production. Caine felt let down by this, for as he correctly states, a Director can do some of his most important work at this stage. However, he also remembers the shooting of the film as a very pleasurable experience. At that time he lived at Windsor, and much of the filming was done nearby on the beautiful Mapledurham Estate, during the longest, hottest summer that most of us remember.

I paid a visit to Mapledurham recently, during the fine summer that we've just enjoyed. It's instantly recognisible - the watermill, the church, the manor house, Joanna Grey's cottage - all as they appear in the film and well worth a visit. It always amuses me that the events are supposed to take place in November - a truly miserable month here - and yet its clearly mid-summer on screen.

I have one major gripe. Not with the film itself, but its availability on DVD. The UK version is to be avoided like the plague. Cursed with being distributed here by Carlton, its in 1.33:1 and worse is missing some 12 minutes of footage. The US version is at least in 2.35:1, but is still missing 3 to 4 minutes of the film. Thank heavens that I still have my complete version recorded from the BBC some 12 years ago, before they decided to cut some brief moments of violence. Its really annoying when a good film that did reasonable business at the box office gets such shoddy treatment on DVD. There really is no excuse for it.

When all is said and done, this is a good entertaining yarn and an intriguing idea (even if it does have echoes of 'Went The Day Well'). Maybe not a classic, but always good fun, professionally mounted and with some lovely locations. Give it a try if you haven't already seen it, just avoid that Region 2 DVD!

The concept of the movie is both great and original but however the execution of it is not exactly done in the best way possible.

The movie starts of very slow and even perhaps a bit boring. Thankfuly the second halve of the movie is much better once the action and story really start and take more pace and form. It might not be as entertaining and good as other WW II/action movies, meant as entertainment, such as "Where Eagles Dare", "Kelly's Heroes" and "The Guns of Navarone" but it does have some great moments in it which still helps to make "The Eagle Has Landed" a bit of a must see for the fans of the genre.

The story is just great and its interesting to see a movie for once from the perspective of the German side. For once the Germans are not portrayed as ruthless villains but as soldiers with valor and courage instead. The movie is perhaps a bit moralistic in the first halve of the movie (basicly every German soldier shown in the movie openly hates Hitler and is against the deportation of Jews to the concentration camps. It feels too forced all) but nevertheless the perspective the movie is told from is great and works good for the movie. It's too bad that the movie is told needlessly slow at times, while it could had been a great fast paced action-movie.

The movie has a great cast but this is not really an actors movie, meaning that the movie wouldn't had been any better or worse with some other lesser known names in it. It was weird to hear Donald Sutherland talking in an Irish accent and Robert Duvall with a German one. Also Treat Williams in one of his first movie roles was horrible as the American soldier Capt. Clark. On the other hand, it was great to see Donald Pleasance as Heinrich Himmler. Other big names in this movie are Michael Caine, Anthony Quayle and Jean Marsh.

The action sequences are good and definitely the best part of the movie. The movie is somewhat entertaining to watch and it does have some well placed humor at times but its not quite enough to truly uplift this movie to a level of greatness.

This last movie from director John Sturges is a memorable but not perfect one.

7/10

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This is an exceptional war movie about a supposed plot by the Nazis to kidnap Churchill. Michael Caine is a German officer who speaks perfect English and leads a team of paratroopers who are disguised as Poles. The cover story is that they are a Free Polish regiment on maneuvers in Britain. At the same time, IRA leader Donald Sutherland helps lay the groundwork for their arrival.

The story is very complex and the acting is first-rate. Provided you don't think too much, this is a highly entertaining film. Sure, the Nazis didn't attempt such a mission, but I enjoyed this alternative history movie.

Based on a best-selling tall story by Jack Higgins, and featuring an all-star cast that must've cost half the budget just to get to sign up for the project, The Eagle Has Landed is an enjoyable but slightly overlong wartime actioner.

German soldier Max Radl (Robert Duvall) comes up with an audacious plot to deliver a devastating blow to the Allied forces by kidnapping Winston Churchill from a Norfolk village. A team of deadly German spies, led by Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine), are smuggled into England to carry out this sinister scheme. Aided by an Irish mercenary (Donald Sutherland), the German forces rapidly and ruthlessly close in on their target. Only an inexperienced American garrison, posted in a quiet corner of Norfolk, can stand in the way of a devastating German victory.

The Eagle Has Landed is one of the few films where the all-star cast doesn't have a detrimental effect. In films like A Bridge Too Far and The Longest Day, the presence of so many stars actually results in a game of "star-spotting", and this diverts the audience's attention away from important plot developments. In The Eagle Has Landed, each actor brings depth and charisma to their strongly written roles (especially Sutherland as the devious Irish rogue, and Duvall as an eye-patch wearing Nazi). This film's faults lie elsewhere. The opening hour and a quarter goes on rather too much and ought to have been trimmed by at least fifteen minutes. Also, the plot rides its luck with increasingly less likely, less plausible developments (especially the unpersuasive "twist" ending). For these reasons, The Eagle Has Landed isn't quite the excellent film you might be hoping for. What it is, however, is an enjoyable, well-acted and very watchable slice of escapism.