An old-fashion action film

Rating: 8/10 (13 June 2009)

What's not to love about Where Eagles Dare? It is an good old action film which is meant to be fun. A classic for it's type of World War Two genre.
The premise is simple, the Nazis captured General Carnaby, an American General who was on-route to Crete to talk with her generals about the Second-Front. He is held in a German fortress near the Austrian border and MI6 sent a team, led by Major Smith (Richard Burton) and American Lieutenant Schaffer (Clint Eastwood). Their mission is simply, get into the base disguised as German soldiers, get the general and get out. However, the plan is not as simple as they thought. Smith parachute an British agent, Mary (Mary Ure) and that they is more the operation then first appears.
The action is excellent, with great gun and hand-to-hand fights, especially the fight on the cable carts, and Clint Eastwood's use of guns and explosives. It's a simple but enjoyable film and Richard Burton makes a surprisingly good action star. The direction by Brian G. Hutton was brilliant for this type of film and he was able to repeat it with Kelly's Heroes. Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood are both excellent actors and are good in this, and so are most of the supporting actors.
The only real problem with the film is with the amount of plot twists, which makes the film unbelievable. It's best not to apply real-world logic to the film.
It's an enjoyable romp.