Shows its audience a great time.

Rating: 9/10 (17 September 2014)

"Where Eagles Dare" is an invigorating wartime (in this case WWII) action-espionage-thriller, extremely well directed (by Brian G. Hutton) and engagingly acted. It's very long, but very absorbing. Even at two hours and 36 minutes, it's never boring. The story, as concocted by Alistair MacLean, has got some delicious twists going for it, and it holds your attention from beginning to end. The characters are fun to watch, heroes and villains alike. And there's a fair bit of violence and TONS of explosions to add to its energy level.
The set-up is intriguing. A military operation is underway as a team of British commandos (with American Ranger Schaffer (Clint Eastwood) along for the ride) attempt to infiltrate a Nazi stronghold which is high in the mountains. Their mission is to liberate an American general (Robert Beatty) who's been taken prisoner. At least, that would SEEM to be the case...
Richard Burton is excellent in the lead role of the unflappable leader of the mission, Major Smith. As things go on, he's required to give a performance within the performance, so to speak, and does a commanding job. Eastwoods' role is to largely react to what's going on around him. His consternation is understandable. The rest of the cast does equally praiseworthy work: lovely ladies Mary Ure and Ingrid Pitt, Patrick Wymark, Michael Hordern, Donald Houston, Anton Diffring, Ferdy Mayne, and Derren Nesbitt.
Thanks to the capable second unit direction by Yakima Canutt, the action is first rate and the film really does leave you breathless at times. There are some absolutely convincing and hair-raising set pieces, especially on the sky trams going up and down the mountain. And even when a team of characters is making their escape, it's expectedly no easy task, and the enemy keeps the pressure on constantly. Finally, MacLeans' script has one last wonderful twist to sneak in before things are brought to a close.
Accompanied by majestic music composed by Ron Goodwin, this really is top notch screen entertainment.
Nine out of 10. .