The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Usually I do not like war movies, but this one is excellent seen from different point of views.

The dialogue is fantastic and helps describing the characters. Every line is as written for the actors.

And what an incredible cast: Michael Caine as Nazi officer driven by duty and honor, Donald Sutherland as an amazing Irish dog and horse whisperer (there is always those sparkling glimpses in his eyes!), Robert Duval as colonel Radl (he does not play the character - he IS in fact the colonel), Donald Pleasance as a slimy and yet funny Himmler and not to forget the energic Larry Hagman as "home made" American red neck officer. Besides that a good supporting cast.

But what is more important in this well done movie is the complexity of the war combatants - e.g. Caine trying to save a jewish women from certain death, one of his soldiers saving a little English girl from drowning at the water mill, Hagman as an incompetent, but yet war loving officer, sacrificing of an actor who takes over Churchill's part. The conclusion is that when you cut down to basics you will find honorable men among the enemies (Nazis) and less sympathetic men among the Allied.

By the way - there is a lot of humor on both sides - and that is not too bad though!

Fmovies: 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

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!

The Eagle Has Landed fmovies. 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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In September of 1943, Col. Max Radl (Robert Duvall) develops a plan, approved by Heinrich Himmler (Donald Pleasance), to kidnap or kill Winston Churchill in England. The rebel Col. Kurt Steiner (Michael Caine),who is arrested with his men due to insubordination, is invited to participate, since he has had a British education. They would have clean records and recover their military patents again. The condition not negotiable of Col. Kurt to accept the mission is that his men wear the German uniform below their costumes, since they are soldiers and not spies. The group, dressed like Polish soldiers, together with the Irish Liam Devlin (Donald Sutherland), goes to a coastal town, where Churchill is supposed to pass through. An incident with a girl reveals their plot to the local civilians, jeopardizing their mission.

Having an outstanding cast and the direction of John Sturges, this movie is a great entertainment, having drama, suspense, action and some comedy in right doses. Fans of war movies will certainly like it. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'A Águia Pousou'(' The Eagle Has Landed')

The German's hatch a plan to kidnap Churchill. Using a local citizen sympathetic to the German cause and an IRA operative, the Nazis move a group of specially trained commandos into England disguised as Polish paratroopers. But their cover is quickly blown while on maneuvers when one of the German soldier's true identity is revealed after he jumps into a canal to save a little girl. It's up to some U.S. National Guard troops stationed nearby to root out the Nazis and save Churchill.

It's hard for me to put a finger on it, but there's just something about The Eagle Has Landed that's not quite right. I've narrowed it down to a couple of things that really distract from my overall enjoyment of the movie. The first is obvious - Larry Hagman's performance as Col. Pitts. To be blunt, he's terrible. For whatever reason, John Sturges had Hagman play his character as comic relief. It's completely out of place and really harms the mood of the movie. A "straight" performance would have been much more preferable.

The second thing I find distracting about the movie is very difficult to explain, but it has something to do with the overall look of the film. Other than a few shots of gore as the American soldiers are being hit by bullets, much of the movie has a cheap, made-for-TV look to it that also takes away from the tone of the movie. It's not as "gritty" looking (for lack of a better word) as it should be. The battle scene doesn't look as real as it should. The soldiers look like actors.

That's not to say that I don't find things enjoyable about The Eagle Has Landed. Other than Hagman, the acting is first-rate. Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Robert Duvall, and Donald Pleasence give terrific performances. The plot is an interesting idea although I would have preferred more on the planning of the kidnapping. Not being much of a student of history I have no idea how much is true, but it certainly seems feasible as presented. And finally, I really enjoy the Nazi operative played by Jean Marsh. The look on her face after her cover is blown and the local priest confronts her is priceless. It's a nice moment of acting.