L'aigle s'est envolé

I almost gave up on this film after the first hour. It was just too slow for me and I was having difficulty picking up some of dialog with the foreign accents (no subtitles are offered on the DVD).

However, once the "invasion" started the film was very interesting. The only ridiculous part was the role played by Larry Hagman. Liberal Hollywood loves to portray every Southerner as a gung-ho, out-of-control military freak. If I was from the South, I would have been highly offended at this stereotype.

What's really different about this film is that it's a World War II story told from the German side where the Germans are pictured as humane people. You don't see that too much from English-speaking filmmakers.

Michael Caine is the most likable of these people, one of those given the assignment of kidnapping Winston Churchill (interesting premise, off the best- selling book by Jack Higgins). Donald Sutherland plays an Irishman recruited to help in the kidnapping and he's fun to watch.

This is really a man's movie, something like "The Guns Of Navarone," but they inserted Jenny Agutter in here to give the viewers a pretty face and some romance, even though it has absolutely no bearing on the story.

Robert Duvall, Jean Marsh, Treat Williams, Donald Pleasance and Anthony Quayle are some of the other "name" actors who contribute. All in all, a pretty good movie if you can get by that first hour!

Mussolini is rescued by German special forces. Hitler supported by Himmler (Donald Pleasence) has an idea to kidnap British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The one-eyed Max Radl (Robert Duvall) is ordered to command the operation. He recruits IRA member Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland) in Berlin. Churchill is visiting Studley Constable in Norfolk. Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine) leads a squad of experienced troops from the eastern front. He's weary of the Nazis and tries to save a girl from the cattle train. For that, they are forced to take part in the impossible mission. Devlin sneaks into the country and joins up with sleeper agent Joanna Grey (Jean Marsh). Local Molly Prior (Jenny Agutter) falls for charming Devlin. The squad parachutes in dressed as Polish troops. Opposing them is the pompous US Army Colonel Pitts (Larry Hagman) and his more competent second-in-command Captain Clark (Treat Williams).

This is a fun war high adventure. It's got funny scenes and some good action. The main thing holding it back is the reversal of roles. It's harder to root for the Germans in a WWII movie. It tries very hard to make Michael Caine a hero in this despite the German uniform. The story is highly unlikely but it's not really surreal. Plot believability goes out the window in this one.

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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A small Norfolk village in England is suddenly the focal point for a Polish regiment's training exercise. It would seem they are not all they are saying they are, so with Winston Churchill due to visit the village, there is something seriously afoot.

Written by Jack Higins, directed by John Sturges {The Great Escape} and starring Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland and Robert Duvall, The Eagle Has Landed is a different sort of war movie. Flipping the axis to a German point of view and having English and American actors playing the Germans, is a bold move that, fluctuating accents aside, makes for a totally engrossing picture. Offering a fair bit more than your standard film of men on a suicide mission for the war effort, the piece's pulp origins, and its idyllic country setting give it a quality that ensures the viewers attention stays firmly with the film's steadily paced first half. Also adding intrigue into this already interesting broth is that our main Nazi protagonist is not down with the whole killing Jews thing. It's very sly in how it pans out, its not asking the audience to feel sympathy with Steiner {Caine professionally impacting}, it's just proclaiming that not all people should be tarred with the same brush.

Mostly the cast are fine and boosted by a brilliant turn from Donald Sutherland as an IRA spy helping the Germans, Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasance, Anthony Quayle, Jenny Agutter and Jean Marsh all are solid within the picture's structure. Oddly the performance of Larry Hagman as the appropriately named Colonel Pitts sticks out like a sore thumb, buffoonery in bravado intent it's difficult to tell if it's meant to be comic relief or a statement of how the British viewed the yanks at this time? A young Treat Williams as Capt. Harry Clark ensures that not all American soldiers in the film come off as dunderheads. Playing out more as a mystery with it's various twists and turns, and seeping with tension amidst the village folk, The Eagle Has Landed is an odd sort of picture, but it certainly delivers enough to make it way above average. 6.5/10

"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.